Editor's note: This column was co-authored by Bob Morrison, who served in the Reagan administration.
President Obama and Secretary of State John Kerry have until March 17th to
issue a determination that ISIS’ attacks on Christians in the Mideast
are genocide. Time is running out. The foot-dragging and hesitancy of
this administration in calling it genocide is inexplicable. Why do they
have to be prodded to do what is right?
All of us have
seen the horrific images of 21 Coptic Christians lined up on a North
African beach and beheaded. These Egyptian martyrs died with the name
of Jesus on their lips. These murders, rapes, arsons, and kidnappings
are taking place daily in regions where ISIS has extended its
bloodstained reach.
We see as well the destruction of
homes, schools, and churches. Christians and other religious minorities
are given the choice of conversion to Islam, paying extortionate sums
(called jizya) to their persecutors, or fleeing.
These
are no “choices” at all. They are all violations of all
internationally recognized human rights. Each act of ISIS violence
further diminishes the moral weight of the UN’s Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
The United States, and especially the impassioned advocacy of our
chief delegate Eleanor Roosevelt, played a crucial role in the adoption
of this historic document. We Americans are invested in this appeal to the conscience of the world.
Mrs.
Roosevelt and her colleagues knew that the crimes against humanity
openly perpetrated by the Nazis and the Japanese imperialists led the
world into the greatest conflict it has ever seen. World War II may have
begun with the German attack on Poland in 1939, but the stage for
this horror had been set for decades.
Vienna’s Christoph
Cardinal Schönborn has pointed to the list of Christian communities
that were severed from the body of the church by the swords of Islamic
conquest in the eighth and ninth centuries, and he says this bloody
tide is being exceeded in our own time. No persecution of
Christians in history was more extensive than what we are seeing today.
Undeniable reports tell of the sexual enslavement and even “a theology of rape” which ISIS uses to justify its depravity.
This
backpedaling by our State Department is especially shameful given
America’s great history of advocacy for religious freedom and human
rights. Thomas Jefferson and James Madison collaborated to pass the
epochal Virginia Statute for Religious Freedom in 1786. Madison sent
news from Richmond to his dear friend Jefferson in Paris. Madison said
passage of this historic charter would add to the “lustre of our
country.” Jefferson had the Statute translated and circulated
throughout Europe.
They had “a decent respect for the opinion of
mankind.”
Abraham Lincoln, too, was deeply concerned
about America’s standing in the world. In issuing his Emancipation
Proclamation, the president appealed to “the considerate judgment of
mankind and the gracious favor of Almighty God.”
Lincoln
knew that when America stood tall for human freedom and dignity, we
were stronger. From the day he issued his proclamation, the threat of
European intervention against the Union in favor of the rebels ceased.
Lincoln believed that right makes might. And he defended the right with
all his might.
Standing for justice has always made
America stronger. Dr. Martin Luther King was awarded the Nobel Prize
for Peace for his great work in civil rights. He knew, too, that “the
arc of the moral universe is long but it bends toward justice.”
It
is a poignant note that the day appointed as the deadline for
declaring ISIS’ crimes against humanity to be genocide falls on March 17th.
That is Saint Patrick’s Day. This English-born Christian evangelist
led the effort to convert the Irish. His blessed memory is noted not
least because Ireland was brought into the faith with no violence.
Failure
to declare ISIS depredations genocide makes America look weak and
indecisive. What can justify this unconscionable delay?
Mr.
President, Mr. Secretary: You must consider your own place in
history. We have only a few days to see that arc bend toward justice on
those bloodstained sands, in those subjugated villages, in those
fire-blackened churches.
Delay no longer: Declare ISIS’ jihadist rule to be genocide.
It is amazing for me to sit back and watch and listen to folks who are in the business of observing politicians and reporting the news about these politicians and completely miss interpret the make up of certain political persons. They continue to give this MUTT in Chief a pass based on their false assumption that Barry may be just incompetent when in fact he is accomplishing exactly what he had set out to accomplish. Four years of damage was bad enough but 8 of this enemy of the state can NEVER be overcome. Hell we have been overrun by more than 30 or 40 MILLION immigrants, many who despise America. He has intentionally run up a 20 TRILLION debt, that can NEVER be overcome. Trump nor anyone with good intentions will never be able to fix this mess created by radical progressives embedded in our entire education system and in one of our major political parties. Folks like myself (old and on the way out) will be sitting back and watching Trump drive the state run media and the progressives and the RINOs NUTS. It will be very entertaining and I am so looking forward to the debacle.
ReplyDelete