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ANCIENT COMMUNITIES UNDER ATTACK:

ISIS’S WAR ON RELIGIOUS MINORITIES

HEARING

BEFORE THE

COMMITTEE ON FOREIGN AFFAIRS 

HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

ONE HUNDRED FOURTEENTH CONGRESS

FIRST SESSION

MAY 13, 2015

Serial No. 114–49

Printed for the use of the Committee on Foreign Affairs

(

Available via the World Wide Web: http://www.foreignaffairs.house.gov/ or

http://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/

(II)

COMMITTEE ON FOREIGN AFFAIRS 

EDWARD R. ROYCE, California, Chairman 

CHRISTOPHER H. SMITH, New Jersey 

ILEANA ROS-LEHTINEN, Florida 

DANA ROHRABACHER, California 

STEVE CHABOT, Ohio 

JOE WILSON, South Carolina 

MICHAEL T. MCCAUL, Texas 

TED POE, Texas 

MATT SALMON, Arizona 

DARRELL E. ISSA, California 

TOM MARINO, Pennsylvania 

JEFF DUNCAN, South Carolina 

MO BROOKS, Alabama 

PAUL COOK, California 

RANDY K. WEBER SR., Texas 

SCOTT PERRY, Pennsylvania 

RON DESANTIS, Florida 

MARK MEADOWS, North Carolina 

TED S. YOHO, Florida 

CURT CLAWSON, Florida 

SCOTT DESJARLAIS, Tennessee 

REID J. RIBBLE, Wisconsin 

DAVID A. TROTT, Michigan 

LEE M. ZELDIN, New York 

TOM EMMER, Minnesota 

ELIOT L. ENGEL, New York 

BRAD SHERMAN, California 

GREGORY W. MEEKS, New York 

ALBIO SIRES, New Jersey 

GERALD E. CONNOLLY, Virginia 

THEODORE E. DEUTCH, Florida 

BRIAN HIGGINS, New York 

KAREN BASS, California 

WILLIAM KEATING, Massachusetts 

DAVID CICILLINE, Rhode Island 

ALAN GRAYSON, Florida 

AMI BERA, California 

ALAN S. LOWENTHAL, California 

GRACE MENG, New York 

LOIS FRANKEL, Florida 

TULSI GABBARD, Hawaii 

JOAQUIN CASTRO, Texas 

ROBIN L. KELLY, Illinois 

BRENDAN F. BOYLE, Pennsylvania

AMY PORTER, Chief of Staff THOMAS SHEEHY, Staff Director

JASON STEINBAUM, Democratic Staff Director 

(III)

C O N T E N T S 

Page

WITNESSES 

Sister Diana Momeka, OP, Dominican Sisters of Saint Catherine of Siena, 

Mosul, Iraq ........................................................................................................... 4

Ms. Jacqueline Isaac, vice president, Roads of Success ....................................... 11

Ms. Hind Kabawat, director of interfaith peacebuilding, Center for World 

Religions, Diplomacy, and Conflict Resolution, George Mason University ..... 17

Katharyn Hanson, Ph.D., fellow, Penn Cultural Heritage Center, University 

of Pennsylvania Museum ..................................................................................... 24

LETTERS, STATEMENTS, ETC., SUBMITTED FOR THE HEARING 

Sister Diana Momeka: Prepared statement .......................................................... 7

Ms. Jacqueline Isaac: Prepared statement ............................................................ 13

Ms. Hind Kabawat: Prepared statement ............................................................... 19

Katharyn Hanson, Ph.D.: Prepared statement ..................................................... 26

APPENDIX 

Hearing notice .......................................................................................................... 48

Hearing minutes ...................................................................................................... 49

(1)

ANCIENT COMMUNITIES UNDER ATTACK: 

ISIS’S WAR ON RELIGIOUS MINORITIES 

WEDNESDAY, MAY 13, 2015

HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES,

COMMITTEE ON FOREIGN AFFAIRS,

Washington, DC. 

The committee met, pursuant to notice, at 10 o’clock a.m., in 

room 2172 Rayburn House Office Building, Hon. Edward Royce 

(chairman of the committee) presiding. 

Chairman ROYCE. This committee hearing will come to order. 

Today we focus on the minority communities, the many minority 

communities that are under brutal attack—some of them on the 

brink of extermination by ISIS—by ISIS principally in Iraq and 

Syria but elsewhere as well. And we are joined by individuals who 

have personally faced this threat and are familiar with the extreme 

hardship with the grief that displaced minorities face in that troubled region. 

ISIS has unleashed a campaign of brutal violence, depraved violence, not only against Shia Muslims and fellow Sunnis who do not 

share their radical beliefs, but against vulnerable religious and ethnic minorities. And as Ms. Isaac put it simply in her prepared testimony, ‘‘We cherish ethnic and religious diversity; ISIS hates it.’’

Many Americans may not realize that Iraq and Syria are home 

to dozens of ethnic and religious minorities with ancient cultures 

with deep roots. These communities—Assyrian and Chaldean 

Christians, Yezidis, Alawites, and others—are under mortal threat 

in their ancestral homelands. And the mass execution of men, the 

enslavement of women and children, and the destruction of religious sites, is part of the ISIS effort to destroy these communities, 

to destroy all evidence of the preexistence of these communities. In 

fact, ISIS maintains a special battalion. They call it the ‘‘demolition 

battalion.’’ And that battalion is charged with going after art and 

going after artifacts, religious and historic sites that it considers 

heretical or idolatrous, and their job is simply to destroy history. 

The situation for some of these groups was precarious even before ISIS. According to some estimates, more than half of Iraq’s religious and ethnic minorities have fled the country over the last 

dozen years. 

But what they face today is annihilation by ISIS, and the influx 

of ISIS extremists has become a plague. The fall of Mosul in June 

of last year uprooted 2 million souls, 2 million human beings. Members will recall the U.S.-led air strikes and operations by Kurdish 

2

forces last August to break the siege at Mount Sinjar where thousands of Yazidi refugee families had been trapped by ISIS. 

The physical security and welfare of displaced minorities is an 

immediate priority. Options for U.S. assistance range from additional material support to friendly forces, all the way to creating 

safe zones or no-fly zones. And while it is important to weigh the 

costs of each option, we cannot lose sight of the fact that people are 

being kidnapped, people are being tortured, women are being 

raped—and children—and they are being killed every day. 

Beyond that we need to focus more on their psychological wellbeing. Many of those people, especially women and girls, have been 

subjected to unspeakable traumas. The young men are mostly just 

slaughtered. And as with any displaced population, as their vulnerability increases so does the threat of human trafficking. What can 

be done to better protect women and girls at risk of slavery? 

Finally, what can and should be done to keep these evacuations 

from becoming permanent? It would be a tragedy if well-intended 

resettlement fulfilled the goal of ISIS itself, in other words to drive 

these believers out. Are there ways to support the reconstruction 

of local institutions and civil society so that post ISIS—and there 

must be a post ISIS—these communities can return and thrive in 

their ancestral homelands? 

I will now turn to the ranking member, Mr. Eliot Engel of New 

York, who has been a true leader on Syria and on the humanitarian and human rights disaster in the region, for his opening 

comments. 

Mr. ENGEL. Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman, and thank you 

as always for calling this important hearing. And let me also thank 

our witnesses who are joining us today. We are very appreciative 

that you are here. 

This committee has taken a hard look at the brutal campaign 

ISIS is raging in Iraq and Syria. We have learned about the broader threat ISIS poses across the Middle East and around the world. 

We know how dangerous this group is. We have heard how many 

people have lost their homes and their livelihoods and their lives 

in the wake of this violence. 

And today we will focus on the heartbreaking struggles of Christians, Yazidis and Muslims who have defied the barbaric perversion of Islam espoused by ISIS. We will hear about the dangers 

that these communities face every day, how ISIS has killed, raped 

and enslaved those who don’t fall in line with their fanaticism, and 

I hope their stories will remind us and our partners and allies 

around the world that we must do everything possible to help these 

people. 

We will also hear about the attempt by ISIS to erase the history 

of these communities. We have all seen videos and reports of ISIS 

destroying ancient sites and historical artifacts in the territories 

they control. Now these are not random acts of vandalism. ISIS is 

deliberately targeting cultural property for two reasons. Firstly, to 

loot and steal cultural artifacts to fund their violent campaigns; 

and secondly, to destroy what is left in a calculated effort to eradicate minority cultures. 

This form of psychological warfare against the Yazidis, Christians, Muslim minorities, and anyone else that refuses to bow to 

3

their oppression, from the Tomb of Jonah in Mosul to Yazidi 

shrines in the Sinjar region and the historical site of Hijra, ISIS 

is trying to rewrite history. We have seen this tactic before—the 

Bamiyan Buddhas destroyed by the Taliban in Afghanistan, the 

Nazi destruction of Jewish religious property during World War II. 

We cannot allow another vicious group to reshape our record of the 

past. We need to cut off the profits ISIS gets from trafficking looted 

artifacts and to ramp up our efforts to save cultural property from 

destruction. 

A few weeks ago, this committee unanimously passed the Protect 

and Preserve International Cultural Property Act which I introduced with Representative Smith, Chairman Royce and Representative Keating. This bill would help save cultural property from 

ISIS’ campaign and we need to get this bill to the President’s desk. 

We also need to stay focused on bringing relief to those living 

under the yoke of ISIS. I hope our witnesses can shed some light 

on what religious minorities living under ISIS control need the 

most. 

