Faithkeepers (2016) - full transcript

♪ Multicom Jingle♪

[Sounds of birds chirping]

[light piano music]

[heavy bass sound]

My father came home
and saw an envelope.

There was a letter and
six bullets.

On the paper they had written,
"With these six bullets we'll

kill you and your family."

Just a few days after that,

they put an empty box
at our front door.

Inside was a letter that said,



"In this box we will bring the
heads of your children."

After 2003, problems started.

[sound of a car driving
and muffled people]

The villages around us
were all Muslim.

They harassed us.

They would kill you
or kidnap you or,

[sound of glass breaking]

We used to open the door and
find messages, threats.

"You must leave. You're
Christian. You're infidels."

"You mustn't live in this
country. It's a Muslim country."

We were terrified. He
couldn'’t even go to work.

They said,

"If you don't get out,
we'll kill you in the store."

We were very scared.



I was up all night crying and
thinking what'll they do to me?

What will they do
to my daughter?

What will they do to my husband?

What did we do wrong? We
would sit around in fear.

Terrible things happened
including the kidnapping

of students.

Eight students were kidnapped.

After that, buses
were blown up.

[explosion sound]

I wasn't on the bus that was
attached, thank God.

I was behind it.

Explosions were going off in
front of me and behind me.

[explosion sounds]

When you went to work,
it felt like a battlefield.

You were afraid. But you
had to make a living.

They wanted to force us
to convert to Islam.

There's no way
we would abandon

our religion for
another religion.

The persecution only
strengthens our faith.

The thing they hate most is
just that we're Christians.

They call us infidels.

They're Muslim and they don't
want Christians in Iraq.

They want to make Iraq
their own country.

We are Christians, and they
said, "We don't want a single

Christian in Iraq.
We'll kill you."

[Light Instrumental Music]

Pastor Martin Neumeier

lived during the Nazi
period in Germany.

He saw what was happening.

And he had this quote
where he said,

"When they came
for the Socialists,

I did not protest
because I'm not a Socialist.

When they came for
the trade unionists,

I didn't protest because
I'm not one of them.

When they came for the Jews,
I was silent

because I'm not a Jew.

When they came for me,

there was no one
left to protest."

[light music strings]

The current status of
Christians and other

non-Muslim monitories
throughout the Middle East

is the worst it's been in
one can say centuries.

The western people treat what's
happening to the Christians

all across the globe as
disparate phenomena,

and they don't really
connect the dots.

This is happening in Egypt.
It's happening in Iraq.

It's happening in Syria. It's
happening in Lebanon.

It's happening in Palestine.

It's happening in all other
countries in the Middle East.

At least 21 people were killed
when a powerful bomb exploded

in front of a crowded
Coptic Christian church.

In November, al Qaeda in Iraq

declared open season
on all Christians.

Gruesome beheadings,
mass executions,

they call themselves
the Islamic State

and justify their violent acts

by arguing that they
are waging jihad,

or holy war
against Infidels.

In 2014, you have ISIS
spreading in Iraq and syria.

And now you see

a situation where we've
been ethnically cleansed

for our religion and
our identity by ISIS.

As ISIS pushed forward,

Christians knew mercy
would not be their life.

Tens of thousands of Christians
are now fleeing for their lives.

The U.N. says more than
500,000 citizens

have fled their homes in Iraq.

This stream of people,
thousands every hour,

has been continuing, I'm told,
for days across this bridge.

And these people

and we've seen it, will end up
tonight sleeping on roadsides,

sleeping in ruined,
abandoned buildings.

Because there is simply
no place else to go.

This is the kitchen.

It's two families per stovetop.

This is the men's bathroom.

Same thing on the
other side for women.

We came to Saint Elijah Church
and were just on the ground.

The sun was beating down and

we were desperately hungry and
thirsty without even mattresses.

Then they told us about
this place.

We want to go back
home so our kids

can continue their education.

We want to go back to our homes.

The most important thing
is to go back.

We want them to
rescue us from ISIS.

We're praying to God to help
us and find a solution.

One of the most terrifying
things

that is happening across
the region in the Middle East

is kidnapping of Christians.

