US Lawmakers Asked to Do More to Protect Christian Minorities in Syria, Iraq

[TomSea]

US Lawmakers Asked to Do More to Protect Christian Minorities in Syria, Iraq

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Knights of Columbus CEO Carl Anderson is calling on lawmakers in Washington to do more to protect religious minorities in Iraq and Syria, especially Christians.

Anderson told a House subcommittee on Thursday that the Obama administration should distinguish between those groups that face the possibility of mass atrocities, war crimes and genocide. Anderson said Christians are being targeted. He testified that only a small fraction of the Christian populations remain in Syria and Iraq.

Anderson also called on lawmakers to provide funding to pay for relief efforts, even if emergency appropriations are required.

http://www.aina.org/news/20160527140752.htm

[mountaineer]

Egypt, too, while we're at it.

Elderly Christian woman stripped naked and paraded through streets by mob

The 300-strong mob of Muslim men in rural Egypt also burned down seven homes belonging to Orthodox Coptic families, over rumours of an affair between a local Christian man and a Muslim woman
Adam Withnall
Thursday 26 May 2016

A 70-year-old Christian woman has been stripped naked, beaten and paraded through the streets by a mob of around 300 Muslim men in a village in southern Egypt.

The mob also burned down seven homes belonging to Christian families, according to an unusually outspoken statement issued by the local Orthodox Coptic church, after rumours circulated in the village that a Christian man was having a relationship with a Muslim woman.

The violence started at around 8pm on 20 May, and the local diocese said it was two hours before police responded, by which point the mob had already dispersed.

The woman who was stripped naked was reported to be the mother of the man involved in the rumoured affair. She has since met with church leaders, the Diocese of Minya and Abu Qirqas said.  ...

More at The Independent (U.K.)