The administration’s response to degrade and destroy ISIS is a 

good start, but it is a start. The United States has worked to cut 

off financial support to ISIS; to stem the flow of foreign fighters; 

to deliver robust humanitarian assistance; to provide military support to our partners including through U.S. and coalition air 

strikes; and to push back against the violent ideology promoted by 

ISIS. But as we will hear today, people are still suffering in ISISheld territory, and I hope today’s testimony will underscore for my 

colleagues the need to pass a new authorization for the use of military force or AUMF. I have said this before and I will say it again 

and again and again until Congress acts on its responsibility and 

passes a new authorization. 

And finally, I want to say that some of us are wearing red today. 

I am wearing a red tie and my good friend Ileana Ros-Lehtinen is 

wearing a red blouse, and we are doing this because we want to 

focus on the girls who have disappeared under Boko Haram. While 

Boko Haram is not ISIS, it is certainly affiliated. Their attacks are 

just as brutal and its terrorism all around the world and we need 

to stand up in this Congress and show that we will thwart it in 

any way possible. And I hope my colleagues will also wear red. 

So once again I thank our witnesses and I look forward to hearing your testimony. And thank you, Mr. Chairman, for your leadership as always. 

Chairman ROYCE. Thank you, Mr. Engel. Our panel that we are 

joined by here today include Sister Diana Momeka. She is a member of the Dominican Sisters of Saint Catherine of Siena located in 

Mosul, Iraq. Sister Diana, who was one of many thousands forced 

from their homes by an ISIS offensive last year, has been involved 

in providing assistance to other internally displaced Iraqis currently residing in Erbil and raising awareness of the plight of minorities displaced from Nineveh. 

Ms. Jacqueline Isaac is the vice president of Roads of Success, a 

nonprofit organization dedicated to empowering women and minorities in the Middle East. Ms. Isaac’s work has included refugee aid 

missions and helping families of victims in Iraq and in Jordan and 

in Egypt. 

4

Ms. Hind Kabawat is the director of Interfaith Peacebuilding at 

the Center for World Religions, Diplomacy and Conflict Resolution 

for George Mason University. Ms. Kabawat has trained hundreds 

of Syrians in multi-faith collaboration, civil society development, 

women’s empowerment, and in negotiation skills throughout the 

Middle East including in Aleppo, Syria. 

Dr. Katharyn Hanson is a fellow at Penn Cultural Heritage Center for the University of Pennsylvania Museum specializing in the 

protection of cultural heritage specifically on the threats to 

Mesopotamian architectural sites in Iraq and in Syria. Dr. Hanson 

recently served as the program director for the Archaeological Site 

Preservation Program at the Iraqi Institute for the Conservation of 

Antiquities and Heritage in Erbil. 

Without objection, the witnesses’ full prepared statements will be 

made part of the record. Members are going to have 5 calendar 

days to submit statements and questions and any extraneous material they might want to put into the record. 

And with that, Sister Diana, please summarize your remarks. 

And Sister Diana, she will push that red button there for you 

there. 

STATEMENT OF SISTER DIANA MOMEKA, OP, DOMINICAN 

SISTERS OF SAINT CATHERINE OF SIENA, MOSUL, IRAQ 

Sister MOMEKA. Thank you. Thank you, Chairman Royce and 

distinguished members of the committee for inviting me today to 

share my views on Ancient Communities Under Attack: ISIS’s War 

on Religious Minorities. 

Chairman ROYCE. Sister, I am going to suggest you move the 

microphone right in front there and just project a little bit. Thank 

you. 

Sister MOMEKA. Okay, thank you. In November 2009, a bomb 

was detonated at our convent in Mosul. Five sisters were in the 

building at the time and they were lucky to have escaped 

unharmed. Our Prioress, Sister Maria Hanna, asked for protection 

from local civilian authorities but the pleas went unanswered. As 

such, she had no choice but to move us to Qaraqosh. 

Then on June 10th, 2014, the so-called Islamic State in Iraq and 

Syria, or ISIS, invaded the Nineveh Plain which is where Qaraqosh 

is located. Starting with the city of Mosul, ISIS overran one city 

and town after another giving the Christians of the region three 

choices: Convert to Islam; pay a tribute, a jizya, to ISIS; leave their 

city, cities like Mosul, with nothing more than the clothes on their 

back. As this horror spread throughout the Nineveh Plain, by August 6, 2014, Nineveh was empty of Christians, and sadly, for the 

first time since the seventh century A.D., no church bells rang for 

mass in the Nineveh Plain. 

From June 2014 forward, more than 120,000 people found themselves displaced and homeless in the Kurdistan region of Iraq leaving behind their heritage and all they had worked for over the centuries. This uprooting, this theft of everything that the Christians 

owned, displaced them body and soul, stripping away their humanity and dignity. 

To add insult to injury, the initiatives and actions of both the 

Iraqi and Kurdish Governments were at best modest and slow. 

5

Apart from allowing Christians to enter their region, the Kurdish 

Government did not offer any aid either financial or material. 

I understand the great strain that these events have placed on 

Baghdad and Erbil. However, it has been almost a year and Christian Iraqi citizens are still in dire need of help. Many people spent 

days and weeks in the street before they found shelter in tents, 

schools, and halls. Thankfully, the church in the Kurdistan region 

stepped forward and cared for the displaced Christians, doing her 

very best to handle this disaster. Church buildings were opened to 

accommodate the people, food and non-food items were provided to 

meet the immediate needs of the people, and medical health service 

were also provided. Moreover, the Church put out a call and many 

humanitarian organizations answered with aid for thousands of 

people in need. 

Presently we are grateful for what has been done, with most people now sheltered in small prefabricated containers or some homes. 

Though better than living on the streets or in the abandoned buildings, these small units are few in number and are crowded with 

three families, each with multiple people often accommodated in 

one unit. This of course increases tension and conflict even within 

the same family. 

There are many who say, why don’t the Christians just leave 

Iraq and move to another country and be done with it? To this 

question we would respond, why should we leave our country? 

What have we done? The Christians of Iraq are the first people of 

the land. You read about us in the Old Testament of the Bible. 

Christianity came to Iraq from the very earliest days through the 

preaching and witness of Saint Thomas and others of the Apostles 

and church elders. While our ancestors experienced all kinds of 

persecution, they stayed in their land, building a culture that has 

served humanity for ages. 

We as Christians do not want or deserve to leave or be forced out 

of our country any more than you would want to leave or be forced 

out of yours. But the current persecution that our community if 

facing is the most brutal in our history. Not only have we been 

robbed of our homes, property and land, but our heritage is being 

destroyed as well. ISIS has and continues to demolish and bomb 

our churches, cultural artifacts and sacred places like Mar Behnam 

and his Sister, a fourth century monastery, and St. George’s Monastery in Mosul. 

Uprooted and forcefully displaced, we have realized that ISIS 

plans to evacuate the land of Christians and wipe the earth clean 

of any evidence that we ever existed. This is cultural and human 

genocide. The only Christians that remain in the Nineveh Plain are 

those who are held as hostages. 

To restore and to rebuild the Christian community in Iraq the 

following needs are urgent: Liberating our homes from ISIS and 

helping us return; a coordinated efforts to rebuild what was destroyed—roads, water and electrical supplies, and buildings including our churches and monasteries; encouraging enterprises that 

contribute to the building of Iraq and inter-religious dialogue. This 

could be through schools, academics and pedagogical projects. 

I am but one small person, a victim myself of ISIS and all of its 

brutality. Coming here has been difficult for me. As a religious sisVerDate 0ct 09 2002 10:51 Jul 16, 2015 Jkt 000000 PO 00000 Frm 00009 Fmt 6633 Sfmt 6633 F:\WORK\_FULL\051315\94605 SHIRL
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ter I am not comfortable with the media and so much attention. 

But I am here and I am here to ask you, to implore you for the 

sake of our common humanity to help us. Stand with us, as we as 

Christians have stood with all the people of the world, and help us. 

We want nothing more than to go back to our lives. We want nothing more than to go home. Thank you and God bless you. 

[The prepared statement of Sister Momeka follows:]

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Chairman ROYCE. Thank you, Sister. 

Ms. Isaac? 

STATEMENT OF MS. JACQUELINE ISAAC, VICE PRESIDENT, 

ROADS OF SUCCESS 

Ms. ISAAC. Honorable Chairman Royce, Ranking Member Engel 

and distinguished members of this committee, I am honored to be 

here today. Thank you so much for having a crucial hearing that 

really is a matter of life or death. 

I am not talking to you as an attorney, I am not talking as a politician, I am talking about being a human being who has been on 

the front lines. I have been to Sinjar Mountain. I have met the 

girls that have been kidnapped and raped by ISIS. And I am telling 

you that we need to give them seeds of hope, seeds of hope to know 

that they can live and thrive in their home. I am here because I 

promised these people, my friends across the world that I would be 

their voices today. 

Here are their narratives. I am here today because of a women 

I met named Ecklas. Ecklas was in Mosul at home at night and 

out of nowhere ISIS came in and said, you have two choices. You 

either convert to Islam or you pay the jizya. She gave them the 

money and she said give me 1 minute because my daughter is in 

the bathroom taking a shower. I am just going to get her out. They 

said, you don’t have 1 second. They took a torch, they lit the house 

starting from the bathroom where she was taking a shower. Ecklas 

picked up her daughter Rita and she thought she could take her 

to the hospital. She had fourth degree burns. But Rita died in her 

arms. 

I am here today because of Joy, an 11-years-old paralyzed kid 

from the neck down. ISIS found him in Sinjar town. They thought 

that he was useless to society so they picked him up with 190 other 

paralyzed and elderly people and they threw him in the borders of 

Syria. 

But in the midst of all this darkness, I see that there is light. 

Light can break through the darkness, and we need to take our 

role as human beings, push them and help them to survive and 

thrive. Let me tell you what happened to Joy. The heroes of today, 

the Peshmerga army, found him with the other 190 and they rescued them. And today they are living in safety, and the Peshmerga 

army who is out there risking their lives are doing this on a constant basis. They are constantly rescuing the innocent. 

