NEW HAVEN – A new television commercial from the Knights of Columbus began airing nationwide this week, highlighting the ongoing needs faced by Christian victims of genocide in the Middle East, following the State Department’s recent designation that Christian and other religious minorities face genocide at the hands of ISIS.
The commercial points out that persecution and displacement have not abated and the victims remain in dire need of assistance. It quotes Secretary of State John Kerry’s March 17 declaration that a genocide is taking place, and that ISIS is “killing Christians because they are Christians.”
“The attacks continue,” says the commercial’s narrator. “Christians are still being kidnapped, killed and sold into slavery. Relief efforts are sorely needed – your help is sorely needed.”
The Knights’ commercial concludes with an appeal by Father Douglas Bazi, who heads the Mar Elia refugee center in Kurdistan, and who was himself kidnapped and tortured by terrorists in Iraq.
“Genocide is an easy word compared to what’s happened to my people,” Bazi says in the commercial. “Help my people and save my people.”
“While we applaud and welcome the genocide designation, it is now vital that we redouble our efforts to assist those who have faced this attempt at exterminating them. The survival of the individuals affected, and of Christianity as a whole in the region, depends in large measure on not turning away now, thinking that ISIS will soon conform to the norms of the international community,” said Knights CEO Carl Anderson in a press release.
Additional information is available here.
