{"id":15935,"date":"2016-09-12T23:37:00","date_gmt":"2016-09-12T23:37:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.catholicnewsagency.com\/news\/the-next-us-president-must-aid-persecuted-christians-knights-head-44786\/"},"modified":"2016-09-12T23:37:00","modified_gmt":"2016-09-12T23:37:00","slug":"the-next-us-president-must-aid-persecuted-christians-knights-head","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/2016\/09\/the-next-us-president-must-aid-persecuted-christians-knights-head\/","title":{"rendered":"The next US president must aid persecuted Christians – Knights’ head"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

<\/p>\n

Washington D.C., Sep 12, 2016 \/ 05:37 pm (CNA\/EWTN News<\/a>).- Christians can\u2019t be second-class citizens if they are to remain in the Middle East, and the next United States administration will need to stand up for their rights, the head of the Knights of Columbus has said.<\/p>\n

Speaking at the National Advocacy Convention 2016 for persecuted Middle Eastern Christians, Supreme Knight Carl Anderson of the Knights of Columbus insisted that for Christians in the Middle East, \u201cthe system of religious apartheid in the region must end.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cOur tax dollars to the region must not be used to rebuild a discriminatory system that continues to impose second-class citizenship upon religious minorities,\u201d he added, insisting that U.S. aid \u201cshould be contingent on the application of full rights of citizenship to every citizen of Iraq and other countries in the region.\u201d<\/p>\n

Anderson called for presidential candidates Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump to commit themselves to upholding those rights.<\/p>\n

The 2016 National Advocacy Convention was held Sept. 7-9 in Washington, D.C. The group In Defense of Christians sponsored the event along with The Philos Project, the Institute for Global Engagement, and the National Armenian Conference of America.<\/p>\n

On Thursday, religious leaders and advocates met with members of Congress to discuss the future of Christians in the Middle East.<\/p>\n

That evening, the Solidarity Award was presented to three figures for their work in protecting persecuted Christians; Reps. Anna Eshoo (D-Calif.) and Jeff Fortenberry (R-Neb.) were honored for co-sponsoring a House resolution to state that genocide was taking place against Christians in Iraq and Syria.<\/p>\n

Anderson was also recognized for his work. The Knights have raised over $11 million for Christians in the Middle East and have provided humanitarian aid for refugees driven from their homes by the Islamic State and who are not receiving aid sent through the Iraqi government. The Knights also helped push the U.S. to declare that Christians were victims of genocide in Islamic State-occupied territory.<\/p>\n

Anderson, accepting the award, insisted that the Christians \u201care the ones who deserve an award\u201d for having \u201clost everything except their faith.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThese Christians persevere through an everyday heroism; and despite the tragic costs of that heroism, they continue to hope,\u201d he added. \u201cAnd their hope includes a faith in us.\u201d<\/p>\n

Thus, for the U.S. to honor their hope, they must support a solution for Christians in Iraq and Syria that will work for Christians in the long-term, he said.<\/p>\n

One chief theme of the convention was how, after the U.S. declared that genocide was taking place against Christians, Yazidis, and Shia Muslims in areas controlled by the Islamic State, victims of genocide can be resettled in their own homes and protected in the future.<\/p>\n

There must be two prongs to future U.S. policy in the region, Anderson maintained \u2013 ensuring that aid reaches genocide victims through successful channels, and that the aid is dependent upon Christians enjoying their rights as citizens.<\/p>\n

Currently, the survivors are still facing genocide, albeit one of \u201cattrition,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cMany of those who have lost everything now live as refugees who cannot find employment or housing or adequate medical care or clothing, or education for their children,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut a genocide that some began by the sword cannot be allowed to succeed through indifference,\u201d he continued. \u201cThe U.S. must make sure that aid reaches Christians displaced from their homes, many of who reportedly get no financial support from our government or from the United Nations.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe current aid channels have failed. We can no longer rely exclusively or even primarily upon government delivery systems in the region,\u201d he said. Thus \u201cnew delivery channels and new partnerships with religious organizations\u201d will have to be explored, he said, and genocide victims must be prioritized for receiving aid.<\/p>\n