One of those innocent girls that I met, I don’t want to disclose 

her name for privacy purposes. She was 15 years old. And in one 

night in Sinjar town ISIS came in and took her, with a group of 

hundreds of girls, into a broken down building, and ISIS came in 

and they started to trade, trading her off, categorizing these girls 

as merchandise depending on whether they were beautiful in their 

eyes, how old they were, whether they were virgins or not, literally 

treating them like merchandise. She was sent off and she was 

being raped on a constant basis. And she decided to make an escape. She believed that she rather die trying. She believed that 

somebody out there, another human being would help her if she 

made an escape. And in one night she broke out of a window and 

she started to make a run for it. 

12

My brave friend went hours hiking on the top of the Sinjar 

mountain, but ISIS came back for her and took her back. When she 

went to that house they starved her, they beat her, and again she 

said I would rather die trying. ISIS forgot to fix the window they 

broke and she made a run for it, and this time she made it to the 

very top. 

And who was there to stand by her side? The Peshmerga army, 

the Kurdish Regional Government who have already rescued at 

least 480 girls and children, 30 of which are impregnated. Many of 

those that have been impregnated by ISIS committed suicide. The 

others who received the counseling, who received that push of hope, 

that seed that each of us can provide, started to dream again, 

started to see a future. 

Today I ask for four things. I ask that we support the brave 

Peshmerga army who is resisting terror at the front lines. They are 

not just fighting to protect their land. They are not fighting to preserve the religious minorities alone. They are fighting for the entire 

world. Second, I ask that we provide humanitarian assistance, 

more and more of it, because today there is about 2 million refugees and IDPs living in the Kurdistan Regional Government region 

and they need our support. They need psychological counseling to 

deal with the trauma. We are talking about a future generation 

here. Let us help them get the support that they need. Let us help 

the brave government that is on the front lines, the army that are 

truly the boots on the ground. I ask that we recognize their amazing rescue efforts. 

And lastly, I ask of you to help their partners. Countries like 

Egypt, who is now taking hundreds of thousands of Syrians in their 

own land. Countries like Egypt, when President el-Sisi had heard 

that 21 Christians were killed in Libya acted immediately at deploying those air strikes. Countries like Jordan, which is taking in 

hundreds of thousands of IDPs and refugees and also fighting on 

those front lines. Let us support them because this is a matter of 

national security. It is not about them. It is about all of us together. 

I have a video if we have a moment to show these girls are going 

to share with us their stories. 

Chairman ROYCE. Without objection. 

[Video.] 

Ms. ISAAC. These girls have hope. They have hope that we are 

going to help them. Let us all do it together. Thank you. 

[The prepared statement of Ms. Isaac follows:]

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Chairman ROYCE. Thank you, Jacqueline. 

Ms. Kabawat. 

STATEMENT OF MS. HIND KABAWAT, DIRECTOR OF INTERFAITH PEACEBUILDING, CENTER FOR WORLD RELIGIONS, 

DIPLOMACY, AND CONFLICT RESOLUTION, GEORGE MASON 

UNIVERSITY 

Ms. KABAWAT. Thank you Chairman Royce, Ranking Member 

Engel, and other members of the committee. I am honored to be 

here today and speak to you about the status of religious minorities 

in Syria, a subject very close to my heart. Growing up as a Christian in Syria, I was surrounded by rich multi-religious history. I 

have lived much of my life on road called Straight Street, a road 

so ancient it was mentioned in the Bible. 

Today it saddens me to see the Christians in Syria paying a very 

high price for this senseless war. They have been running from 

their villages and homes. They are displaced. Their churches are 

being destroyed. A report by my colleague Dr. Wael al-Alelj lists all 

the destroyed churches in Syria including those destroyed by ISIS 

and by the regime. 

Protecting Christians is essential. But while I urge you to do 

whatever is possible to protect minorities and Christians from ISIS, 

I would like to remind you that ISIS is killing any and every Muslim who oppose them, just as the Muslims and minorities are killed 

by Assad regime. My friend Jamila a very religious Muslim from 

Raqqa was threatened by ISIS and escaped at night to Turkey fearing death. Some Sunni tribes have suffered massive losses to ISIS. 

For example, ISIS forces killed more than 500 youth of Shaitat 

tribes in 1 day last year. Women and children live in constant, 

traumatizing fear afraid of recruitment by ISIS. 

As a Christian, I cannot request safety for my Christian community without worrying about others. Yes, we need to create safe havens for minorities and all groups threatened by ISIS. It is monumental and worthwhile tasks. And when selecting these areas, geography is essential. Areas close to Turkish and Jordan’s borders 

are the best candidates because of the guarantee that those borders 

will remain secure. 

Additionally, an important component of safe havens will be the 

proximity to protect zones by first liberating all ISIS controlled cities in these zones. The security of the safe haven will be easier to 

maintain. In the last 3 years, I have regularly visited the refugee 

camps in Turkey, Jordan and IDP camp in Zaatari, in Idlib, Jabal 

al-Zawiya and others. The women there wants to go back home. 

They want to live without fear of crate and barrel bombs. 

As we discuss religious minorities, I urge you also to consider the 

need of women who have been marginalized as well. They are the 

key to peace process and the key to establishing community that 

provides support for one another across sectarian lines. Empowering local councils to deliver social services is another essential 

component of establishing safe havens for all Syrians. The base 

guarantee for the prosperities of minorities in the Middle East is 

in a democracy that accords everyone the same right and privileges 

regardless of their ethnic or religious background. 

18

The message to minorities in the Middle East should be one of 

inclusion, equipping and encouraging them to be part of the democratic process which is the only possibility to defeat extremism and 

dictatorship in our country. Thank you and I look forward for your 

questions. 

[The prepared statement of Ms. Kabawat follows:]

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Chairman ROYCE. Thank you. 

Thank you, Dr. Hanson. 

STATEMENT OF KATHARYN HANSON, PH.D., FELLOW, PENN 

CULTURAL HERITAGE CENTER, UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA MUSEUM 

Ms. HANSON. Chairman Royce, Ranking Member Engel and 

members of the committee. Thank you for this opportunity to discuss ISIS’s destruction of minority religious and cultural sites. 

ISIS’s campaign of targeted extermination includes the erasure of 

the outward manifestations of minority religious culture which 

threatens these communities’ way of life. 

I study this subject as a Fellow at the Penn Cultural Heritage 

Center of the University of Pennsylvania Museum. But like others 

on this panel, I was in Erbil, Iraq, in August 2014, when ISIS advanced toward the Erbil Plain. As a program director at the Iraqi 

Institute for the Conservation of Antiquities and Heritage in Erbil, 

I was leading a course for heritage professionals from throughout 

the country—men and women of every religion. This training was 

interrupted and we departed abruptly shortly after air strikes 

began. 

Despite this setback, the desire of Iraqi heritage professionals to 

protect the religious and cultural sites of the country remains 

strong. Based on my current research, experience in Iraq and consultation with Iraqi colleagues, I want to share some examples of 

ISIS’s destruction. Slide 1 please. 

Ms. HANSON. In July 2014 in Mosul, Iraq, ISIS destroyed the 

shrine of Nebi Yunus also known as the tomb of the prophet Jonah. 

An analysis of satellite imagery by the American Association for 

the Advancement of Sciences Geospatial Technologies Project 

where I am a visiting scholar confirmed this destruction. Slide 2 

please. 

This analysis also showed that ISIS removed all evidence of the 

shrine by clearing rubble and grading the site flat. In doing so, 

ISIS erased the physical presence of Nebi Yunus for the entire local 

religious community. Slide 3 please. 

Dura-Europos is an archaeological site in Syria with uniquely 

preserved Roman provincial architecture. It includes the world’s 

best preserved ancient Jewish synagogue and one of the earliest 

known Christian house chapels. The chapel dates to about 235 A.D. 

and contains the oldest known depiction of Jesus Christ. Slide 4 

please. 

The site has now been extensively looted and is currently under 

ISIS control. The before and after image analyzed analysis completed by the AAAS’s geotech project demonstrates that over 76 

percent of the site’s surface has now been lost. Slide 5 please. 

Two months ago I traveled to the Dohuk Governorate in Iraq 

which is adjacent to ISIS-held areas. I met with the director of the 

antiquities department to identify religious and cultural sites at 

risk. This site, Lalish, may be one of the only surviving Yazidi religious centers. Slide 6 please. 

ISIS has released two videos that include the defacement of an 

ancient sculpture called the Lamassu. These are human-headed, 

winged bulls. In ancient times they represented the power of the 

25

Neo-Assyrian empire from the ninth to seventh century B.C. Today, 

they serve as important symbols for Assyrian Christians. ISIS’s defacement is thus intended to terrorize the present-day Iraqi Christian community while simultaneously destroying ancient artifacts. 

In thinking about how we can address this destruction, I would 

like to offer three recommendations. First, we must prepare humanitarian assistance to religious and refugee communities as well 

as to displaced heritage professionals. In the near future I will return to Erbil, Iraq, with colleagues from the University of Pennsylvania Museum and the Smithsonian Institution and there we will 

work with our Iraqi colleagues to determine unmet emergency 

needs. More programs like this are necessary, and the U.S. Government should encourage new collaborations in the nonprofit sector. 

Second, this committee should inquire into efforts to protect religious and other cultural sites during military actions against ISIS. 

There is a report that should shed some light on these efforts due 

in June 2015 thanks to a provision sponsored by Mr. Engel in the 

National Defense Authorization Act. I recommend that this committee scrutinize the report carefully for evidence that steps are 

being taken to avoid accidental air strikes on religious and cultural 

sites and that protection measures are incorporated into advisory 

rules and military trainings. 

