Hillary Clinton said yesterday what her ex-boss President Barack Obama won’t say— that what is happening to Christians in the Middle East is, in fact, a genocide.
“Yes. I will now (call it genocide),” Clinton said at a small town hall event in Berlin, New Hampshire. “And I will because we have enough evidence.”
“What is happening is genocide, deliberately aimed at destroying not only the lives but wiping out the existence of Christians and other religious minorities in the Middle East in territory controlled by ISIS.”
Religious leaders, scholars and activists from throughout the nation have been pushing the Obama Administration to condemn the killings as a genocide.
A genocide designation would have significant legal and policy implications for American efforts to restore property and lands taken from the minority groups and for offers of aid, asylum, and other protections to such victims.
“That term carries with it legal import. It’s a very important concept and label for behavior that deserves that name,” Clinton said, adding that in the past she wasn’t sure there was enough evidence to warrant the term.
“I am sure now that we have enough evidence,” Clinton said.
Obama did mention the plight of the Middle East’s Christians in his Christmas message but thus far, his State Department won’t officially refer to the killings as a “genocide.”
Obama’s reluctance to officially designate the murders of Christians as a genocide has prompted numerous members of Congress to send a letter to the State Department encouraging him to do so. A similar effort was penned by the Greek Orthodox Metropolis of Chicago’s Chancellor, Bishop Demetrios, whose editorials have appeared in major newspapers throughout the Midwest encouraging governments across the world to label the events a genocide.