IV
111th CONGRESS
2d Session
H. RES. 1762
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
December 14, 2010
Mr. Ackerman (for himself, Mr. Berman, Ms. Hirono, Mr. Johnson of Georgia, and Mr. Ellison) submitted the following resolution; which was referred to the Committee on Foreign Affairs
RESOLUTION
Condemning the anti-Christian violence that has occurred in Iraq and has forced Iraqi Christians to flee their homes and communities.
Whereas Iraq has been home to a native Christian population since the first century A.D.;
Whereas the Iraqi Christian community includes a diversity of churches and numbered as many as 1,000,000 in the early 1990s before the first Persian Gulf War;
Whereas Iraqi Christians have historically suffered from official discrimination, periods of persecution, and even massacres;
Whereas since 2003, Iraqi Christians have been particularly targeted by al Qaeda in Mesopotamia and other violent Islamist militants for abduction, torture, bombings, and murder;
Whereas Iraqi churches have been deliberately attacked in a wave of anti-Christian animus;
Whereas the Iraqi Christian population has been decimated, with Iraqi Christians seeking refuge in other countries or in safer areas of Iraq;
Whereas Iraqi Christians are entitled to the protection of their government to be secure in their homes, schools, and places of worship; and
Whereas all people are entitled to absolute freedom of conscience with regard to their religious beliefs or lack thereof: Now, therefore, be it
That the House of Representatives—
condemns in the strongest terms the anti-Christian violence that has occurred in Iraq and has forced Iraqi Christians to flee their homes and communities;
calls on the Government of Iraq to enhance its efforts to guarantee the protection and survival in place of the vulnerable Iraqi Christian population and all other Iraqi religious minorities; and
urges the President and the Secretary of State to make the protection of vulnerable minority groups in Iraq, including Iraqi Christians, a priority in their discussions with Iraqi leaders, and a central element in United States efforts on the ground in Iraq.