Finally, there is bipartisan legislation, the Protect and Preserve 

International Cultural Property Act introduced by Mr. Engel, Mr. 

Smith, Mr. Royce, and Mr. Keating. Its purpose is twofold. To bring 

together the agencies that have existing mandates to protect heritage, and to eliminate the financial incentive for entities such as 

ISIS to loot religious and cultural artifacts. I commend this committee for its bipartisan leadership on this bill, and I urge you to 

advocate for its final passage into law. 

I would like to thank the chairman for convening this important 

hearing at a very critical juncture in the preservation of religious 

and cultural heritage. I am happy to answer any questions that 

you have. 

[The prepared statement of Ms. Hanson follows:]

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Chairman ROYCE. Well, thank you, Dr. Hanson. That legislation 

by the way has been passed out of committee. It is on the floor and 

we are going to move it shortly. And I would just make a couple 

of observations. One is that this ISIS phenomenon, another way it 

could have been handled was when ISIS originally was in Raqqa, 

as they were leaving Raqqa, there were those of us on this committee as well as some of our Ambassadors overseas that suggested 

overwhelming U.S. air power hit the ISIS forces in Raqqa or hit 

the ISIS forces as they were leaving in their long caravan as they 

begin their attacks town by town by town, and we did not act from 

the air at that time. We allowed them to take some 14 major cities, 

culminating in taking Mosul, without the use of air power at the 

time to stop them while they were in these long columns. 

Subsequently we began the process in this committee, bipartisan, 

to argue for arming the Kurds. Why? Because the Kurdish battalions were strung out on a 600-mile front with ISIS. They were the 

one effective force not just fighting ISIS but taking in behind their 

front lines Christians, Yazidis, other minorities, and willing to put 

themselves at risk to go into territory, ISIS-held, in order to rescue 

Yazidis and other minorities, and they were fighting with small 

arms fire against ISIS which had become the best financed terror 

group in the history of any terror organization because they took 

the Central Bank at Mosul and had at their disposal enormous 

wealth, and because they took weapons along the way. 

So our efforts have gone on now, I would say, for 9 months to 

try to get into the hands of the Kurds the anti-tank missiles, the 

artillery, the long range mortars that they need on the battlefield. 

Thirty percent of these Kurdish battalions are females. They are 

women fighting on the front lines against ISIS and they are fighting without adequate equipment. And as you put it so well, they 

are fighting for civilization. Not just their own, for other religious 

minorities and, frankly, for a principle. And because of the pressure 

from Iran, pressure on Baghdad—yes, you can support the Shia militia but you can’t give support to the Kurds—for whatever reason, 

the weapons dribble in and this is wrong. This is immoral. 

The other point I would make, I just wanted to ask you some 

questions on the issue of the sale of female captives from religious 

minority groups to ISIS fighters. How extensively has ISIS been involved in what we here call sex trafficking or slavery, frankly, particularly the kidnapping and sale of women and girls from these 

overrun communities? Has it been an outcome of lawlessness or is 

it part of a more deliberate ISIS policy to destroy and to subjugate 

those who do not share their fanaticism? Ms. Isaac. 

Ms. ISAAC. Looking at the ISIS philosophy, they believe that the 

Yazidi people in particular are not only to be tortured but they are 

to be destroyed in every single way possible. They want them off 

the face of this earth. And so it is a philosophy to destroy them and 

to torture them. 

With the girls particularly that I met, they in one night, because 

they felt safe in the beginning in Sinjar town, and in one night 

ISIS came and took all of these girls. And they told them first, they 

gave them an option. They said will you become a Muslim? Will 

you convert to Islam? And many of them said no. And they told 

them, you are going to be Muslim regardless because we are going 

30

to sleep with you. And the moment that we do that, once we rape 

you, you will be Muslim. 

Many of these girls who chose not to be, some were raped and 

came back believing that they were forced into this religion. This 

is barbaric. It is systematic. Today it starts with the Yazidis. Tomorrow it is going to be not only the Christians but every woman 

that doesn’t fit within their philosophy. We need to stop the menace that is going on there. We need to stop it at its root. 

This is a nerve center. Right now all the crazies from all over the 

world are coming to this center point, to this nerve center. If we 

can cut the snake at its head we can diffuse them. Their sex trafficking is systematic and it will continue, and it can reach our families if we don’t do something about it. Thank you. 

Chairman ROYCE. Let me also ask about psychological counseling, and I would ask that of the panel. What type of trauma resources are available right now for those who have escaped and 

what more is needed? Sister? 

Sister MOMEKA. Yes. I would say from my work on the ground 

we don’t have that strong programs to talk about trauma. Because 

I just experienced a case about 4 weeks ago, a woman who was released by ISIS with 20 Yazidi women. The Yazidi women told us 

that this is a Christian, you take her and we go to our Yazidi families. 

So the woman was totally devastated. She is in her 40s. She was 

brutally beaten, raped constantly, yet that her psychological situation is totally destroyed that she can’t control herself anymore. 

When she tells her story how they tortured her in so many ways 

that when one of the sisters who took her and took care of her, she 

found all her body was so many cigarettes with the burn of the 

smoke and all that. 

So the woman now, we put her in a safer place, yet we are trying 

to find a good psychological treatment for her yet it is not that 

available where we live exactly. So we lack for that thing. So the 

social psychological programs, I think they are the most important 

thing to look forward to work on at this moment. 

Chairman ROYCE. Well, thank you. My time is about to expire so 

I will go to Mr. Engel. 

Mr. ENGEL. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Dr. Hanson, let me start 

with you. First of all, thank you for being here today and thank 

you for your work to help Iraqi citizens save their religious history. 

As you know, America has a long history of leading the world in 

efforts to protect religious and cultural sites from destruction and 

you are carrying this legacy forward today. 

During times of crisis such as those in Iraq and Syria, our first 

priority must always be in saving lives. And I thank the other witnesses in emphasizing that as well—Ms. Isaac about the women’s 

aspect and our witnesses about how this is affecting everybody. We 

are committed to the priority of saving lives, but we also must ensure that we stop ISIS from destroying the history of these groups. 

And as we create safe havens to protect religious minorities, Dr. 

Hanson, how do we also keep the religious sites and cultural history safe from ISIS as well? 

Ms. HANSON. Thank you. I think it is very important that we 

make sure that we are supporting local actions; that local actors 

31

are able to protect the sites. It is much like with the firemen that 

you make sure that you provide the hose and the water. I also 

think that in terms of safe havens for individuals, we can also 

think about that as safe havens within a country for portable objects and artifacts and that there are safe locations where things 

can be moved. And we have seen that successfully take place in 

Mali, for instance, recently. 

Mr. ENGEL. Thank you. Ms. Kabawat, let me ask you this question. According to State Department testimony last summer, some 

of ISIS’s religious minority captives have been able to escape while 

their captors were distracted by coalition air strikes. To what extent have coalition air strikes affected religious minorities? 

Ms. KABAWAT. When we talk about effect of the air strikes it affect both the majority and the minorities, because they did hit 

some civilian places. And I was in Harem 1 month before they 

started and where I was, was lots of civilians has been hit. And the 

problem is that they need to have more homework. They should 

know where is the civilians. So when we want to say targeting civilians, minorities, we need to say targeting civilians and we cannot say only minority because sometimes it is hitting everybody. 

Thank you. 

Mr. ENGEL. Thank you. Let me ask Ms. Isaac and also Sister. 

ISIS is raging obviously a campaign of destruction against religious 

sites across the territory that they control. We saw the slides and 

pictures. Can you comment on the impact the destruction of religious sites has on the people who share a religious connection to 

those sites? What do we lose when ISIS destroys these sites? Why 

don’t we start with Sister and then Ms. Isaac. 

Sister MOMEKA. What do we lose? I would say we lost everything, 

sir. We lost everything that today every Christian that is living in 

the region of Kurdistan we feel we don’t have dignity anymore. 

When you lose your home you lose everything you have. You lose 

your heritage, your culture. You become with no identity. And 

today that is how we see ourselves. 

And the most brutal thing was to us when it was put on TV that 

two monasteries that were one of them bombed and another one 

destroyed just was a sign for us and that your history is gone, you 

are nothing anymore. That is how we see ourselves now, homeless. 

Mr. ENGEL. Thank you. Ms. Isaac? 

Ms. ISAAC. Thank you, Member Engel. As an American of Egyptian descent I moved to Egypt when I was 13. And I remember 

holding on to the heritage knowing that there were ancient churches still there. Even if we were the minority, I had a tie. I could 

identify with my ancient churches. 

Today in Iraq you have the Lalish Center which is still preserved 

with the Yazidis. That is the mecca for them. That is their Rome. 

Today they hold on to that. And the Peshmerga army is working 

so hard to protect that area because they know that if that is gone 

the Yazidi people will feel hopeless. They won’t be able to identify 

anymore with the land that they have remained in for many, many 

years. 

For religious minorities in this region our heritage is everything. 

It ties us to that land. It keeps us there. And we are not supposed 

to just be there to survive, we should be living there to thrive. We 

32

should be able to worship freely, go to the heritage sites, bring our 

children and our grandchildren and talk about that history. Without those sites we have lost it all. Thank you. 

Mr. ENGEL. Thank you. And let me again thank all four of you 

for wonderful testimony and for wonderful coverage. We really appreciate it. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. 

Chairman ROYCE. Thank you. Our Chairman Emeritus Ileana 

Ros-Lehtinen. 