And it is especially
horrifying for women.

One day I was at the
door of our house.

A car stopped with
some guys in it.

Their windows were dark so
you couldn't see them.

Two people got out.

They grabbed me and
put me in the trunk.

They kidnapped me, and after
15 minutes took me out.

[sound of trunk opening,
body thud sound]

It looked like a farm.
There were houses.

It was a place for animals.

[sound of body dropping]

They put me inside and tied
my hands and legs

and put a piece of
tape over my mouth.

And there were two
girls with me.

One of them was a doctor,
and the other was 13-years old.

The doctor was about 35, 36,
like that.

The first thing they did to me,
my hair was long.

so they shaved my head.

And torturing, of course.

They hit us every day with
whatever they had at hand.

[Sound of match being lit]

They put out cigarettes
on my legs.

They cut us with knives.

They raped me.

The girl that was 13-years old,

on the fourth day
they raped her.

There were six of them.

She started bleeding
and she died.

To me, they used to say,

"Declare your faith in Islam.
Swear that there is no God

other than Allah, and
we'll let you go."

Of course, I wasn't
willing to say it.

So he cursed me, and
Christians, and Christ.

They told the doctor, "Your
family won't pay the ransom."

So one of them took out her eye.

He put a knife in her eye, and
she bled and died right away.

They held me for about
12 or 13 days.

Afterwards, they
called my family.

They asked for $100,000
from my husband.

He agreed. He said,
"I will pay."

Even after my husband
said he will pay,

they kept torturing me.

He gave them the money,

but still they didn't
untie my hands and legs.

He paid them, but they just left
me there,

and they left.

[sound of gate opening
and heartbeat]

A farmer that worked in the
area passed by and heard me.

He untied my hands and legs.

I said I had been kidnapped.

I gave him our phone number,
and he called my family.

I don't remember exactly
how they took me home.

I wasn't afraid of dying
or the torture.

My only wish was that, if I die,

I die as a Christian.

The Christian can always
save their life

if they will just convert,

if they will stop
being a Christian.

But they're unwilling to,

and so that's why, that's
why they're murdered.

Even in the middle
of all this devastation,

there is something
beautiful going on.

And it is the faith of
those believers.

To say I'm a follower of
Jesus Christ means to say

I'm willing to die for this.

But when you ask them
was it really worth it,

because you could have
converted to Islam

very easy and, you know,
kept everything,

and they say it was worth it.

And if we were given
the choice again

we will do exactly the same.

In many ways, what we are
seeing now in the Middle East

is quite similar to what
happened to the Armenians

a hundred years ago.

Although the Turks have been
massacring Armenians for

over two centuries,

and forcefully Islamizing them

under the cover of World War I,
they became a target.

The Armenians and Syrians and
other Christians in the region

who were brutally persecuted,
crucified, decapitated,

raped and so forth, was because
it was portrayed as a jihad.

The children, the younger ones,

they were seen as the hope,

as the hope for the
family to continue,

the people to continue.

So they would send
them off in batches.

A lot of times,
they would travel in darkness

and others would help them.

They would give
them a little cash,

some food in a bag, and
just something

that they would carry with them,
and they would walk.

My grandparents
traveled by foot,

and they traveled from today
east Turkey through Iraq,

through Syria, and they
settled in Egypt.

On my recent trip to Armenia,
Turkey, and Iraq,

we visited four refugee camps.

And when we were in
one of those camps,

I saw a young man
that was maybe 14.

And this young man had
lost both his parents.

He was there with
a younger sister,

maybe of the age
of six or seven.

And the weight of the world
was on his shoulders.

He was all of a sudden the
man of the house.

And all of a sudden, I
remembered my grandfather,

who had walked.

Now, I speak Arabic,
being raised in Egypt.

So I was able to speak in
Arabic and encourage him,

and tell him listen;
I'm here to show you hope.

My grandparents were exactly
where you are today.

Their family was gone.

Their belongings were gone.

Their home was gone.
Everything was gone.

They had nothing but
their younger sibling.

But they kept on with hope.
They kept on with faith,

and I exist today because
they didn't give up.

