Reverend Franklin Graham believes that the ultimate goal of the Islamic State (ISIS) is not to seek peace with Christians but to make their religion rule the world.
"Mass murder, crucifixions, beheadings, enslavement, rape, destruction of churches, theft of lands and wealth, and forcible conversion to Islam — all are horrors that Christians in the Middle East are experiencing," he writes on his Facebook page.
"I join leaders who are urging Secretary of State John Kerry to include Christians in the State Department's classification of genocide in the Middle East. ISIS doesn't want to coexist with Christians—it wants to eliminate them. This is genocide against Christians, and their lives do matter," adds Graham.
According to the Gospel Herald, the United States has only accepted a total of 34 Christian Syrian refugees into the country ever since Syria's war broke out over four years ago.
Other religious leaders such as Archbishop of Washington Cardinal Donald Wuerl and Reverend Samuel Rodriguez of the National Hispanic Christian Leadership Conference are also making the same plea as Graham. They believe it's high time the State Department do something to recognise the horrific persecution faced by Christians. Unfortunately, their pleas have fallen on deaf ears.
Kristen Powers writes in an article for USA Today that politicians are preferring to turn a blind eye on the sufferings endured by Christians.
"The State Department's disinterest in including Christians in its potential genocide designation appears to rely on a recent Holocaust Memorial Museum report asserting that, unlike Yazidis, Christians are not suffering from genocidal attacks because ISIS gives them the 'option of paying the jizya (tax) to avoid conversion or death' because they, like Jews, are 'people of the book,'" she writes.
But she says the ISIS could not be more clear in its warning against Christians: "You will not have safety, even in your dreams, until you embrace Islam."
"Let's stop pretending otherwise and call this what it is: a genocide," she says.