Ms. ROS-LEHTINEN. Thank you so much, Mr. Chairman. Today’s 

hearing as we know focuses on a subject that all too often gets 

overlooked or ignored when discussing the crisis in the Middle 

East, and specifically the fight against ISIL. We have discussed 

this in our Middle East and North Africa Subcommittee on several 

occasions alongside Chairman Smith and his subcommittee, and 

Chris Smith has been a tireless advocate for this issue. 

ISIL has issued warnings to Christians in Iraq that they can convert, pay taxes or be killed. Churches are being destroyed, religious 

artifact sites are being raided, and many Christians and other religious minorities have been forced to flee. ISIL massacred 20 Coptic 

Christians in cold blood in Egypt, but the list goes on and on. However, we must acknowledge that ISIL doesn’t just target religious 

minorities. Everyone who doesn’t ascribe to its form of Islam is a 

target. 

So that is why it is imperative that we not only defeat ISIL but 

we find a way to defeat its radical ideology as well. It is also important to recognize that the persecution of religious minorities isn’t 

just isolated to ISIL or to Iraq or to Syria. The U.S. Commission 

on International Religious Freedom has repeatedly called upon the 

Obama administration to designate countries like Iraq, Syria and 

Egypt as Countries of Particular Concern. That is a special classification. Why? For their systematic, ongoing and egregious abuses 

that the religious minorities face in those countries. 

Many of us in this committee have decried the fact that the Iranian regime’s deplorable human rights record and its persecution 

of religious minorities were not made a part of the nuclear negotiations from day one since the P5+1 efforts were announced. A nuclear deal will legitimize the Iranian regime and will only serve to 

make the atmosphere even worse for religious minorities in Iran. 

Iran’s meddling in Iraq, its support for Shiite militias, those have 

played a significant role in the rise of ISIL and the current difficulties that we face in the region in the fight against the terror group 

in Iraq and Syria. And now we have seen the size of the religious 

minority communities decline dramatically in Iraq and Syria as a 

result of ISIL’s onslaught. 

So Sister Diana, I will ask you. You have felt the pain and the 

suffering in your own community and you have been witness to 

what ISIL has done to ancient religious communities of Iraq. You 

have been displaced twice. Can you describe for us the conditions 

in Mosul where you were forced to flee to Kurdistan, and could you 

also please detail the conditions in Kurdistan? And lastly, what 

more can we do to meet the needs of religious minority communities? Where can we be most effective? 

Sister MOMEKA. Thank you, Ms. Ros. I would answer your question in a story that touches my heart a lot and the heart of the peoVerDate 0ct 09 2002 10:51 Jul 16, 2015 Jkt 000000 PO 00000 Frm 00036 Fmt 6633 Sfmt 6633 F:\WORK\_FULL\051315\94605 SHIRL
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ple that we are working with. When we were forced to leave our 

children became without any education, without school. So as a 

congregation we care a lot about education as Dominicans, so we 

start opening kindergartens. So we had 135 in one of the kindergartens. In one of their classes we handed them papers to draw on 

the paper. Amazingly, most of the children, they draw back home, 

their hometowns. They draw, some, their beds, church, homes, everything that they relate back home. So when we ask them, why 

did you do that? They said, like, we miss home. We want to go back 

home. We want to live normal life. 

A 5-year-old, when he stood up and he said, I don’t feel like I am 

home here. When I was home I used to go to the kindergarten. I 

used to go to church with my family. I used to play with my toys, 

with my friends. That was a normal life when we were back in our 

homes. We used to live normal life. We would have education. Our 

parents, brothers, sisters, if they are employed they would go to 

work. 

Now it is the opposite. People are jobless. Women do not have 

any work to do. They are living in containers or living in unfinished buildings facing terrible conditions besides. The humanitarian aid is not enough for them. So it is so different that today 

even our children, what I want to say, our children, they feel that 

they don’t have a place to live properly. They don’t have home. So 

our life has changed tremendously. And since before we were this 

bridge that we can connect among the diversities, now we feel we 

are alone. We are abandoned. That is how we feel. 

Ms. ROS-LEHTINEN. Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman. We 

certainly know that ISIL doesn’t discriminate. You are either with 

the terrorists or they will destroy you or subjugate you. Thank you. 

Chairman ROYCE. Thank you, Ileana. We will go to Mr. Brad 

Sherman from California. 

Mr. SHERMAN. Mr. Chairman, the two most powerful forces in 

the Syria-Iraq-Lebanon area are the Shiite alliance in Iran on the 

one hand, and the extremists Sunnis on the other. What we have 

seen our friends, Saudi Arabia and others, do, is move toward what 

they will accept as ‘‘moderate Islam or acceptable Islam,’’ and embrace the Brotherhood—Turkey, Qatar—and perhaps even alNustra, which is after all part of al-Qaeda. Had we done more to 

strengthen the more reasonable Sunnis earlier in the process, perhaps Saudi Arabia would not be taking that action. The good news 

is there has been reports in the last 1⁄2 hour that the number two 

commander in ISIS has been killed. I hope that is true. We will 

see. 

Mr. Chairman, you commented that ISIS has all this Iraqi currency. Iraq should of course issue new currency making its own 

currency invalid. Many countries have done this. This is a process 

that is hated by corrupt politicians and drug dealers with large 

amounts of currency of their own, and of course the Iraqi Government has failed to do so which leads to a possible conclusion that 

perhaps corrupt politicians with huge stashes of cash have some 

power in Baghdad. 

This Congress passed the Near East South Central Asia Religious Freedom Act. That required that the State Department have 

a special envoy for religious minorities in that region. We are still 

34

waiting for someone to be appointed. Do not hold your breath. The 

attitude of the administration toward following laws just because 

they are laws is less than I think it ought to be. 

Speaking of laws passed by Congress, we authorized $1.6 billion 

in NDAA to counter ISIL. This included, the authorization was 

amended to include provisions for local security forces on the 

Nineveh Plain including Assyrian and Yazidi forces. So far that 

hasn’t happened. And of course communities that cannot defend 

themselves are in a difficult circumstance on the Nineveh Plain. 

One of our witnesses has been unabashed in support of the Kurdish Government. Ms. Isaac. I had in my office yesterday representatives of the Yazidi, Assyrian and Kurdish communities that took 

a very different view of the Kurdish Government. Perhaps a balance between the two is that the Kurdish Government has provided sanctuary but has not allowed these groups to form their own 

national guard battalions. And no group on the Nineveh Plain is 

going to be safe unless they have their own national guard. 

Mr. Chairman, I would like to see us bring to testify before this 

committee one of the Yazidi women who has successfully fled from 

ISIS. This would require that the State Department provide an 

entry visa, and if the woman or girl was coming from Kurdish 

areas we would need to get an exit visa from that government. Mr. 

Chairman? 

Chairman ROYCE. Just if I could interrupt for a minute. We did 

have a young Yazidi woman, a young girl, slated to testify. She had 

to drop off of the trip because of health reasons. But we will 

achieve your goal here. And I will relinquish the time back to you. 

Mr. SHERMAN. Thank you. Ms. Kabawat, minorities are being 

given the choice—convert, flee, die or pay a very unfair tax. Now 

I put three of those in one category. The jizya is something that 

Muslim governments have imposed upon the minority communities 

for centuries, and in prior centuries it has been a tax that was endurable. Of course it is outrageous and unfair. 

Is ISIS imposing a tax that is outrageous, unfair, but is a practical thing that the communities could pay, or is it just an excuse 

for them to say, well, we want to confiscate everything on Monday. 

That is your Monday tax. And on Tuesday you don’t have anything 

left so we are going to kill you. Is ISIS offering to allow at least 

Christians—the Yazidis of course would be treated differently 

under their rules—a chance to stay in their homes and pay a tax 

consistent with what is possible? Of course it is outrageous. 

Ms. KABAWAT. Just talking about Syria, in Raqqa where the ISIS 

has full control most of the Christian get out. There is not many 

Christians now in the ISIS-controlled area like Menbij or Raqqa. 

The one that are there they in hiding. They did say that they are 

asking for jizya and it happened few times, but I think there is not 

many Christians in this area. They are already gone. And in other 

things, the Christians now they are all in Aleppo or stayed in Idlib, 

and others they have been away. But where there has been now 

in where there is the moderate Muslims’ control, they are not being 

asked for any jizya because they treat them as an equal citizen. 

Thank you. 

Mr. SHERMAN. I believe my time is expired. 

35

Chairman ROYCE. Thank you, Mr. Sherman. Mr. Dana Rohrabacher of California. 

Mr. ROHRABACHER. Thank you very much. Let me identify myself 

with Mr. Sherman’s point about the Iraqi currency. We must get 

to the bottom of who the heck is paying for ISIS, what government 

is responsible for providing them money, and whoever that is we 

need to make sure we come down like a ton of bricks on that government. And we must make sure that that is a high priority for 

this government to find out who is financing this sinful and this 

horrendous atrocity against the people of the world. Whatever faith 

you are, whether you are Islam or Christian or whatever faith you 

are, this is an abomination to any belief in God, and we must stand 

in unity with people of all faiths in this endeavor. 

And I want to thank Chairman Royce and Engel who have demonstrated again the bipartisan nature of many of these challenges 

that we face and that standing together America, if nothing else, 

because we come from, we are made up of every race, religion and 

ethnic group in the world. We are supposed to be the one that sets 

the standard for the world. And we can do that by making sure 

that we don’t cozy up to people and remain friends with people who 

are financing this type of atrocity. 

And I would like to—look, it is a perplexing position because people are being murdered in this part of the world. Your friends, your 

relatives, really innocent human beings are being savaged. Should 

our focus be on trying to defeat and eliminate the evil forces that 

are at play or should it be to extract people from this danger zone 

to get them here? I wonder if any of you have any thoughts on 

that. All of you, just go right ahead. 

