The House voted Monday to pass a resolution that declared the Islamic State to be committing genocide against Christians and other religious minorities in the Middle East.
“What is happening in Iraq and Syria is a deliberate, systematic targeting of religious and ethnic minorities,” Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wisc.) said in a statement. “Today, the House unanimously voted to call ISIS’s atrocities what they are: a genocide. We also will continue to offer our prayers for the persecuted.”
The resolution passed 383-0.
The vote came ahead of a Thursday deadline set by Congress for the Obama administration to determine if the Islamic State’s actions amount to genocide.