Yesterday Secretary of State Kerry finally declared, what was obvious to everyone around the world, that ISIS was committing genocide against Christians and other religious minorities and crimes against humanity. From Politico:

The Islamic State is committing genocide against Yazidis, Christians and Shiite Muslims in Iraq and Syria, Secretary of State John Kerry declared on Thursday, a historic announcement that nonetheless is unlikely to spur greater U.S. military action against the terrorist network.  …

The Islamic State "is genocidal by self-proclamation, by ideology and by actions, in what it says, what it believes and what it does," Kerry said in an appearance Thursday morning. "Naming these crimes is important, but what is essential is to stop them."  …

When it was reported last fall that the administration may declare that Yazidis — a religious group whose members have been enslaved and killed by the Islamic State — were victims of genocide but not others, Christian groups mobilized to demand their community’s suffering be recognized in the same way.

<Read the whole article>

Response: In the beginning, the Obama administration was only concerned about addressing the ISIS treatment of the Yazidis and was planning on  listing only that particular group as being subjected to genocide. However, Congress and a number of Christian groups like the Knights of Columbus pushed for the inclusion of Christians in the declaration. The administration has finally supported the addition of the similarly embattled Christian community to the list after months of consideration.

My only question is why was it necessary to add Shiite Muslims to the list?  The Sunni ISIS leaders do consider Shiites to be ‘heretical’ and have destroyed some of their mosques in captured territory and they do somewhat persecute the Shiites under their control but it does not rise to the same level of the treatment of Yazidis and Christians. Somehow or another, since they were ‘forced’ to add Christians to the list, the PC sensibilities of President Obama and Sec. Kerry must have kicked in and they felt compelled to balance it out with some persecuted Muslims?

In reality,  the vast majority of Shiites being killed by ISIS are happening on the battle field.  A large number of those in the armies opposing ISIS (Including Iraq and Iranian sponsored groups) are Shia Muslims.  While  the Yazidis and Christians are being killed or enslaved by ISIS because of who they are and because they refuse to convert and do not have the funds to pay a Jizya tax.                *Top