Ms. KABAWAT. Mr. Congressman, I think the solution is to stop 

the conflict. We have a conflict in Middle East. I am talking now 

about Syria. We have a conflict, and you are asking about who is 

paying ISIS. They don’t—they took banks, they steal, they do everything they can not to have to be dependent on anybody to get 

their money. If we want to get rid of them we need to end the conflicts. There is a conflicts now in Syria and people are suffering, 

and today we need to think about those civilians, how to stop their 

suffering. 

There are ISIS attacks every day. People are scared. And I know 

many people there escaped. Even if they are Muslims they escape 

because ISIS will be threaten their lives. So if we want to stop the 

ISIS we need to stop the conflict in Syria. We need to stop the caliphate and we need to stop the dictator. Most of them are the enemies of the security and the safety and the future for Syria. 

Thank you. 

Ms. ISAAC. Congressman Rohrabacher, when I take a look at all 

the religious minorities that I have met when I was in Iraq and 

I look at their ancient history, you know that they belong there and 

they want to stay there. And if we try to get rid of the problem by 

just bringing the religious minorities here——

Mr. ROHRABACHER. Yes. 

Ms. ISAAC [continuing]. ISIS will spread everywhere. It will continue. Right now we have a diverse fabric in the Middle East and 

it is really protecting not only the region but the entire world. The 

fact that there are Christians and Yazidis and Jews in that region 

36

today makes the Middle East what it is. We need to look at the 

bigger fight and understand that ISIS is against the entire world. 

Their short term plan right now is trying to get rid of the religious 

minorities of the region and creating their state. But tomorrow it 

is going to be to attack the entire world. 

Mr. ROHRABACHER. I think that your point is well made. And I 

just, I know that Sister Diana had trouble even getting here. We 

should not be having barriers to people especially coming here to 

make their case and to warn us. At the same time, and I have just 

a few seconds left, let me just say that we need also to make sure 

that we are standing behind those people like our friends the 

Kurds up in Erbil who are making this stand. We haven’t even 

solved that problem yet, Mr. Chairman, where our supplies could 

go directly to the Kurds. Some of them are now, but as many of 

them you have to go through Baghdad in order to get the supplies 

there. 

We should be making sure anyone in that region who is fighting 

ISIS gets the full support and direct support from the people of the 

United States. And you are in our thoughts and prayers. We know 

that you are all these communities. I visited a community in Syria. 

My wife and I actually went and said that was one of our most important experiences in our life where we said the Lord’s Prayer in 

Aramaic as Jesus spoke. So hang tough, we are with you. 

Chairman ROYCE. Brian Higgins of New York. 

Mr. HIGGINS. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. And I just want to 

thank the panel here. Testimony has been both eloquent and compelling. I just want to focus for a moment on the Christian community in the Middle East. ISIS has declared war on Christians. ISIS 

wants genocide now. They want to eradicate Christians from the 

Middle East and Africa. Christian kids have been beheaded, their 

mothers raped and their fathers crucified, literally. 

ISIS believes that Christians are standing in the way of their 

world conquest. Anything that is pre-Islamic they want to destroy 

and want to prepare the world for the coming of the Islamic Caliphate. Christians in the Middle East and Africa are losing entire 

communities that have lived peacefully for 2,000 years. Five hundred thousand Christians, Christian Arabs, have been driven out 

of Syria during the last 3 years of civil war. Christians have been 

persecuted and killed from Lebanon to Sudan, well, now South 

Sudan, and civil wars have lasted decades. 

In Iraq, Mosul is a Christian city, the second largest city in Iraq. 

Christians have been living there for 1,700 years as you know better than anybody. After the fall of Saddam, the numbers of Christians in Iraq were estimated to be about 45,000. Sister, today how 

many Christians are living in Mosul? 

Sister MOMEKA. Very few. Only those who have been held hostages there. We don’t have the exact number. Maybe a couple hundred or less. 

Mr. HIGGINS. 100 or less. And most of those who have fled have 

moved up to Kurdistan? 

Sister MOMEKA. First of all, they fled to my hometown which is 

called Qaraqosh, and where we——

Mr. HIGGINS. Which is where? 

Sister MOMEKA. It is called Qaraqosh. 

37

Mr. HIGGINS. Which is? 

Sister MOMEKA. Which is close to Mosul, about 20 minutes distance southwest of Mosul. 

Mr. HIGGINS. West? 

Sister MOMEKA. Yes. And after a week or so our displacement 

happened, which would have never thought that would happen 

with the couple hours that we were forced to leave, which take, it 

is about 1 hour distance from my hometown to Kurdistan. It took 

us 11 hours to go there because some were marching, some were 

driving, and because it was a traumatic state for us. So I would say 

like very few Christians have stayed in Mosul or that they couldn’t 

leave because they were asleep when that happened. 

Mr. HIGGINS. Is it the hope of the Christians from Mosul who 

have been forced to flee to one day return? 

Sister MOMEKA. Yes. The message that I was given before I left, 

they said to me—I have been working every day with the IDPs. 

That is what they call us, actually, there. They said to me, Sister, 

just please tell the community, tell the Members of the Congress 

that help us to go back home. We want to go back home. 

Mr. HIGGINS. What has been the position of Prime Minister 

Abadi relative to the Christian community of Iraq? 

You don’t need to say. I get it. Yes. And this is, we were told 

after Nouri al-Malikim who was a thug, left, that things would 

change. That the new Iraqi Government would be inclusive of all 

minorities and communities. And political stability is dependent on 

the ability to embrace the Kurds, the Shia, the Sunni, but also the 

Christian community of Iraq. So that is not happening, clearly, and 

this is just one of many consequences of the failure to embrace the 

minority community. 

And this is again the larger problem in the Middle East. It is a 

highly, highly pluralistic part of the world, and unless and until 

you have minority rights you will never have peace and stability. 

Because a guy like Bashar al-Assad is clearly a bad guy. But what 

is happening is minority groups have a tendency to gravitate to 

him for one reason, because if the majority Sunni become head of 

that country all the minorities will be slaughtered. So long as there 

is a zero sum game in the Middle East, the sum will always be 

zero. 

And I often say in game theory there is also what is referred to 

as a variable sum game saying that there can be many winners. 

And whatever we do there, however much humanitarian aid we 

provide there, however much military support we provide in the 

Middle East, internally the leadership that we get behind, the 

United States, the leadership that we support have to embrace, 

they have an obligation to embrace the minority community. Because we will be sitting here 5 years from now, 10 years from now, 

20 years from now and we will be having the same discussion with 

no progress whatsoever. 

So again thank you very much for your testimony and I will yield 

back. 

Chairman ROYCE. We go now to Mr. Chris Smith of New Jersey. 

Mr. SMITH OF NEW JERSEY. Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman, and thank you for calling this very, very important hearing 

and to our very distinguished witnesses for your courage, for so efVerDate 0ct 09 2002 10:51 Jul 16, 2015 Jkt 000000 PO 00000 Frm 00041 Fmt 6633 Sfmt 6633 F:\WORK\_FULL\051315\94605 SHIRL
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fectively articulating the plight of the suffering minorities in the 

Middle East, particularly Christians, so thank you for that. And all 

those who are suffering at the hands of ISIS and people who are 

extremists. 

I would like to ask just a couple of questions. The United Nations 

High Commissioner for Human Rights pointed out that the ISIS violence against Christians and other religious minorities ‘‘may constitute genocide.’’ May? I find it extraordinary. The Genocide Convention couldn’t be clearer eliminating in whole or in part, even the 

threat rises to the level of being genocide. 

And of course the international community has always been slow 

to recognize genocide. We didn’t do it with Srebrenica, we didn’t do 

it in—when I say ‘‘we’’ I mean the international community—when 

it came to Sudan. And 100 years later, we still, only 24 or so countries have recognized the Armenian genocide. So we seem to gag 

on the word, and I have tried to get administration witnesses to 

say that what is happening to the Christians rises to the level of 

genocide and that simply is not stated. 

Chairman Emeritus Ileana Ros-Lehtinen and I have chaired a 

number of hearings on the genocide. We had one last year, genocidal attacks against Christians and other religious minorities in 

Syria and Iraq, and again we keep getting, well, we will look into 

it, we will get back. But just say it and say it clearly and unambiguously. And I have chaired 14 hearings on the suffering of Christians, particularly in the Middle East, and we are still getting a 

lack of embrace of the magnitude and the hostility toward people 

of the Christian faith. 

I would point out that sometimes past is prologue. The Clinton 

administration opposed the International Religious Freedom Act of 

1998. I know because I held all the hearings and marked up the 

bill. He ended up signing it, but then now we find under this administration the post of Ambassador-at-Large was idle, was left vacant for half of this Presidency. We have a very good man now in 

that position, David Saperstein, Rabbi Saperstein who is trying to 

make up, I think, for lost time. But it was a revelation of priorities 

that we did not have a person sitting in that very important position. 

Approximately 7 months ago legislation passed, totally bipartisan, to establish a Special Envoy to Promote Religious Freedom 

of Religious Minorities in the Near East and South Central Asia. 

It was no secret the administration didn’t want it, but he did sign 

it. The President did sign it into law when it passed in a bipartisan 

way. But now for 7 months nobody has been selected to take that 

position. That person should have the ear of the President and 

could shuttle back and forth and assess what is going on on the 

ground with clarity and to speak out boldly. Nobody has that position. I find that appalling. And you might want to comment on that 

as well. 

And finally, let me ask you. The faith of the young people has 

to have been—I know we saw that wonderful video of the resiliency 

of those young women, but the faith of the young people has to be 

shattered. They must wonder where are the faithful elsewhere particularly in the United States. I don’t think we have done enough, 

39

again the special envoy vacancy speaks volumes to that. But if I 

could ask you, where is the faith of these young people? 