Within just a few decades of
the Armenian,

Assyrian, and Greek genocide,

the Middle East witnessed yet
another campaign

of ethnic cleansing.

[Instrumental music picks up]

Well, the Jewish communities
in the Middle East

and in North Africa were living
there for thousands of years.

In the middle of the
twentieth century,

all the Jews disappeared
from all these countries.

[Sound of crowds of people]

I was 16-plus

when we, my father
decided that this time

has come to try and escape.

And that is in the
backdrop of

the public hangings
in January '69.

There were nine innocent Jews
who were all hanged that morning

And their bodies were shown in
public squares

of Baghdad and Bosra.

People were dancing
under the bodies.

So by the time 1971 arrived,
we had no choice.

We had no choice.
There was not a life.

It was really a walking death.

So my father said we are
going to try and escape.

We will have a few days
until we reach safety.

I feel it as if it was
yesterday, how we set up,

how we left the house, how we
had to pretend that

we were just going around,

you know,
just for the couple of hours.

And how we got into the car,
final look at the house,

final look at all the things
that was in the house:

my treasured school reports,
my collections, my

stamp collection, my keyring,
my matchboxes, you name it

everything that we have
accumulated in a lifetime.

It was just going
to be left behind.

Then there were the checkpoints,

and the checkpoints
were terrifying

when they arrived because
you can see the slow signs.

And then you get there, and
then you lower the windows,

and the guns get into the car.

And then they asked my father to
step out with his paperwork.

And then you're
sitting in the car.

You don't know what to do.

You don't know,
my grandmother was

praying in a loud voice, and
we were begging her not to.

And my father would
have to convince them

why do we want to be
picnicking in that part of Iraq.

And my father would
assure them that

all we have to do is just
another few kilometers

and then we'll come back.

And so on and so forth,

until we had to cross the
mountains to Iran,

all in total and
absolute darkness.

Because these mountains
were exposed.

And if there was a light of the
car, then it would be shot.

So that was really the most
frightening part of the journey.

[sound of car stopping]

At one stage, the car just
stopped

right there was nothing.
There was just a hill.

And it was getting cold.

The person who was driving it
instructed everybody

to get out of the car,

completely out, out, out.

And we were saying are
you going to abandon us.

Where are we here?

And he said don't worry.
Now you are safe.

And we were like looking
at each other,

and it was the release of
almost eight years of hell.

They call this
ethnic cleansing.

This is the real word.
Let's face it.

Today, you can see the same
happening to the Christians.

If we don't care now,

the statistics later
will be mind boggling.

We must think not
about religion

or Christianity in the abstract.

We're talking about real people.

We're talking about families

who for generations have
lived their faith,

are wanting to pass on
their faith peacefully.

What is taking place
in the Middle East,

particularly in Iraq,
is genocide.

It meets the official definition
of the United Nations,

it is the
eradication of a particular

ethnic religious group.

And they are facing extinction.

One aspect of genocide

is the destruction of
historical artifacts

because these extremists
are trying to make it

as if these people
never existed.

[sound of explosion]

This video purports to show
the radicals destroying Nimrod,

one of the most important
archeological sites in Iraq.

In the past week, ISIS vandals

took hammers to ancient relics
in the nearby Mosul Museum.

We're seeing 5,000 years

of history being erased in just
a matter of a few months.

We're seeing this kind of
destruction of antiquities,

history that we can
never get back.

It is not by chance
that they are

targeting not
only communities

but also their very heritage.

Churches, mosques, shrines,
temples,

cultural historical sites.

The church that dates back
to the 4th century

in my village, doesn't
belong to my village,

and doesn't belong to me. It
belongs to the whole world.

These people have
lost everything.

They've lost their homes,
their land, their safety

their history.

And yet, when you visit
these IDP camps,

when you visit these refugee
camps, among the young people

there is still an incredible
resilience and incredible hope.

What do you want to be
when you grow up?

Teacher.

Teacher.

Doctor.

Journalist, so I can help my
people return to their homes.

All those people here, before
they have their big houses,

but now they
lose everything.

Two families.

