Title: Condemning targeted terrorist attacks against members of the Sikh, Hindu, and other religious minority communities in Afghanistan and supporting refugee protection for Sikhs and Hindus in Afghanistan in recognition of the systematic religious persecution, discrimination, and existential danger faced by the members of these communities.
Policy area: International Affairs

Summary:
This resolution condemns terrorist attacks and religious persecution against Sikhs and Hindus in Afghanistan. The resolution supports the resettling of Sikhs and Hindus from Afghanistan as refugees in the United States.

[Congressional Bills 116th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H. Res. 1085 Introduced in House (IH)]

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116th CONGRESS
  2d Session
H. RES. 1085

  Condemning targeted terrorist attacks against members of the Sikh, 
  Hindu, and other religious minority communities in Afghanistan and 
 supporting refugee protection for Sikhs and Hindus in Afghanistan in 
 recognition of the systematic religious persecution, discrimination, 
   and existential danger faced by the members of these communities.


_______________________________________________________________________


                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                            August 14, 2020

  Ms. Speier (for herself, Mr. Garamendi, Mr. Cox of California, Mr. 
 Costa, Mr. Carson of Indiana, Mr. McGovern, Mrs. Watson Coleman, Ms. 
Lofgren, and Mr. Raskin) submitted the following resolution; which was 
 referred to the Committee on Foreign Affairs, and in addition to the 
Committee on the Judiciary, for a period to be subsequently determined 
 by the Speaker, in each case for consideration of such provisions as 
        fall within the jurisdiction of the committee concerned

_______________________________________________________________________

                               RESOLUTION


 
  Condemning targeted terrorist attacks against members of the Sikh, 
  Hindu, and other religious minority communities in Afghanistan and 
 supporting refugee protection for Sikhs and Hindus in Afghanistan in 
 recognition of the systematic religious persecution, discrimination, 
   and existential danger faced by the members of these communities.

Whereas Sikhs and Hindus are indigenous but endangered minorities in 
        Afghanistan, numbering approximately 700 out of a community that 
        recently included over 8,000 members;
Whereas members of the Islamic State-Khorasan, the Islamic State of Iraq and the 
        Levant (ISIL) affiliate in Afghanistan, attacked a Sikh temple in Kabul, 
        Afghanistan, on March 25, 2020, killing 25 worshipers, including Tanya 
        Kaur, a four-year-old girl;
Whereas Islamic State-Khorasan militants made further attempts on the lives of 
        the survivors before and after the funeral ceremony held for the 
        victims;
Whereas the Islamic State-Khorasan claimed responsibility for a suicide bombing 
        in Jalalabad, Afghanistan, on July 1, 2018, which took the lives of 19 
        people, including most of the senior leadership of the Sikh and Hindu 
        communities in Afghanistan, who had assembled to meet the Afghan 
        President;
Whereas these acts of violence follow a greater pattern of targeted violence 
        against Sikhs, Hindus, and other religious minorities in Afghanistan in 
        recent years;
Whereas the Department of State and United States Commission on International 
        Religious Freedom have documented systemic discrimination against Sikhs 
        and Hindus in Afghanistan, including restrictions on religious 
        practices, illegal seizure of property, the inability to send their 
        children to public schools due to harassment, judicial bias against 
        religious minorities, and constitutional limitations on the political 
        rights of religious minorities;
Whereas the former Taliban-led government routinely persecuted and discriminated 
        against the Afghan Sikh community, restricting their funeral rites and 
        forcing the community to publicly identify themselves by wearing yellow 
        armbands; and
Whereas the President of the United States has proposed resettling up to 18,000 
        refugees pursuant to section 207 of the Immigration and Nationality Act 
        (8 U.S.C. 1157) for fiscal year 2020, in contrast to the Obama 
        administration's proposal of 110,000 refugees for fiscal year 2016: Now, 
        therefore, be it
    Resolved, That the House of Representatives--
            (1) expresses concern for the safety of Sikhs and Hindus in 
        Afghanistan;
            (2) condemns all terrorist attacks, religious persecution, 
        and discrimination against members of the Sikh and Hindu 
        religious minority communities in Afghanistan;
            (3) recognizes that members of the Sikh and Hindu 
        communities face existential danger in Afghanistan; and
            (4) supports resettling Sikhs and Hindus from Afghanistan 
        in the United States under the United States Refugee Admissions 
        Program pursuant to section 207 of the Immigration and 
        Nationality Act (8 U.S.C. 1157).
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