Religious Persecution
Floor Speech
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Mr. Speaker, I would like to start by looking at headlines. All you have got to do is just read the headlines that are blaring at us, coming at us in print, over our Internet, and others. They say things like: ``Five children among 94 crucified, flogged, and caged by ISIS for eating during Ramadan''; ``Hundreds Killed in Nigeria Anti-Christian Violence''; ``ISIS Plants Land Mines in Christian Civilian Homes, Ancient Ruins Across Iraq, Syria.''
If we have the stomach for it that particular day, we may read the article that follows. We might say a prayer or silently wonder at the brazen face of evil. But ultimately, we go on with our lives. We do not fear for our personal safety or that of our families because of systemic religious violence.
Yet millions of our brothers and sisters around the world do not have the luxury of walking away from real religious persecution. They don't read the news stories; they live them day in and day out. They have watched family members die. They have had friends simply vanish into thin air, never to be heard from again. Their homes and businesses are seized by the government. Even as they place their hope in eternity, they fear for their future here on Earth.
Today, my colleagues and I come to the House floor to tell our stories. We come because this body and this administration have a responsibility to use our position to promote religious liberty around the world. Millions of lives are literally depending on America's willingness to export our most precious commodity, religious freedom, and it is time to step up our efforts.
As a pastor and currently a chaplain in the United States Air Force Reserve, defending religious liberty at home and abroad is near and dear to my heart. I have had the honor of serving folks of many faiths, as well as those with no faith, and I am convinced that the foundational importance of religious liberty is not just in America, but in every country.
No nation is truly free unless its citizens can practice their religious beliefs without fear of losing their life or livelihood because of state-sponsored opposition or unchecked persecution by their neighbors. Yet even in democratized societies, we are witnessing a sharp increase in violent religious persecution worldwide.
If America is to be a shining city upon a hill in the 21st century, we must redouble our commitment to fighting for those around the world who do not enjoy the basic right to worship as they choose.
I am grateful that my colleagues who share my passion for religious liberties have joined me for this Special Order, and I am especially grateful to my friend from California, Representative Vargas. We have gotten to know each other and travel, but on this issue, party lines are diminished, party lines are laid aside. When we think about our own freedoms and religious liberty, he is a champion for that.
I yield to the gentleman from California (Mr. Vargas) as we continue to discuss this issue.
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I think what you have stated shows what we are dealing with here. What we are finding is the intolerance, something that is just so atypical of what we find here in America.
I think the reason we are here today and actually talking about this is to again raise that level and to understand that this is not something in the past, not something beyond. It is something that is going on right now.
It is not easy to hear about, but you had spoken of it as well, the ISIL victims who reject forced conversion. As we think about that in our religious freedom context, just because they say, ``I am not going to convert to your faith,'' Mr. Speaker, is what they are saying, they are crucified, beheaded, tortured, raped, and countless other atrocities, sold into slavery, simply because they stand on their own faith and won't be forced into the faith of another.
ISIL, frankly, is just evil. They hide behind the cloak of religiousness. The problem is evil is just evil. You call evil what it is. Religious freedom has to be protected, and we have to be purveyors of that.
When we look around, just in the Iraq community alone, just a few years ago, there were 1.5 million Christians in Iraq. Now, the best estimates are 200,000, at best estimate. And it just continues to drive. This is something that we are going to have to continue, I believe, to watch.
There is a dear friend of mine here tonight who is a fighter for not only religious liberties, but I have fought with him for the lives and the birthdays of newborns everywhere. He is a fighter for religious liberties. The gentleman from Arizona speaks with authority on these issues because he has been there and he has been fighting on the front lines for a while.
It is my privilege to yield to the gentleman from Arizona (Mr. Franks) to continue this discussion on the need for religious liberties.
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I thank you again, Congressman Franks, for your friendship. Thank you for your outspokenness on this issue for many years, and I think we continue to bring this forward as we go forward.
Mr. Speaker, one of the things I want to overlook before I turn it over to another colleague is the area of Pakistan--and this is something that is many times overlooked when we start, but in Pakistan, blasphemy laws carry a potential death sentence.
Now, think about this for just a second--and, again, in our area, we get numb to the fact because of what we have--but blasphemy laws there carry a potential death sentence for anyone who insults Islam or professes another faith.
In November 2014, two Pakistani parents were burned alive because of their Christian faith. These individuals were accused of burning a Koran and subsequently killed by a mob of their countrymen.
A Pakistani court also convicted a Christian woman, mother of five, Asia Bibi, of blasphemy and sentenced her to death. Yesterday, after much prayer and concern from the Christian community, Reuters News reported that the Pakistani Supreme Court temporarily suspended her death sentence.
While the suspension is welcome news, the international community desires that Ms. Bibi is released from prison because of the trumped-up charges.
