Washington, D.C. – Today, U.S. Rep. Ed Royce (R-CA), Chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, announced that on Wednesday, May 13 he will convene a Committee hearing to examine the persecution of religious minorities in the Middle East at the hands of ISIS.  The hearing, entitled “Ancient Communities Under Attack: ISIS’s War on Religious Minorities,” will begin at 10 a.m.
 
Chairman Royce said:  “ISIS has unleashed a campaign of sickening violence, not only against Shi’a Muslims and fellow Sunnis who do not hold their radical beliefs, but against vulnerable religious and ethnic minorities in Iraq and Syria.  Many communities are under mortal threat in their ancestral homeland: Armenian, Assyrian, Chaldean, and Syriac Christians, as well as Kaka’i, Shabak, Turkmen, Yezidis, and others.  The mass execution of men, the enslavement of women and children, and the destruction of religious sites is part of the ISIS effort to exterminate these ancient communities.  At this hearing, the Committee will hear directly from those who have faced this threat and examine a positive path forward, including immediate humanitarian and security needs.”

What:
Hearing: Ancient Communities Under Attack: ISIS’s War on Religious Minorities

When:
10 a.m. ET on Wednesday, May 13

Where:
2172 Rayburn House Office Building

Witnesses:
Sister Diana Momeka, OP
Dominican Sisters of Saint Catherine of Siena
Mosul, Iraq

Ms. Vian Dakhil
Member
Council of Representatives
Republic of Iraq

Ms. Jacqueline Isaac
Vice President
Roads of Success

Katharyn Hanson, Ph.D.
Fellow
Penn Cultural Heritage Center
University of Pennsylvania Museum

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