Sister MOMEKA. As a matter of fact, Mr. Smith, is that our faith, 

it is amazingly that we see it is increasing more and more. It is 

making us more stronger. We left churches that were like used to 

be filled with people. Now we have only one church and you see 

like young people, or all people they see that we still have faith in 

God; that we were displaced yet we feel that the hand of God is 

still with us. 

So in the midst of, as my colleagues said, in the midst of this 

darkness of this suffering we see a God that is holding us. He is 

holding us, otherwise we wouldn’t have been able to be witnessing 

to our faith that is increasing day after day. And I think this is 

one of the gifts of the Holy Spirit that is giving us the strength to 

continue our faith and to be strong to stay in our country. Some 

left, yes, but they are willing to go back when we go back home. 

And we have this hope somebody we will go back home, and that 

will come through your help. 

Ms. KABAWAT. Mr. Congressman, the faith with the Christian 

community in Damascus is increasing. We are Christian for 2,000 

years. My family were Christian for the last 2,000 years. Today we 

are more involved in a humanitarian war. We know we have to 

lead by example. This is our Christianity, to help others. That is 

why my family today still in Damascus. My immediate family in 

Damascus, but their faith is to distribute bread for the poor, to 

take care of others because this is what Jesus Christ told us, to 

take care of the small people. 

So in Aleppo, churches are open to like hospitals. In Idlib, when 

they liberated Idlib, the Christian there work with the Muslim in 

the humanitarian issues. So yes, we are Christians, but today more 

than ever we are Christians because we know that we need to 

practice our Christianity on the ground and to take care of the 

small people who are suffering. 

Ms. ISAAC. Congressman Smith, I went to Egypt and I met the 

families, 15 of the 21 families that had victims that were slaughtered in Libya. I was astonished by their faith. As a fellow Christian I thought how would I be if I was the situation today? Meeting 

the fathers that said to me, thank God that today they are in heaven. Thank God. A wife talking to me about how her husband had 

said, I am going to Libya and I will be in danger. But if I don’t 

make it, teach my children. Teach them the principles of Jesus 

Christ. 

That is the story. These are the accounts of their faith. And I 

have seen it in Iraq across the board how Christians are standing 

strong and helping all, helping the Yazidis. In fact we had a case. 

I remember there was a group of Yazidis that found a local church 

and that church was providing care for them, providing a home for 

them. This is what they are doing. They are struggling, but they 

are giving everything that they have. So thank you. 

Chairman ROYCE. We go to Mr. William Keating of Massachusetts. 

Mr. KEATING. Thank you, Mr. Chairman, for holding this hearing, and thank you as witnesses. And I want to let you know we 

all share your commitment to saving lives, saving religious and culVerDate 0ct 09 2002 10:51 Jul 16, 2015 Jkt 000000 PO 00000 Frm 00043 Fmt 6633 Sfmt 6633 F:\WORK\_FULL\051315\94605 SHIRL
40

tural heritages and artifacts and stopping human trafficking. I also 

want to acknowledge, as Dr. Hanson has, the legislation of Chairman Royce, Ranking Member Engel, Mr. Smith, who I am proud 

to join in working on this area. 

But I want to focus on one thing I believe that we can do more 

of in the U.S. to really stop these terrible actions by ISIL, and that 

is to look at an issue that time and time again has come to my attention as ranking member on the Terrorism, Trade, and Nonproliferation Subcommittee, in this committee as well as counterterrorism and homeland security, and that is the issue where ISIL 

is not only destroying cultural and religious heritages, particularly 

in Iraq and Syria, but it is doubling down on that activity. And either through taxing criminals or themselves they are trafficking in 

these looted antiquities and financing their own terrorist operations again, so it becomes cyclical. And I saw firsthand, I just 

came back days ago visiting eight countries in the Mideast and Europe, just how this is occurring, and in fact had comments from the 

leaders in these areas how smuggling in these antiquities is such 

a force of financing for these terrorists. 

So what I am doing today as well is introducing legislation to 

prevent trafficking in Cultural Property Act, is the name of the legislation, and it is geared in on one aspect that I think we could easily move toward these activities. And that is the fact that even the 

agencies themselves in Customs and Border Patrol and in ICE, 

they are saying that they are not as coordinated as they should be. 

They don’t have the tools to gear in on this when these artifacts 

and trafficking, when this trafficking comes through our own border in the U.S. 

One of the things we have to do, I believe, and that is what this 

legislation does, is to work to make sure there is principal leadership there, a designated person to really key in on this. And also, 

importantly, to have the training in this activity. Because even if 

that commitment and coordination is there, it is important that 

these U.S. officials receive sufficient training in identifying cultural 

property from regions that the greatest risk of looting, like Iraq 

and Syria, and that they know the techniques specifically related 

to this so they can investigate and prosecute this kind of activity 

to really quell the demand in unfortunately one of the destination 

areas of the world, the United States of America. 

So we are working on that. I would like your opinion of how from 

your perspective this could be helpful as well, and I think particularly Dr. Hanson has some experience in that regard. 

Ms. HANSON. Thank you. What you mentioned is incredibly important and it is vital that we remove the financial incentive for 

terrorist groups like ISIS to loot cultural sites, religious sites. One 

of the things we have noticed is that prior to the demolition of religious sites, particularly shrines, Yazidi shrines and tombs, ISIS 

has gone in in advance and looted artifacts out of that area. Architectural elements, things that they can sell. 

And the reason why they are doing looting in those instances, 

and also in the images we saw of Dura-Europos, is that there is 

a market for it. And your legislation and what you mentioned is 

incredibly important in taking action to reduce that market. Right 

now it is crucial that we get import restrictions on stolen material 

41

from Syria put into place in the U.S. As a market country, our demand for that in the U.S. is some of what fuels ISIS’s actions. 

Mr. KEATING. Yes, I was really intrigued when ISIS will show 

the videos of their desecrating these religious institutions and 

sending those videos to the world and saying they are doing it because of the sense of pureness, and that their only, their narrow, 

if you want to even call it religious beliefs should be the only beliefs. Yet, if these artifacts that they are destroying so no one else 

will be able to culturally go forth in heritage, if they are portable, 

then moving them around and profiting on them and preserving 

them just to fuel their own terrorism which, I think, shows where 

their priorities are. 

Quickly, could you just tell me the scope of this? I heard in my 

recent visit it is in the tens of millions of dollars that they are getting from this, and that is, I think, under reporting because it is 

pretty hard to get a figure on it. Just quickly, last question. 

Ms. HANSON. Very difficult to get a dollar amount on it. We know 

that it is significant. As you saw with Dora-Europos, those are 

moonscapes now and all of those artifacts that come out of the 

ground can get financial benefits for them. So you just have to assume that even the lowest estimates have to be staggering. I can’t 

give you an exact dollar amount, and that is something that we are 

continuing to research and work on. 

Mr. KEATING. Yes. I heard 37 million. I yield back, Mr. Chairman. 

Chairman ROYCE. Mr. Scott Perry of Pennsylvania. 

Mr. PERRY. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Ladies, I appreciate you 

being here. The stories are shocking to our conscience. Americans 

need to have their conscience unfortunately continued to be 

shocked because of what continues to happen. But the stories break 

our hearts. There is not much else to say than that. 

Dr. Hanson, we have seen ISIS crucify in public squares, stone 

to death women, throw gay people off of buildings, then they proudly tweet, post these horrific acts on YouTube, other social media. 

In fact, they have gained followers based on the use of social 

media. The question is, has ISIS’s propaganda campaign affected 

the disposition of religious minority communities beyond Iraq and 

Syria, and what effective action would you recommend the United 

States take to combat ISIS, the propaganda, and especially on social media? Have you researched that and what your recommendations? 

Ms. HANSON. My research doesn’t directly encompass social 

media. One of the things that we have noticed in working with the 

cultural heritage destruction and the religious heritage destruction 

is that the videos are very clearly designed to demonstrate power 

and demonstrate terror. 

Right now we have an NSF grant to study what is happening 

with the phenomenon of damage to cultural heritage and why it is 

occurring, and we are working on answering some very basic questions like when does cultural heritage damage take place? Is it before or after the religious minority population is physically threatened and murdered? When it comes to social media what is happening with videos is exactly the same thing that is happening 

with the videos of deaths and destructions. The cultural heritage 

42

sites are being destroyed in a way to demonstrate power and terror. 

Mr. PERRY. We will wait to hear back from you based on the 

ground if you have any recommendations. 

I would like to turn to Ms. Kabawat; is that right? We have been 

told by the administration that the U.S. Government is examining 

all, and I emphasize all, viable options for protecting minority vulnerable communities and halting the parade of atrocities ISIS is 

committing. What do you view? I mean you have lived it on the 

ground. What do you view as the viable options for the U.S. to protect these communities if there are any? 

Ms. KABAWAT. Again, Mr. Congressman, I feel on the ground 

when they hear this kind of comment the people get little bit disappointed and angry. We can’t protect one minorities without 

thinking about what is happening to the whole country. We are 

talking about thousands of refugees, of Christians, but also there 

are millions of Sunnis and they are paying the price from ISIS. 

So the solution will be a package. We don’t want to be isolated 

from the other Syrian who we have been raised and lived with 

them all our lives. I want a solution not only for the minorities, I 

want a solution for whole Syria. We need to stop the conflict. So 

when we say we want to protect us it is offending me, because I 

don’t want to be protected when my other neighbors who is Sunnis 

is being under attack. So please protect the whole civilian. We have 

so many moderate Muslim, Christians. We live together all our 

lives. So if you want to protect us as a Christian, I am asking you, 

protect also my neighbors. Thank you. 