After the 2016 election in the U.S., the next administration will have to show a \u201cnew realism in our approach to issues of human rights in the region,\u201d Anderson insisted, promoting rights based on the Universal Declaration of Human Rights rather than Sharia.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen Islamic governments speak of human rights, they may be thinking of those rights as defined \u2013 or as confined \u2013 in the Sharia-based Cairo Declaration<\/a>,\u201d he said. \u201cRealism demands that we not mislead ourselves or allow others to mislead us in this regard.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n<\/a>\n<\/div>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Washington D.C., Sep 12, 2016 \/ 05:37 pm (CNA\/EWTN News).- Christians can’t be second-class citizens if they are to remain in the Middle East, and the next United States administration will need to stand up for their rights, the head of the Knigh…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1031,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-15935","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-us"],"yoast_head":"\nThe next US president must aid persecuted Christians – Knights' head<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Washington D.C., Sep 12, 2016 \/ 05:37 pm (CNA\/EWTN News).- Christians can’t be second-class citizens if they are to remain in the Middle East, and the next United States administration will need to stand up for their rights, the head of the Knigh...\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/2016\/09\/the-next-us-president-must-aid-persecuted-christians-knights-head\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The next US president must aid persecuted Christians – Knights' head\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Washington D.C., Sep 12, 2016 \/ 05:37 pm (CNA\/EWTN News).- Christians can’t be second-class citizens if they are to remain in the Middle East, and the next United States administration will need to stand up for their rights, the head of the Knigh...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/2016\/09\/the-next-us-president-must-aid-persecuted-christians-knights-head\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Catholic News\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2016-09-12T23:37:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/www.catholicnewsagency.com\/images\/size340\/Knights_of_Columbus_Supreme_Knight_Carl_Anderson_speaks_with_CNA_in_Rome_June_26_2014_Credit_Daniel_Ib__ez_CNA_CNA_6_26_14.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"CNA Daily News\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"CNA Daily News\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"4 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/2016\/09\/the-next-us-president-must-aid-persecuted-christians-knights-head\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/2016\/09\/the-next-us-president-must-aid-persecuted-christians-knights-head\/\",\"name\":\"The next US president must aid persecuted Christians – Knights' head\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2016-09-12T23:37:00+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2016-09-12T23:37:00+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/#\/schema\/person\/35d4bd7addc580050842c844a11575f1\"},\"description\":\"Washington D.C., Sep 12, 2016 \/ 05:37 pm (CNA\/EWTN News).- Christians can’t be second-class citizens if they are to remain in the Middle East, and the next United States administration will need to stand up for their rights, the head of the Knigh...\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/2016\/09\/the-next-us-president-must-aid-persecuted-christians-knights-head\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/2016\/09\/the-next-us-president-must-aid-persecuted-christians-knights-head\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/2016\/09\/the-next-us-president-must-aid-persecuted-christians-knights-head\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"The next US president must aid persecuted Christians – Knights’ head\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/\",\"name\":\"Catholic News\",\"description\":\"\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/#\/schema\/person\/35d4bd7addc580050842c844a11575f1\",\"name\":\"CNA Daily News\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/8f1180c7dca7995d4a997aac72a3a88a?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/8f1180c7dca7995d4a997aac72a3a88a?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"CNA Daily News\"},\"sameAs\":[\"http:\/\/www.catholicnewsagency.com\/\"],\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/author\/cna-daily-news\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"The next US president must aid persecuted Christians – Knights' head","description":"Washington D.C., Sep 12, 2016 \/ 05:37 pm (CNA\/EWTN News).- Christians can’t be second-class citizens if they are to remain in the Middle East, and the next United States administration will need to stand up for their rights, the head of the Knigh...","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/2016\/09\/the-next-us-president-must-aid-persecuted-christians-knights-head\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"The next US president must aid persecuted Christians – Knights' head","og_description":"Washington D.C., Sep 12, 2016 \/ 05:37 pm (CNA\/EWTN News).- Christians can’t be second-class citizens if they are to remain in the Middle East, and the next United States administration will need to stand up for their rights, the head of the Knigh...","og_url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/2016\/09\/the-next-us-president-must-aid-persecuted-christians-knights-head\/","og_site_name":"Catholic News","article_published_time":"2016-09-12T23:37:00+00:00","og_image":[{"url":"http:\/\/www.catholicnewsagency.com\/images\/size340\/Knights_of_Columbus_Supreme_Knight_Carl_Anderson_speaks_with_CNA_in_Rome_June_26_2014_Credit_Daniel_Ib__ez_CNA_CNA_6_26_14.jpg"}],"author":"CNA Daily News","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"CNA Daily News","Est. reading time":"4 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/2016\/09\/the-next-us-president-must-aid-persecuted-christians-knights-head\/","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/2016\/09\/the-next-us-president-must-aid-persecuted-christians-knights-head\/","name":"The next US president must aid persecuted Christians – Knights' head","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/#website"},"datePublished":"2016-09-12T23:37:00+00:00","dateModified":"2016-09-12T23:37:00+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/#\/schema\/person\/35d4bd7addc580050842c844a11575f1"},"description":"Washington D.C., Sep 12, 2016 \/ 05:37 pm (CNA\/EWTN News).- Christians can’t be second-class citizens if they are to remain in the Middle East, and the next United States administration will need to stand up for their rights, the head of the Knigh...","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/2016\/09\/the-next-us-president-must-aid-persecuted-christians-knights-head\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/2016\/09\/the-next-us-president-must-aid-persecuted-christians-knights-head\/"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/2016\/09\/the-next-us-president-must-aid-persecuted-christians-knights-head\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"The next US president must aid persecuted Christians – Knights’ head"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/","name":"Catholic News","description":"","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/#\/schema\/person\/35d4bd7addc580050842c844a11575f1","name":"CNA Daily News","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/8f1180c7dca7995d4a997aac72a3a88a?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/8f1180c7dca7995d4a997aac72a3a88a?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"CNA Daily News"},"sameAs":["http:\/\/www.catholicnewsagency.com\/"],"url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/author\/cna-daily-news\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15935","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1031"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15935"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15935\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15935"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15935"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15935"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}