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Letter To President From Religious Leaders--Stop The Persecution Of Non-Muslims
August 26, 2014
President Barack Obama
The White House
1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW
Washington, DC 20500
Dear President Obama,
We are leaders of faith communities who are watching the escalating crisis in northern Iraq with mounting alarm. The Islamic State poses a serious genocidal threat to religious minorities in northern Iraq as well as Sunni and Shia Muslims that reject the Islamic State’s barbaric killings and violation of Islamic beliefs. Territorial gains by the Islamic State have been followed swiftly by its deeply rooted exclusionary ideology –and a policy requiring non-Muslim civilians to “convert or die” and Sunni and Shia Muslims to “submit or die” that has resulted in brutal massacres.
We are deeply troubled by the immediate crisis facing tens of thousands of Yazidi civilians in this region, who face threat of extermination by the Islamic State simply because of their religious beliefs. We commend your Administration’s decision to defend the Yazidis, and strongly support your authorization of food drops for the Yazidi population and airstrikes against the Islamic State forces holding them under siege. These actions provided a small window for thousands of Yazidi civilians to escape the siege on Mt. Sinjar, where they had remained trapped without food or water and in dire conditions.
While your Administration has acted admirably in response to this threat against civilian life, the danger posed by the Islamic State is far from over and much more remains to be done. In particular, we note that reports by an assessment team sent by your Administration stating that the siege on Mt. Sinjar is effectively over have been fiercely contradicted by Yazidi leaders, relief agencies and UN officials. These leaders claim that tens of thousands of Yazidi lives still hang precariously in the balance on the southern flank of the mountain, missed by your assessment team.
On Sunday, August 17, at least 80 Yazidi men were executed by the Islamic State for refusing to convert to Islam. More than 1,000 women and girls were kidnapped by Islamic State forces, ostensibly with the intent of forcing conversion and “marrying” them to Islamic State fighters and sympathizers.
According to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, the Islamic State executed 700 Sunni members of the al-Sheitat tribe in Syria over the past two weeks because of their refusal to accept Islamic State rule. In June, virtually all Christian families in the northern Iraqi city of Mosul were forced to flee after the Islamic State threatened to exterminate them, marking all Christian households with red paint. ISIS has also killed hundreds of Christians in both Iraq and Syria, with reports of beheadings and crucifixions.
We ask you to continue and strengthen your actions in defense of Yazidi, Christians, religious minorities and oppressed Sunni and Shia Muslims in northern Iraq.
President Barack Obama
The White House
1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW
Washington, DC 20500
Dear President Obama,
We are leaders of faith communities who are watching the escalating crisis in northern Iraq with mounting alarm. The Islamic State poses a serious genocidal threat to religious minorities in northern Iraq as well as Sunni and Shia Muslims that reject the Islamic State’s barbaric killings and violation of Islamic beliefs. Territorial gains by the Islamic State have been followed swiftly by its deeply rooted exclusionary ideology –and a policy requiring non-Muslim civilians to “convert or die” and Sunni and Shia Muslims to “submit or die” that has resulted in brutal massacres.
We are deeply troubled by the immediate crisis facing tens of thousands of Yazidi civilians in this region, who face threat of extermination by the Islamic State simply because of their religious beliefs. We commend your Administration’s decision to defend the Yazidis, and strongly support your authorization of food drops for the Yazidi population and airstrikes against the Islamic State forces holding them under siege. These actions provided a small window for thousands of Yazidi civilians to escape the siege on Mt. Sinjar, where they had remained trapped without food or water and in dire conditions.
While your Administration has acted admirably in response to this threat against civilian life, the danger posed by the Islamic State is far from over and much more remains to be done. In particular, we note that reports by an assessment team sent by your Administration stating that the siege on Mt. Sinjar is effectively over have been fiercely contradicted by Yazidi leaders, relief agencies and UN officials. These leaders claim that tens of thousands of Yazidi lives still hang precariously in the balance on the southern flank of the mountain, missed by your assessment team.
On Sunday, August 17, at least 80 Yazidi men were executed by the Islamic State for refusing to convert to Islam. More than 1,000 women and girls were kidnapped by Islamic State forces, ostensibly with the intent of forcing conversion and “marrying” them to Islamic State fighters and sympathizers.
According to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, the Islamic State executed 700 Sunni members of the al-Sheitat tribe in Syria over the past two weeks because of their refusal to accept Islamic State rule. In June, virtually all Christian families in the northern Iraqi city of Mosul were forced to flee after the Islamic State threatened to exterminate them, marking all Christian households with red paint. ISIS has also killed hundreds of Christians in both Iraq and Syria, with reports of beheadings and crucifixions.
We ask you to continue and strengthen your actions in defense of Yazidi, Christians, religious minorities and oppressed Sunni and Shia Muslims in northern Iraq.
Read the full letter: www.jewishworldwatch.org
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Thank you for posting this!!
ReplyDeleteMichael Jeser, Jewish World Watch Executive Director