Ethnic Cleansing in the Middle East

This news item caught my eye:

The United Nations moved on Thursday to pull Burundi back from the brink of "possible genocide," adopting a resolution that called for urgent talks and laid the groundwork for peacekeepers to be sent to stop the killings. (Kenya Daily Nation)

I often criticize the UN as a dithering, corrupt, useless, ball-less organization hijacked by tyrants, global grifters and international pedophiles, but this is where the UN is useful: Calling world attention to atrocities committed in far-flung corners of the globe.

Genocide in the Middle East

The UN has also leveled the genocide charge at ISIS, and support is growing in the US Congress for a resolution declaring activities in Iraq and Syria ethnic cleansing, and perhaps even genocide.

Christian activists are making the unlikely gamble as their yearslong exodus from Syria and Iraq has turned into an outright stampede under the Islamic State (IS). They’re launching a lobbying blitz to get the United States to label their plight a genocide — and create pressure for the subsequent creation of a Christian safe haven in Iraq.

“We are forming a lobby team and trying to raise some money to hire [a] very respected diplomat so we can get more countries involved in this issue,” said Loay Mikhael, head of the Foreign Relations Committee at the Chaldean Syriac Assyrian Popular Council. (Al Monitor)

What can we do?

* Pray for Christians and all who are besieged in the Middle East

* Call and write your congressman and senators to voice support for this issue

* Tell others about the plight of religious minorities in the Middle East

* Demand the world powers and the US construct refugee camps where besieged families can live in sanitary conditions, eat good meals and receive medical care.

* Demand the world powers--NOT JUST THE US--go in and clean out the ISIS cancer.  Iraqis, Kurds, Syrians, Egyptians, Jordanians and others from that region must do the bulk of the fighting.  

It will be bloody, innocent people and civilians will die, so this also will involve not shouting in outrage every time a wedding party is bombed by allied aircraft.  Let's face if folks, ISIS needs a supportive population to stay in power.

Further Reading:

NY Times - Is this the end of Christianity in the Middle East?
HuffPo - ISIS: 15 Shocking Numbers
Daily Beast - Amnesty International: Ethnic Cleansing on Historic Scale
Amnesty International Report on Ethnic Cleansing