“My purpose in appearing before you today is to assert that in my judgment, Daesh is responsible for genocide against groups in areas under its control, including Yazidis, Christians and Shia Muslims,” Kerry said. “Daesh is genocidal by self-proclamation, by ideology, and by actions, in what it says, in what it believes, and what it does.”
Kerry said ISIS has engaged in “crimes against humanity and ethnic cleansing” against other groups, as well, including Kurds and Sunni Muslims.
Reuters has more:
A U.S. administration has not made a genocide finding since 2004, when it determined genocide had occurred in Darfur and that the government of Sudan was responsible. Asked if the genocide finding was likely to accentuate a view held by some that the West is engaged in a battle with Islam, a senior U.S. official noted that Kerry’s determination included Shi-ite Muslims as well as Christians and Yazidis. “A very large Muslim group is included in this,” said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity. “The secretary isn’t just singling out one group that has political support in the United States,” he added, referring to Christians.
Elliott Abrams has argued that the United States should single out Christians for rescue:
Middle Eastern Christians are the targets of special venom and live with special risks, so why is it unthinkable to give them special consideration for resettlement in the United States? The United States has singled out special groups before, such as Cubans fleeing the Castro regime and Jews fleeing Soviet Russia. It’s a simple fact that they got better treatment than many other refugees because their brethren in this country deeply believed it was needed and was just, so they demanded it and organized to get it from our political system. And they won. Remarkably, there are only about five million Jews in the United States and roughly two million Cuban Americans. According to the Pew Research Center, roughly 70 percent of the U.S. population calls itself Christian by belief, which would mean more than 200 million people. That’s quite a large potential pressure group — if it ever got mobilized.
Read his take here.
