Media Appearances
Professor Hannibal Travis: United Nations Reaction Muted to Warning Signs of Genocide in Middle East
May 4, 2013
Warning signs are present for a genocide of indigenous Christians in the Middle East, stated Professor Hannibal Travis in a speech delivered on Thursday as a part of CSI's lecture series on the Future of Religious Minorities in Middle East. He furthermore argued that the policies of Turkey and its allies obstruct the advance of universal human rights norms in a region still grappling with the genocide of Turkey's Christians during World War I.
Travis, Associate Professor of Law at Florida International University, noted a "pattern of reprisals against religious and ethnic groups believed to be friendly with the regime" in the Arab revolutions and civil wars which began in 2011. He cited many instances of anti-minority violence in these countries, including the attack on St. Mark's Cathedral in Egypt in April 2013, the ethnic cleansing of black Africans in Libya, and attacks on Christians in Syria.
Travis pointed to serious warning signs for genocide in countries like Egypt and Syria, including civil war, demonization of groups, and institutionalized inequality between religious groups.
From torment in Sudan to a life of hope, promise
April 6, 2013
By all accounts, 19-year-old Keer Deng should be a frightened, angry, almost feral young man, given that the early years of his life were filled with slavery, starvation, and torture in his native Republic of South Sudan.
But watch him navigate the grounds of the Perkins School for the Blind in Watertown, and his movements paint a different picture. He’s demonstrably happy — ebullient, in fact — high-fiving peers and cracking jokes as he passes faculty and classmates in the hallways. He only gets annoyed, it seems, when people ask him why he’s always smiling.
“The answer is that I have been given a chance to live, to be grown up,” he says. “That is all.”
That isn’t really all.
Pastor recounts stories of South Sudan slavery for Marin Catholic students
By Megan Hansen
March 13, 2013
A Denver pastor is using her personal stories about freeing South Sudanese slaves to inspire Marin Catholic High School students to support her cause and advocate an end to slavery.
The Rev. Heidi McGinness has been working with Christian Solidarity International — a nonprofit human rights organization — for about 10 years, documenting the stories of more than 2,500 South Sudanese slaves and freeing them from Darfur and Kordofan. Her goal is not only to help these people, but to draw national and international attention to an issue she believes has been largely neglected.
"Slavery in Sudan is not an intellectual construct. It's a horrific reality," McGinness said. "Sudan is the only country in the world that has government-sponsored slavery as a tool of genocide and ethnic cleansing."
Christian Solidarity International (CSI) Urges Obama to Prevent Middle East Genocide
December 24, 2012
Writing to President Obama on Christmas Eve, Dr. John Eibner, the CEO of CSI-USA, urged the White House to make a "firm commitment to preventing the genocide of the Middle East's religious minorities" in the face of rising anti-minority violence in Syria, Egypt and elsewhere in the region.
Eibner reported that in Syria, "religious cleansing proceeds apace under the publicly proclaimed slogan, 'Alawites to the grave, and Christians to Beirut!'" and that the perpetrators are mainly "Islamist militias," operating with "the lethal support of our country's closest regional Sunni allies – in particular Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Turkey." These forces, Eibner stated, target Syrian religious minorities for "murder, abduction, displacement and humiliation with increasing frequency and ferocity." Other authorities have recently warned of the potential for genocide in Syria. Former Ambassador Peter W. Galbraith declared at the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum: "The next genocide in the world will likely be against the Alawites in Syria." Simon Adams of the Global Project for the Responsibility to Protect stated in The New York Times that "growing numbers of foreign Sunni extremist fighters are battling ... to religiously cleanse" Syria.
Christian Solidarity International Featured on Fox News
Ellen Ratner "What can one goat provide a family of freed slaves?"
December 19, 2012
Speaker at CSI event: Signs of Religious "Cleansing" in Islamist-Dominated Egypt
Dr. Mariz Tadros: Egypt heading towards "Islamic dictatorship"
November 30, 2012
Dr. Mariz Tadros has warned that acts of violence and discrimination against Coptic Christians in Egypt are on the rise, and signal a new "dangerous phenomenon."
Speaking at a Christian Solidarity International (CSI) seminar in Zurich on November 28, Tadros noted that the "inclusive spirit" of the January 25 Revolution, in which Christians and Muslims joined together to overthrow President Hosni Mubarak, led many Egyptians to believe that years of "horrendous" sectarian violence had come to an end. Instead, Tadros said, her research shows that after the revolution, the number of sectarian attacks increased and "continues to rise."
