European Union blasts ISIS for 'crime of all crimes'
Adopts resolution condemning Muslim terrorists for genocide against Christians
Published: 8 hours ago
The brutal acts committed by ISIS Islamic jihadists have flooded newspages over the past year, including the bloody beheading, crucifixion and burning alive of Christians and others, and the execution of children.
Now, the European Union has adopted a resolution condemning ISIS for the “crime of all crimes,” genocide.
The resolution “urges the members of the UN Security Council to support a referral by the Security Council to the International Criminal Court in order to investigate violations committed in Iraq and Syria by the so-called ‘ISIS/Daesh’ against Christians, Yazidis and religious and ethnic minorities,” according to ADF International, a legal organization that operates out of Vienna, Brussels, Geneva and New York, and defends religious freedom, life, marriage and family.
ADF International has a special consultative status with the U.N. as well as accreditation at the European Parliament, the Organization of American States and international bodies.
“House of War: Islam’s Jihad Against the World” conveys what the West needs to know about Islam and the violent, expansionary ideology that seeks the subjugation and destruction of other faiths, cultures and systems of government
“We applaud the European Parliament for having responded to clear and compelling evidence that Christians and other religious minorities in the Middle East are victims of intentional destruction and genocide,” said Sophia Kuby, the director of European Union advocacy for ADF International. “The overwhelming majority who voted in favor of this recognition is remarkable and shows that Europe supports action against this intolerable and ongoing genocide.”
Kuby said it was “high time that the EU responded to the undeniable evidence of this genocide, which includes assassinations of church leaders, torture, mass murders, kidnapping, sexual enslavement, systematic rape of Christian and Yazidi girls and women, and the destruction of churches, monasteries, and cemeteries.”
ISIS has been clear about its targeting of Christians.
In 2014, the group stated, “We will conquer your Rome, break your crosses and enslave your women, by the permission of Allah, the exalted.”
Last year, it announced its leadership “decided to target the Catholic Christians of Baghdad so as to teach … that the price of Muslim blood is costly and so accordingly, if his church persecuted any Muslimah in Egypt, he would be directly responsible for every single Christian killed anywhere in the world when the Islamic State sought its just revenge.”
And the group said, “The truth is also clear regarding … jihad against the Jews, the Christians, the Rafidah, and the proponents of democracy.”
Further, ISIS called for “revenge upon the cross-worshipers” and promised to “continue to wage war against the Christians.”
The Obama administration and its military leaders, however, have denied ISIS targets Christians.
Col. Steve Warren, spokesman for the U.S. military’s Operation Inherent Resolve, told CNN’s Wolf Blitzer in an interview last week that ISIS “doesn’t care if you’re a Christian.”
“We’ve seen no specific evidence of a specific targeting toward Christians,” Warren said.
ADF International noted that the number of Christians in Iraq since 2003 has dropped from 1.4 million to 275,000.
And in Syria, the number has dropped from 1.25 million in 2011 to 500,000 today.
“No religious community is as subject to hatred, violence and systematic aggression as the Christians,” Antonio Tajani, the vice president of the European Parliament, said in 2015.
The organization said calling it mass murder isn’t enough.
“By unequivocally recognizing the systematic persecution as genocide, the European Parliament urges the international community to act to stop the killing,” the report said.
There’s another reason for the specific designation.
“Article 4 of the Genocide Convention clearly states that: ‘Persons committing genocide or any of the other acts enumerated in Article III shall be punished, whether they are constitutionally responsible rulers, public officials or private individuals,” ADF International’s report said.
“Even if the Iraqi and Syrian governments are not responsible for committing genocide against Christians in their territories, they are still arguably in breach of the Genocide Convention in failing to prevent the genocide of Christians from occurring,” said the report
Kuby said determined action at the U.N. “on this genocide is long overdue.”
“We hope that the clear language that members from all political groups agreed upon in this resolution will accelerate these important next steps and help to save lives.”
The resolution also “calls for the EU to establish a permanent Special Representative for Freedom of Religion and Belief.”
“We are excited to see that the resolution calls for the establishment of a permanent special representative for freedom of religion,” Kuby said. “This new high-level position will help the EU to respond in a better way to increasing violations of freedom of religion in many parts of the world.”
Genocide has been described as the “crime of crimes” and has a specific legal definition. According to the U.N. Genocide Convention of 1948, it refers to acts committed with the intent to “destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnic, racial or religious group.”
ADF explained the European Parliament was “obliged” to take action, “by virtue of the responsibility to protect principle, which means that when a state (or non state actor) manifestly fails to protect its population or is in fact a perpetrator of these crimes, the international community has a responsibility to take collective action to protect populations.”
“A resolution stating that the acts in the Middle East amount to genocide against Christians, Yazidis and other religious minorities would carry a great value for all the persecuted religious minorities, and would not be merely a symbolic act,” ADF said. “It would also encourage states to take the matter more seriously and to take further active steps.”
A previous report from the U.N. found that ISIS “continues to commit systematic and widespread violations and abuses of international human rights law and international humanitarian law.”
“In some instances these may amount to war crimes, crimes against humanity, and possibly genocide.”
The organization found there is “no evidence to suggest that Christian groups took part in the fights with ISIS or other extremist groups.”
“On the other hand, there is overwhelming evidence which confirms that Christian civilians were attacked, raped, tortured, murdered by ISIS (including children, women and elderly) and were targeted because there were the ‘non-believers’ or ‘cross-worshipers.'”
Read more at
http://www.wnd.com/2016/02/european-union-blasts-isis-for-crime-of-all-crimes/#I1hiUZq3Jw8MMegs.99
