An Independent TD has called on the Irish Government to officially recognise the persecution of Christians in Iraq and Syria as genocide.
Deputy Mattie McGrath tabled an official motion before the Dáil, in which he says that “Christians and other religious minorities in Iraq and Syria will be exterminated or forced to migrate solely for their religion by the ‘Islamic State’ and other militant extremists”.
The tabled motion points out that “since 2003, minority groups in Iraq and Syria have been the target of systematic violence, with millions fleeing their ancestral homes; Christians and other religious minorities in Iraq and Syria have been murdered, subjugated, and suffered grievous bodily and psychological harm, including sexual enslavement and abuse, inflicted in a deliberate and calculated manner in violation of the UN Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide; these atrocities were undertaken with the specific intent to bring about the eradication and displacement of their communities and the destruction of their cultural heritage in violation of the UN Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide.”
Lending further weight to his call, Deputy McGrath cited a March 2015 report from the United Nations Committee on Human Rights which declared that from evidence gained of Islamic State atrocities conducted against minority groups, including Christians, “it is reasonable to conclude that some of the incidents…may constitute genocide”.
Speaking ahead of his presentation to the Dáil, Deputy McGrath said he had been prompted to table his motion by his recent attendance at a conference in Rome during which current threats to human dignity were discussed by more than 100 international Catholic legislators in the presence of Pope Francis.
“In light of the recent escalation of the migrant crisis,” Deputy McGrath said, “it was particularly timely that we were discussing the effective slaughter and genocide of Christians in Iraq and Syria over the last number of years.
“These attacks on Christians are directly connected to the destabilisation of the region and the displacement of these people. I am there therefore going to call on the Government to explicitly recognise the issue of Christian persecution and how it is related, and adding to the extraordinary suffering these people are enduring.”