Tadros called "extremely worrying" the new phenomenon of "untriggered violence," in which Islamist groups mobilize followers to drive Christians out of their villages, even when no prior dispute is present. "What we are seeing is a growing trend of 'cleansing society' of Christians," Tadros said,a term that was unknown in Egypt before the revolution, but which appeared in some contexts where violence erupted.
According to Tadros, the attacks are being driven by "majoritarian politics," in which Islamist groups mobilize popular support for authoritarian power grabs and attacks on women, youth revolutionary forces, non-Islamist political forces and religious minorities. As a result, Egypt is "transitioning to an Islamic dictatorship," she warned. A sign of this trend was the recent monopolization by Egypt's first Muslim Brotherhood President, Mohammed Morsi, of power in his own hands.
LOOK ALIVE TO STAY ALIVE, CHRISTIANS TOLD
'Condition for genocide exists and we are prepared to say so'
By Dr. John Eibner November 5, 2012
For too long, Christians have lived in a bubble, according to Christian Solidarity International-USA President John Eibner.
That's why Eibner says he started a seminar series in locations around the country on the issue of Christians being involved in intelligence analysis and terrorism threat assessments.
"The series of public events was initiated in response to the need for CSI to issue a genocide warning regarding the Christians of the Islamic Middle East," Eibner said.
"We did so because we could clearly see that the conditions for eradication of Christian communities in the region existed, and that the likelihood of genocide was heightened by the forces of intolerant Muslim supremacism that were unleashed as a result of the so-called Arab Spring," Eibner said.
Islamic extremists threaten Syria’s Christians
Obama must not ignore sacrifice of religious minorities
By Dr. John Eibner August 3, 2012
More than a year has elapsed since the United States aligned itself with Syria’s Sunni-dominated opposition and the Middle East’s Sunni powers to overthrow the regime of Bashar Assad. While the United States pursues this goal in the name of the Syrian people, it is clear that its ultimate strategic objective is to render Syria, Shiite Iran’s most important regional ally, useless in its struggle for mastery of the Middle East.
To achieve its goal, the United States is employing economic sanctions, political backing for the Syrian opposition and lethal military support to the Free Syrian Army and other Sunni-dominated armed groups, channeled through Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Turkey — all American allies with considerable democratic deficits, especially in the realm of religious and ethnic minority rights.
Obama Must Defend Syria’s Religious Minorities
August 1, 2012
Christian Solidarity International today called on President Obama to defend the rights of Syria’s religious minorities in the face of escalating civil war and sectarian violence.
In a letter to the president, Dr. John Eibner, the CEO of Christian Solidarity International-USA, warned that “Syrian opposition forces increasingly match the Assad regime’s disdain for the lives and liberty of the Syrian people, especially Christians and other non-Sunnis, who constitute about 25% of Syria’s population.”
Eibner cited reports from human rights groups and Syrian church officials that the Islamist-dominated armed opposition has used civilians as human shields and targeted civilians and religious minorities for kidnapping, torture and murder.
Read Dr. Eibner's Letter to Obama
Tweet this storyNew Report Documents Forced Disappearance Of Egyptian Christian Women
July 18, 2012
A new Christian Solidarity International (CSI) report released today calls on Egypt's Islamist government and the international community – especially the U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton – to investigate and take strong measures to prevent the disappearance, forced marriage and forced conversion to Islam of Coptic Christian women and girls.
The report, entitled "Tell My Mother I Miss Her," confirms that Coptic women and girls are deceptively lured or abducted into forced marriages with Muslim men and then to conversions to Islam, which frequently take place under duress and physical abuse.
The report's co-authors, Michele Clark, adjunct professor at George Washington University, and Coptic human rights activist Nadia Ghaly, undertook research in Egypt in November 2011 in the midst of the uprising that resulted in the political ascent of the Muslim Brotherhood and other radical Islamist forces. According to Clark and Ghaly, the disappearance of Coptic women and girls has "escalated" since the overthrow of President Hosni Mubarak in February 2011.
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Habib Malik Calls on Obama to Protect Endangered Minorities in Syria and throughout Middle East
Lebanese Professor Speaks at Christian Solidarity International (CSI) Event on the Future of Religious Minorities in theMiddle East
June 15, 2012
Professor Habib Malik of the Lebanese American University has called on the United States and its European allies to "draw a thick red line" around religious liberty as it responds to the ongoing violence in Syria and the Middle East, and to provide "active protection" for minority rights in the region.
