Chicago-area ANCA and Armenian American community members joined with Senator Mark Kirk and Assyrian American community leaders at a special field hearing on ISIS’s Atrocities against women and religious minorities.
“ISIS controls more money, fighters and land than al-Qaeda did on 9/11 and is committing mass atrocities against women, children, and ethnic and religious minorities in the Middle East,” Senator Kirk said. “Members of Chicago’s Assyrian-American community and Illinois’ Middle East expert community highlighted how these barbaric terrorists pose grave threats not just overseas, but right here in Chicago.”
The US Senate Human Rights Caucus field hearing was held in the chambers of Judge Sam Der-Yeghiayan, federal judge for the Northern District of Illinois, and included powerful testimony by witnesses including Sandra Raheem, an Iraqi Assyrian Christian asylum-seeker; Dr. Khalil Marrar, Assistant Professor at Governors State University; Reine Hanna, Director of the Assyrian National Council of Illinois; and Mar Gewargis Younan, Diocesan Bishop at the Ancient Church of the East.
Co-founded by Senators Kirk and Chris Coons (D-Del.), the Senate Human Rights Caucus works to raise awareness and take action against egregious human rights violations throughout the world.
Read complete coverage of the field hearing at:
http://www.kirk.senate.gov/?p=press_release&id=1230
Photo: Sen. Mark Kirk (R-IL) with ANCA Chairman Ken Hachikian, Judge Sam Der-Yeghiayan and Chicago area Armenian American community leaders and advocates following the US Senate Human Rights Caucus field hearing on the ISIS threat to ethnic and religious minorities in the Middle East.