Rep. Runestad offered the following resolution:

            House Resolution No. 197.

            A resolution to urge the President of the United States to declare that the Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham is committing genocide against Christians and other ethnic and religious minorities in the Middle East, thus enabling direct intervention and availability of resources to stop this atrocity.

            Whereas, Christians, Yezidis, Turkmen, Sabea-Mandeans, Kakaʻe, Kurds, and other ethnic and religious minorities have been an integral part of the fabric of the Middle East for millennia. They have coexisted with Muslim communities and contributed to the cultural and historical traditions of the region; and

            Whereas, Christians and other ethnic and religious minorities are currently being subjected to a deliberate and calculated campaign to bring about the eradication and displacement of their communities and the destruction of their cultural heritage in the Middle East. Christians and other ethnic and religious minorities have been murdered, subjugated, forced to emigrate, and suffered grievous bodily and psychological harm, including sexual enslavement and abuse, at the hands of the Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham (ISIS). They have been targeted specifically because they do not share the views of ISIS concerning religion; and

            Whereas, The United Nations Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide, signed on December 9, 1948, defines genocide as committing the following acts "with the intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial, or religious group, as such: (a) Killing members of the group; (b) Causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group; (c) Deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part; (d) Imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group; (e) Forcibly transferring children of the group to another group"; and

            Whereas, The United States and the rest of the world must recognize, declare, and denounce the atrocities committed and supported by ISIS for what they are: genocide. This declaration will enable direct intervention and availability of resources so that Christians and other ethnic and religious minorities are not forced out of their homelands; and

            Whereas, Without an official declaration of genocide by the United States and the United Nations, history has warned that the atrocities will continue and nations will not be united in their resolve to bring an end to the crisis through effective coordination and the commitment of all available resources. Failure to declare will allow the further displacement of Christians and ethnic and religious minorities in the Middle East and prevent effective action to end these crimes against humanity; now, therefore, be it

            Resolved by the House of Representatives, That we urge the President of the United States to declare that the Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham (ISIS) is committing genocide against Christians and other ethnic and religious minorities in the Middle East, thus enabling direct intervention and availability of resources to stop this atrocity; and be it further

            Resolved, That copies of this resolution be transmitted to the President of the United States and the members of the Michigan congressional delegation.