Dr. Malik issued this call this week at CSI's 2012 conference series on The Future of Religious Minorities in the Middle East. Malik is a professor of history and the author of Islamism and the Future of Christians in the Middle East.
In Syria, Malik warned that the "first wave" of opposition leaders has been replaced by a "militant Islamist grouping" that engages in kidnappings and beheadings, including attacks on religious pilgrims. Given these attacks, Malik said it is impossible to "take seriously" the opposition Syrian National Council's assurances to Syrian religious minorities, given on June 10, that they will be protected after the regime falls.
Tweet this story"Obama Urged to Encourage Turkey to Acknowledge Armenian Genocide"
June 12, 2012
Taner Akcam, Professor of History at Clark University, has urged President Obama and his European allies to encourage "Turkey to acknowledge the Armenian Genocide, and to follow the post-Holocaust example of Germany by making appropriate compensation for lives and property."
Dr. Akcam made this plea last week while contributing to CSI's spring 2012 conference series on The Future of Religious Minorities in the Middle East. (See www.formime.ch for videos of Akcam's lectures in English and Turkish.)
Akcam said Turkey's willingness to recognize the Genocide, in which approximately 1.5 million Christians – mainly Armenians and Assyrians – perished, and to provide compensation, is a litmus test of its fitness to fulfill its aspiration for Great Power status and leadership in shaping the destiny of the Middle East. Turkey's Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu calls for the "reintegration" of territories in Syria, Greece, Bulgaria, and Georgia with Turkey – a policy often referred to by political commentators as New Ottomanism. (Davutoglu, "Vision 2023: Turkey's Foreign Policy Objectives," London, November 22, 2011.)
"Let’s Support All The People of Syria: Minority Rights Key To Swift Regime Change"
By John Eibner - April 11, 2012
American calls for the overthrow of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad are becoming increasingly shrill and tinged with exasperation. Washington’s huffing and puffing has so far failed to blow the House of Assad down.
In the absence of UN Security Council backing, Washington has engineered a bewildering coalition of the willing to depose Assad. It is institutionalized in the so-called “Friends of Syria” contact group. The partners include western allies like Britain and France, and the Muslim regional powers Turkey and Saudi Arabia – both Sunni states with deep democracy deficits.
Sunni terrorist groups, such as al-Qaida and Hamas, are also working for the demise of the Assad regime. Even Israeli Defence Minister Ehud Barak has joined the chorus, saying the overthrow of Assad would be a “positive thing.”
Additional coverage :
- "Goat: The gift that keeps giving" By Ellen Ratner on Fox News
- "A Seder Among Former Slaves" By Rabbi Joseph Polak in the Jewish Week
- "Daniel Pipes: Religious Persecution in Islamic Middle East "Acquiring Genocidal Characteristics" Press Release
- "PIPES: South Sudan, Israel’s new ally" By Daniel Pipes in the Washington Times
- "After Arab Spring, danger arises for Christians" By Jeff Jacoby in the Boston Globe
- "Fox News covers Ellen Ratner and the 'Goats for the Old Goat" by Ellen Ratner on Fox News
- "CSI Urges President Obama: Help Free Blind Boy's Mother and Eradicate Slavery in Sudan"
- "RATNER: Ending Arab slavery" by Ellen Ratner in the Washington Times
- "Freed Sudanese Slave Testifies to US Congressional Panel" by Cindy Saine of Voice of America
- "CSI Facilitates Liberation of 412 Sudanese Slaves"
- "CSI Sheds Light on Abuse of Coptic Christian Women In Egypt"
- "In South Sudan, the strength to overcome a painful past" By Michael Gerson
- "Freedom Eclipsed" By Cholene Espinoza
- "Christophobia in the Muslim World" By Dr. John Eibner
- "President Kiir Recalls Enslavement of Southern Sudanese" CSI Press Release
- "Celebrating Passover In Sudan" Fox News
- "CSI Urges Lawmakers To Take Action on Ending Slavery in Sudan" CSI Press Release
- "American Delegation Assists Liberation of 354 Sudanese Slaves" CSI Press Release
- "Will Freedom Come for Sudan's Slaves?" by The Wall Street Journal
- Diane Gooch on her Recent Trip with CSI to Free Slaves
- Boston Globe Coverage of Rabbi Polak's Passover Celebration
- Fox New Coverage of CSI
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