President Barack Obama and the US Congress should stop providing funds to "jihadist nations" and instead focus on helping US allies in the fight against the Islamic State, which is waging a campaign of "genocide of Christians."
This was the call made by the American Center for Law and Justice (ACLJ), also known as Christian Advocates Serving Evangelism, as it launched an online petition last week against the killing of Christians by ISIS forces.
"To President Obama and Congress: Stop funding jihadist nations and start aiding persecuted Christians. Support our allies in the fight against ISIS before more Christians are beheaded and exterminated," the petition said, without naming the "jihadist nations" it was referring to.
The ACLJ urged Obama to appoint an ambassador to lead a Special Envoy to Promote Religious Freedom of Religious Minorities in the Near East and South Central Asia.
"While Christians and other religious minorities are decimated in that region, the Obama Administration leaves this vital position unfilled. This is why the ACLJ has urged them to fill this spot and will continue to do so," the ACLJ said.
The petition, which garnered more than 120,000 signatures as of Tuesday, said, "ISIS is brutal beyond words. It is beheading, raping, and selling Christians. Hundreds of thousands of Christians have been forced to flee or die – to abandon their lives or allow their children to be sold as sex slaves."
"For more than a year, ISIS's jihadist army has been on a bloody rampage, profiting from genocide, and tracking down Christians for sale and slaughter. It kidnaps Christians. It massacres Christians. Christians are dying every day."
The ACLJ said ISIS should be stopped immediately because of the brutal killings of Christians.
"Mass beheadings of Christians, children burned alive in cages, and the latest reports of 10 men accused of apostasy in Afghanistan being forced to lay over bombs buried in the sand before the captors press the detonators – the scope of these jihadists' terror knows no bounds," it said.
The Aid to the Church in Need said that "Christians have become a form [of] currency in this tragedy," as Arab Christians are abducted and held for ransom to fund ISIS.
Thousands of Christians and Yazidi women are reportedly being held in warehouses, ready to be sold and subjected to rape and torture.
According to ACLJ, ISIS has mocked international laws and committed "thousands of war crimes, including directing attacks against civilians, murdering and mistreating prisoners of war, and wantonly destroying entire villages and religious relics not warranted by military necessity."
It said ISIS's mission is "to annihilate all Christians and all people who do not bow down to the caliphate."
"We must help our brothers and sisters in Christ and all people who are suffering daily at the hands of pure evil. We cannot stand by and let our fellow human beings be tortured and exterminated," it said.
