Bipartisan effort to support persecuted Christians launched

May 13, 2014: Over 200 Christian representatives from a variety of denominations have united in support of a bipartisan congressional initiative to support Christians facing persecution in Egypt, Iraq, and Syria.
The “Pledge of Solidarity & Call to Action on behalf of Christians and other Small Religious Communities in Egypt, Iraq and Syria,” was launched May 7, noted a CNA report. The initiative was started to address the silence facing Christians in the Middle East “facing an existential threat to their presence in the lands where Christianity has its roots” due to “abuse and injustice from extremist Islamic forces.”
George Marlin, Chairman of the Board for Aid to the Church in Need USA, a Catholic relief organization, and signatory of the pledge, commented that the ‘blatant and violent campaign of Christian religious targeting and persecution” has created an urgent situation.
“This is not a matter of pitting Christianity against Islam,” Marlin stressed, “but to put a halt to the abuses perpetrated by extremist Islamic factions bent on the destruction of Christianity – groups which inflict suffering on the general population as well.”