These are just two examples of persecution in a nation in which all minorities must grapple with the devastating impact of the notorious blasphemy law, as well as the danger posed by Islamic militant organizations that enjoy a strong foothold in the region.
We must, as Congress and the administration, implore, put pressure--whatever we need to do--to say to Pakistan: This is something that has got to be removed. This is something that needs to be done away with. These blasphemy laws must be put away, to be a part of a free and orderly society that actually recognizes the beliefs and religious liberties.
Mr. Speaker, I yield to the gentleman from North Carolina (Mr. Walker), my friend and fellow pastor to speak on this issue and bring his perspective on what he has seen across the world, but also in his time in Congress.
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Mr. Speaker, I do appreciate those words, and I think it is not just in faraway places. We are also dealing with this kind of issue in this hemisphere as well.
Just a little closer to home, southern Mexico even has experienced growing religious tensions over the past year. In a country in which 90 percent of Mexico's population identifies as Catholic, the Mexican Constitution even has long protected freedom of worship.
There is growing hostilities against Protestantism. In fact, the highlands of southern Mexico have a history of sectarian violence. Just a few decades ago, conflict led to hundreds of deaths and the displacement of 30,000 Protestants.
Right now, the conflict has arisen once again. Protestants have had their lands seized, utilities cuts, and appeals for government assistance has fallen on deaf ears. There are also reports of violence, death threats, and forcible expulsions of hundreds of victims from communities in recent years.
You don't have to go all over the world to see that we have this rise of religious intolerance around. That is a basic right, as Congressman Walker stated. Even in the U.N., it is one of those rights that is laid out in article 18, that everyone has the right to freedom of thought, conscience, and religion.
A right includes freedom to change his religion or belief in freedom, either alone or in a community with others or in public or private, to manifest his religion or belief in teaching, practice, worship, and observation.
Mr. Speaker, I yield to my dear friend from California, Representative Vargas, for more, as we have been hearing from our friends.
It is all over, and we need to continue to shine this light.
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Thank you for being here, Congressman Vargas.
I think there are many things that we can stand for. Nothing, I think, more basic to our liberties not only here in our country, but around the world, is just standing for, as Congressman Walker just said, those who can't stand for themselves, who are right now being persecuted simply for the act of a conscious belief, the act of having a faith that others disagree with.
I think that is why we are here tonight, Mr. Speaker, to talk about this in terms of things that we can do and things that we can highlight.
One of the issues that is concerning to me--and it is going to be debated in this Chamber later--is, when we are dealing with countries who have--and we have talked about this today with Iran--dealing with countries who encourage religious persecution. They have issues with this. And we yet enter into agreements without discussing those.
My concern is, in matters of trade and business, all international leaders come to our President, our Ambassadors, our State Department, our government officials. Whenever they come and trade in business--and they want to do business because this is the market that everybody wants--then this is our time to bring this up.
It is in those times that we bring up the persecution. It is in those times that we bring up the five that are held in Iran. It is in those times that we stand for them while they are shackled and cannot stand for themselves.
We have to get over this ridiculous notion that we shouldn't bring up religious liberty in certain contexts because we don't want to offend anyone.
We are worried about causing offense while men, women, girls, and boys are being raped, killed, crucified, and losing their lives. No American faces a barbaric State-sponsored death sentence simply because he or she believes a different religion than a neighbor.
Mr. Speaker, this is part of the freedom that we have. It is a part of the freedom that has been given to us by those who have passed before us.
I have always believed that we stand on the freedoms in this country today of the Constitution and the charters that have gone before us and not only what they did to sign their names to the Declaration of Independence, to sign their names to the Constitution, but to say that we will fight for those rights and those men and women who have died over the years, to say these are worth fighting for.
There have even been issues in our own country of intolerance. And what we have to understand, from my perspective even as an Air Force chaplain, is there have been more discussions on what is right and how we are going to stand up for what we believe.
As an Air Force chaplain, I am there not only from my faith background that I have, but for all, whether they have a hard-and-fast faith, a faith that is just being developed or they have no faith at all.
That is what a chaplain is there for, is to present encouragement and to preserve the religious freedoms and protections that we have.
If we back up on that, if we back up on the basic freedoms such as religious liberty, freedom of conscience, these things that we take for granted, this human rights issue in our country, then what else are we going to back up on? If we start messing with the fundamental pillars, where will it end?
The light that shines brightest here is the one that shines brightest across the seas. We cannot let this issue continue to just become dull to us by simply reading headlines on a page, maybe saying a prayer for those in need, or believing that a book of martyrs is something that used to happen and not anymore.
Today there are those around the world who are simply dying or being persecuted because of their own conscience, because of their belief that they hold. That is wrong.
It is time for us to use all of our resources here in the freest country in the world, to say: We are not going to stand for it. We need to make this the light.
I thank Congressman Vargas again and those who have come in to be a part of this, to make sure that this light is not dim. It is something that will continue to shine brightly.
Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.
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