(Washington DC) On December 28, 2015, IDC Executive Director Kirsten Evans made the following statement:
“In Defense of Christians (IDC) is grateful to President Obama for making this year’s annual Christmas message an opportunity to manifest solidarity with and raise awareness about the terrible plight of the Christian community under ISIS.
“In 2015 the world has watched ISIS targeted and ravage centuries-old Christian communities in the surge of theological totalitarianism it has prescribed over the territories under its control. We’ve witnessed the slaughter of innocence in the orchestrated mass execution of Coptic, Ethiopian, and Assyrian Christians, whose only ‘crime’ was their Christian identity, made theater for all the world to see. We’ve seen hundreds of thousands of Christians and other religious minorities forced into exodus from their ancestral homelands or live with fear of death should they remain. We’ve beheld the ongoing destruction of Christian churches, schools, monasteries, convents, and cemeteries in an attempt by ISIS to eradicate Christianity entirely from the psychological and cultural history of the region.
“On July 10th of this year, Pope Francis declared, ‘A form of genocide — and I stress the word genocide — is taking place, and it must end.’ Countless other world leaders have echoed this call throughout the year, including the world’s leading association of genocide scholars and over 160 members of the United States Congress.
“While grateful to him for shedding light on the plight of the imperiled, IDC calls upon the President this Christmas season to publicly recognize the systematic eradication of Christians and other religious minorities under ISIS as ‘genocide.’ We implore the United States and the international community to execute their responsibility to protect these communities by all licit and possible means, stopping the genocide of Christians and other religious minorities under ISIS, and expediting the secure return of these peoples in their ancient homelands.
“IDC wishes for Christians and all peoples affected by the barbarism of ISIS the promise of peace, protection, and prosperity which Christmas has come to symbolize to the world.”
Watch here IDC’s #StoptheChristianGenocide filmed on location in Iraq, Syria and Lebanon.