Pope Francis and Patriarch Kirill noted in their historic joint statement that “whole families, villages and cities of our brothers and sisters in Christ are being completely exterminated.” Extensive and irrefutable evidence supports a finding that the so-called Islamic State’s mistreatment of Iraqi and Syrian Christians, as well as Yazidis and other vulnerable minorities, meets the established definition of genocide. This evidence includes: • assassinations of Church leaders • mass murders and deportations • torture • kidnapping for ransom • sexual enslavement and systematic rape of girls and women • forcible conversion to Islam • destruction of Christian churches, monasteries, cemeteries, and artifacts ISIS’s own public statements take “credit” for the murder of Christians precisely because they are Christian and express its intent to wholly eradicate Christian and other minority communities from its “Islamic State.” We implore you to speak up on behalf of these brutalized minority populations. We therefore urge you to declare that Christians, along with Yazidis and other minorities, are targets of ongoing genocide. Sign the Petition sponsored by the Knights of Columbus at: http://stopthechristiangenocide.org/en/index.html