Mr. PERRY. Sister Diana, do you think that the ISIS targeting of 

minority communities in areas has primarily been due to strategic 

opportunity just because you are there and it is easy, you are vulnerable? Or is there something more deliberate? I mean would you 

articulate if it is one or the other or a combination of the two? 

Sister MOMEKA. As I mentioned earlier, Mr. Congressman, that 

it was quite shock for us because we used to watch the news on 

TV that ISIS took over Mosul, but we never thought some day in 

a few hours we will be out of our homes left with nothing at all. 

I myself only with my habit and my purse, which I was lucky I had 

my passport in it. Most of my sisters and most people left with no 

documents, nothing. 

So it start with Nineveh Plain and it was gradually, so if it was 

deliberately or not I can’t say that. But all what I know now, we 

were driven out of our homes within couple hours. That was it. 

Without any warning. 

Mr. PERRY. My time is expired. Thank you. 

Chairman ROYCE. We go now to Mr. David Cicilline of Rhode Island. 

Mr. CICILLINE. Thank you, Mr. Chairman, and thank you for 

calling this hearing. Thank you to our witnesses for your really 

courageous testimony, and the description of the horrors and the 

violence and the sadistic behavior of this terrorist organization I 

hope is something that the whole world understands better as a result of your being here today at significant personal risk to yourselves and the work that you are doing. So thank you for being 

here. 

43

As my colleague from Massachusetts said, I think our whole committee is of course committed to doing everything that we can to 

support the preservation of cultural and religious sites, but more 

importantly, in my view, to do all that we can to protect and save 

lives. And this effort to destroy cultural and religious sites, I think, 

is clearly an extension of this terrorist effort to eliminate entire religious communities in this region and something we have to respond to in the strongest terms. 

So my first question is, I know there are religious minorities—

Christians, Yazidis, Shabaks—that have faced terrible persecution 

and have fled their ancient homelands, but they are unable to cross 

the border in many instances so they are not technically refugees, 

they are internally displaced persons. And these are obviously very 

vulnerable populations. What can we do, what can the United 

States be doing better to help these communities that are trapped 

in very unsafe locations be in a safer place and provide some protection, these internally displaced what I would call refugees even 

though they are not technically refugees because they haven’t left 

the borders of their own country? Anyone? 

Ms. ISAAC. Mr. Congressman, when I went to northern Iraq and 

I met the Kurdistan Regional Government I was amazed at the 

work that they have done. Not because of meetings I went to but 

because of the ground. I went and saw the girls that were kidnapped and raped by ISIS, for example, and I saw the care that 

they were getting. 

Yes, the Kurdistan Regional Government does not have a lot of 

resources, but they are still doing everything that they can to make 

Yazidis, like the girls that we met, Christians, and all other religious minorities feel like an equal. In fact, a lot of these workers 

have been unpaid for months at a time to give everything that they 

have to these religious minorities to show that they truly are a safe 

haven. I have never seen a people like the Kurdish people, because 

they have gone through their own atrocities so many times they 

understand what it is like to be a religious minority fleeing. 

So I say the solution is to support, number one, the Peshmerga 

army who is really the ones on the front lines and are the boots 

on the ground. Let us help them as they fight this war. Let us support them in any way they can. Let us help the Kurdistan Regional 

Government by providing more humanitarian assistance to help 

with not just the medical care but also the psychological care. 

When I was in Jordan helping the Syrian refugees, I remember 

there was this little boy, and U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon 

had flown over, and he said to me, do you see that helicopter over 

there? I said yes. He goes, I hope to God it bombs Jordan. I was 

shocked. I said why would you say something like that? He said, 

because it happened to me, it has to happen to everyone else. 

A lot of the children that are coming in to these territories have 

seen so much destruction and trauma and they don’t know how to 

deal with it, so in order to protect this worlds we need to focus on 

this new generation. And how do we do that? By supporting the 

Kurdistan Regional Government as they work on not just the medical care but that psychological element as well. And of course to 

support the partners like Egypt and Jordan who are also bringing 

in refugees and taking care of their people. In Egypt alone they are 

44

educating 14,000 college students from Syria, and thousands, about 

40,000 students in elementary schools are being taken care of. So 

let us support them on the ground. 

Mr. CICILLINE. I was just in Jordan and saw at the border, the 

Syrian border, the incredible work of the Jordanians supporting 

over 11⁄2 million refugees fleeing Syria, and we have to be sure that 

we continue to support that. 

Ms. Kabawat, I know you have——

Ms. KABAWAT. Again, Mr. Congressman, I really emphasize 

about the solution of the protected zone. We need it. I have been 

also in Jordan last month. It is so important to start thinking 

about this. We need to get the civilian in a safe way, in a safe area 

they can be protected from the ISIS and from the barrel bombs of 

the Syrian regimes. We need it. And this will give better position 

for Turkey and Jordan so they can take care of other things. 

And we really thanks to the American for all the humanitarian 

aids they are giving to the Syrian people. We appreciate it. We 

know that you are doing a lot. But they really need to be in a safe 

zone, so I really asking you and seeking this. It is so important. 

Thank you. 

Mr. CICILLINE. Mr. Chairman, if I might just ask indulgence for 

one final question. I just want to pick up on Congressman Higgins’ 

questions about the role of the current Iraqi Government. There 

are many people who argue that ISIS is an outgrowth of policies 

from Iraqi and Syrian Governments that have marginalized Sunnis 

in particular. What do we need to see from the current Iraqi Government or a future Syrian Government to demonstrate the kind 

of tolerance and inclusiveness that will prevent this kind of violence, and should the United States be doing more to condition 

some of our support to the Iraqi Government on their commitment 

to take certain steps to protect minority populations and build a 

more inclusive government? I mean that is, the Syrian solution is 

the long-term answer, but in this interim period can we be doing 

more to demand more of the current Iraqi Government? 

Sister MOMEKA. Mr. Congressman, I think it is very important 

to do such things. Previous, I mean to your question, I mean as we 

are known as IDPs we will be like that forever if we don’t return 

home. So if there is efforts from both parts to help us to return 

home, I think that will be the solution, of course with your help. 

So that will give us a better life, otherwise there will be no education. 

And it is not about the education and health care because that 

won’t happen when you are an IDP. You don’t have an identity or 

any entity there. Our entity is back where we belong. So I think 

if there are efforts from both parts to return home, there where we 

can start rebuild, there where we can start all over again. Thank 

you. 

Ms. KABAWAT. Regarding Syria, and you are talking about longterm, we need to think about few things. First, we need a transitions not to destroy the institutions, and this will happen only if 

we have a political solution. We need to pressure the regime to 

come to the negotiation table and make a, we need a transitions 

and we need to include everybody, and everything will be good if 

we can end it within a political solutions. This is a long term and 

45

this is the best way to protect minorities, to save the institutions 

and have a transitions government include everybody. 

Mr. CICILLINE. Thank you very much. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. 

Chairman ROYCE. Ms. Kabawat, if I could interject here. You are 

suggesting that to get there you need a no-fly zone, a safe zone 

over Aleppo and the other areas where, in Aleppo, for example, the 

business community, the Sunni and Christian and Alawite business community is trying to hold out there but they have ISIS on 

the front line, but then intermittently the barrel bombs and the 

chemical attacks occur from the Assad regime which are dropped 

on the city that is trying to hold out against ISIS. And so you are 

saying you believe if there was a no-fly zone and there was a prohibition from the dropping of the barrel bombs that would help civil 

society take a foothold there? And could you explain that thinking 

to me? 

Ms. KABAWAT. I did witness the barrel bombs when I was in 

Aleppo, and it is very, very hard for the civil society to grow when 

there is an immediate threat to your lives. Yes, I am not a military 

expert, but I believe that we need to stop the barrel bombs. This 

is a first step for the community, for everybody. 

Chairman ROYCE. And you think also that in doing that it helps 

drive an impetus for a settlement because then they can see that 

the society can’t be overrun there. 

Ms. KABAWAT. Exactly. And we did. There is so many example 

before from the local councils that they could run the community 

and they can include the Christians, believe me. 

Chairman ROYCE. Well, I have noticed. I mean the battalions, I 

have seen Christian female battalions among the Free Syrian Force 

there as well as Sunni, and I have talked to Alawite business community members who were supporting the effort there in Aleppo to 

hold on. 

Ms. KABAWAT. Exactly. We need first to have a safe place for this 

community, once we stop the barrel bombs then support them with 

moderate oppositions in all the way we can and we get a good example in other local councils. And me, as a witness, they knew that 

I am Christian and I have been working with the civil society to 

empowering the local council and others. 

And I know in Syria, what you see in sectarianism now it is a 

reaction because of all the death it happens. But in the end of the 

day with community we live together, the minute the death toll 

will stop the Syrian people can at least continue to live and they 

can live together. 

Chairman ROYCE. Well, thank you. I want to thank all of our 

witnesses for their moving and insightful testimony here today. 

And ISIS is in fact conducting a war against religious minorities, 

against tolerance, and, as you have shared, against civilization. 

And I want to thank our panelists for bringing the voice of the persecuted, the voice of the Christians and the Yazidis and the moderate Muslims and many others to us here today. 

And the committee has long been focused on ensuring a robust 

humanitarian response and an effective security strategy as well, 

but on the humanitarian response and the legislation that we have 

on the floor of the House, thank you for supporting that legislation 

today. And I think your appeals for safe zones and the longing to 

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return to your homes have given us new facts to consider and now, 

I think, to consider with an indelible human face. 

So Sister, thank you, and to all our panelists, thank you very 

much for being with us. 

We stand adjourned. 

[Whereupon, at 11:51 a.m., the committee was adjourned.] 

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