EU Parliament: Daesh crimes against Christians are “genocide”

The European Parliament has voted in favour of the Resolution on systematic mass murder by ISIS, which was already adopted by the Bureau of the European Parliament on Monday evening.

The resolution, approved by an overwhelming majority, condemns the ongoing Daesh (ISIS) atrocities in the Middle East as “war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide, according to the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court (ICC).”

SPECIAL REPRESENTATIVE FOR FREEDOM OF RELIGION

The resolution “calls for the EU to establish a permanent Special Representative for Freedom of Religion and Belief.”

It also 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.”

A BIG STEP FOR THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT

Earlier this week, European Evangelical Alliance (EEA) representative in Brussels Christel Lamère Ngnambi told Evangelical Focus:

“Never has the European Parliament been so far, especially considering the fact that the Parliament's (and the EU more generally) recent history has been, au contraire, to shy away from the disproportionate amount of targeted persecution against Christians in the Middle East.”

Daesh terrorism has deliberately targeted Christians and other religious and ethnic minorities, abusing those who do not agree with their interpretation of Islam.

“Over the past ten years, about 60% of Iraq's Christian community has been forced to leave the country, and some assassinated or forced to convert. Other minorities are under the threat of extinction in Iraq, like the Yezidi”, Ngnambi recalled.

COUNCIL OF EUROPE OPENED PATH

The Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe also officially described Daesh mass murders as 'genocide', which is “the sign that an international consensus is building to qualify the abuses of Daesh as genocide, notably against Christians”, Ngnambi stated.