Establishing Special Envoy for Religious Freedom in the Near East and South Central Asia

Floor Speech

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Ms. ESHOO. I thank Mr. Berman, our distinguished ranking member of the Foreign Affairs Committee, for not only yielding me this time but for his conscience, because that indeed is what this is about, and his unflagging leadership on so many issues. Your endorsement and strong support of this bill I think bolsters it enormously, and says to the entire House that a person that is steeped in the background of the issues of the entire world is for this.

I want to pay tribute to Mr. Wolf for his incredible advocacy on this issue relative to religious minorities for so long. It is an honor to have worked with you to bring this to a realization of not only legislation but to bring it to the floor. I salute you. You are a gentleman; and you, too, are a man of great conscience.

Mr. Speaker, I think today we are here on something that really distinguishes the United States of America. From the founding of our Nation, religious freedom has been a pillar of our democracy, and it remains one of the most critical exports of our great Nation. I think having said that really establishes the foundation of why we are here in strong support of H.R. 440. This bill, as my colleagues have said, will create a special envoy to promote religious freedom of religious minorities in the Near East and South Asia. The legislation responds to the very urgent needs of Christians and other religious minorities who are under siege. When I say that, I underscore it. They are under siege in the Middle East. Again, I commend everyone, especially Mr. Wolf, who has been part of this effort. And as a cochair of the Religious Minorities Caucus and all of the members of it, I thank them as well.

In January of this year, Representative Wolf chaired a hearing to review the violence and the hardships faced by Middle Eastern religious minorities. I was privileged to testify that day about the plight of many people, but most especially the Assyrians. I am of both Assyrian and Armenian descent, and the language Mr. Wolf spoke of, Aramaic, I speak fluently and understand very well. It is the language, as he said, that Jesus spoke. These are the world's oldest Christians, and they are quickly disappearing from Iraq. During this hearing, we also learned of Egypt's Coptic Christian population and the renewed threats they face and unacceptable violence in that uncertain political situation.

The SPEAKER pro tempore. The time of the gentlewoman has expired.

Mr. BERMAN. I yield the gentlelady 2 additional minutes.

Ms. ESHOO. At the conclusion of the hearing, we agreed to press forward with this legislation to create a special envoy at the State Department, someone at the ambassador level to elevate this issue for the attention it deserves. We need a high-level official dedicated to religious freedom in the region, committed to addressing the concerns of the minority communities.

I am very, very pleased that this legislation has attracted very solid bipartisan support. We have 78 cosponsors, an even split between Republicans and Democrats, all calling for the State Department to elevate religious freedom in the Middle East as a diplomatic priority. There is a history for this. Senator John Danforth served our Nation as special envoy to Sudan, and Senator George Mitchell as special envoy to Northern Ireland, so there is precedent for this.

I want to speak of a meeting I had in my office last week. Three Dominican nuns, sisters who traveled from Iraq, and they once again relayed their story of what is happening to them. They have been dispersed across Iraq. They teach everyone regardless of their background, Muslims, Christians, no matter what the background is. And in their hospitals, they care for whomever is sick and wounded. And yet their convents have been burned, the statute of the Blessed Mother's hands chopped off and placed at their door. So these threats are very real. They are very real. That is just one example of it.

So this history of violence must and should be dealt with. As I said, our great Nation, our great Nation treasures its religious freedoms, and it is part of the core of our democracy. So that's why I urge all of my colleagues to join us, not just me but all of us, in supporting this important legislation. The message that will go forward from this Chamber, with all of the other issues that are swirling around us, is that we stand with great dignity for one of the great principles of our great Nation.

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