My grandmother
sleeps on the floor.

We have no place to sleep.

What do you miss most
about Karamoja?

My friends, my teachers,
my class.

When we used to go on
journeys, picnics to school.

[Music Swells]

Mass immigration, to the point
where the lands are emptied

of its indigenous people
does not work,

for the very simple reason that
we are tied to our land.

They don't want to leave.
They want to be there.

They want to be in their
villages. They want to be where

their mothers and fathers and
grandmothers and grandfathers

and great-grandfathers walked.

And they shouldn't
have to leave.

We risk the possibility

that Christian communities
present in the Middle East

might cease to exist.

So right now you
have a very small,

faint candle flicker of a
light that is our people.

And for every church
that is blown up,

every town that is emptied
of indigenous Christians,

you are one step closer,
one flicker of the wind closer

to that little faint flame
being extinguished,

and us not existing anymore.

These fanatics hate Christians.

In the beginning, they
wanted to get rid of them

and chase them away.

If you allow them to continue,
and the world does nothing,

their final aim is to rid
the world of Christians.

This is happening,
first of all,

above and beyond
the Middle East.

This is in Sub-Saharan Africa.

The Islamist extremist
group Boko Haram

have said they carried
out a wave of fatal

Christmas Day bombings
against churches in Nigeria.

It's in as far as Indonesia,

the Philippines. It's happening
in even European areas

that have large
Muslim populations.

Scenes of carnage

at six different
locations across Paris.

At least 129 people were killed
in Friday's attacks

which Islamic
State says it carried out.

Breaking news from
San Bernardino, California.

The worst extremist attack
on America since 9/11.

A rampage

now believed to have been
inspired by the Islamic State.

Pledging allegiance to
the leader of ISIS

as the couple turned a holiday
party into a killing field.

Terror attacks in Brussels, and
tonight the casualties mounting,

with multiple explosions, at
the airport, and in the subway.

According to a new report,

ISIS has unprecedented levels
of support inside America.

ISIS terrorists
in all 50 states.

We must fight extremism,

not only for the sake of
our brothers and sisters,

but also because they are
at the frontline

against an enemy that
has clearly shown us

that it will bring the
fight wherever it can.

ISIS released a new video today

showing the execution
of 21 Coptic Christians.

The video shows the
Egyptian prisoners

being marched onto a beach
by militants dressed in black.

Then the prisoners are
beheaded brutally.

Christians in Egypt go back
to really the 2nd century

or even earlier.

St. Mark the evangelist who
wrote the gospel

of the same name is the
one who evangelized Egypt.

[religious chanting]

To the Coptic community,
faith is everything.

It's the one thing
that sustained

them throughout these 1,400
years of Islamic rule of Egypt.

And they were able to maintain
their religious identity.

They were able to maintain
their large, large number.

And to maintain that
number

throughout 1,400 years of
persecution for most part,

and discriminations for
the other part of it,

is all because of faith.

For me, growing up as
a Christian in Egypt

was a tough, a
tough process, actually.

Laws and regulations
and everything that was

on the books kind of treated
you as a second-class citizen.

For generations,

Copts have had to put up with
the unspoken rule that bars

them from holding senior
positions in the government,

army, or security services.

And during outbursts of
Islamist terrorism here,

Christians were targeted.

Churches are routinely
bombed and burned.

A car packed with explosives
and parked right in front of

the church, burst into flames.

The apparent suicide bombing
killed at least 21 people,

and wounded 97 more.

We've had over 60 churches
burned in one day,

on August 6th, 2013.

Mobs began attacking
Christian churches.

[mob chanting]

If the devil came down
with all of his soldiers,

he would not do to this church
what the Muslim Brotherhood did.

Looting. Destruction.

The church was an
exquisite masterpiece.

Coptic Cristian women and girls

are often abducted
and kidnapped.

On the 17th of August,

they declared me a Muslim,

and a couple of days later a
marriage contract

was drawn up in a car.

While the state does nothing
for Christian girls being

abducted and forcefully
converted into Islam,

Muslim converts to Christianity
face terrible consequences.

Muslim converts to
Christianity in Egypt,

and they are not few,
face a lot of persecution.

Muslims who wish to convert to
Christianity are often arrested,

and there's usually a
pretext given that's not

because they converted.

They'll say something like
sedition or something else.

And it can get to the point
that you get killed.

A PEW research survey
finds nearly 90%

of Egypt's Muslims believe
those who leave

Islam should be killed.

After I finished
my high school

I went to the law school in
Alexandria to become a lawyer.

I witnessed the persecution
and the discrimination

that took place against
the minorities in Egypt.

Especially the Christian
minorities in Egypt.

Which make me wonder why
there is persecution

happening to the
Christian minority.

It's my belief that you don't
torture or persecute somebody

unless you are scared from
the truth that they carry.

I started to read the Bible.

I started to believe in
Christianity.

I converted from
Islam to Christianity.

[sound of water]

On August 15, 1998,
I was arrested.

I was taken to Abu Zabel Prison,

what we call back
home "hell on earth,"

and I was tortured
for seven days.

[Gasping for air]

From shaving the
hair of my head,

to putting my head in
cold and hot water,

to hang me upside
down,

beating me, releasing
dogs to attack me,

to crucifying me for
two days and a half.

And at the end, they
made a cut in my

my left shoulder to the bone,

and they put salt and lemon
in the open wounds.

I don't know how many
people believe in miracles,

and how people doesn't
believe in miracles.

Before they released the three
dogs to attack me, I prayed.

And when they released
the three dogs,

the three dogs refused
to attack me.

They are trained to
listen to their master.

But it is in my opinion there is
no higher master than Christ.

And that's how
God saved me

from these three
dogs attacking me.

And this was
my miracle.

Until now I have nightmares.

My nightmares is not
about my torture.

My nightmares is about when
they put me in the prison.

It was a torture section.
It was underground.

And there was another nine
rooms besides my room

that they used to
torture the people.

And you could hear women getting
raped, men getting tortured.

And they would scream from pain,
and they would ask for mercy.

Until now, I can hear
them in my sleep.

The Egyptian government charged
me with three charges.

that I tried to
make a revolution

against the
Egyptian government,

that I tried to change the
official religion of Egypt

from Islam to Christianity,
which I didn't,

and that I love and
I worship Christ.

And I will tell you what I
told the judge in this day.

If loving and
worshiping Christ

is a crime, I am
guilty as charged.

And after that they give me
a death penalty,

which usually take
place by hanging.

After that, I was able to escape

before my death
penalty take place.

I escaped to Sinai.

And when I escaped to Sinai,
my friends told me

you cannot leave the country.
You are in the black list,

and you cannot escape to
any other country, really,

because Egypt is surrounded
by Arab Muslim countries.

So if I went to Libya,
Sudan, Saudi Arabia

all of these countries
will re-arrest you,

will torture you,
will send you back.

So the only country
that was not Arab

Muslim state was Israel,
the Jewish state.

And what I know about Israel
or the Jewish people

at that time, that the enemy
of my enemy is my friend.

It was simple logic.

So I took a jet ski and was
able to escape

from Taba to Eilat and I
became a free man in Jerusalem.

Many people aren't aware
that even Muslim minorities

are persecuted by
their fellow Muslims.

[bomb explosion]

A deadly car-bomb
attack at a mosque,

the explosion rocking morning
prayers and killing four.

Muslim Sunnis are
persecuted by Muslim Shi'ites,

in such places as Iran or Iraq.

Shi'a militias have killed
dozens of Sunni civilians.

Attacks against towns or
Sunni mosques are frequent.

And Muslim Shi'ites are
persecuted by Muslim Sunnis

in places like Saudi
Arabia and Bahrain.

A suicide bomber struck at a
Shi'a mosque in Saudi Arabia.

You're talking about
a disease that

is not affecting one
group alone,

but it's affecting everybody.

And that's something might be
controversial to some people

but this is the fact.
We cannot change realities.

This is the fact and we have
to protect these people.

Of all the non-Christian
minorities facing

persecution today, the
persecution

of the Yazidi people,
who've lived in Iraq

for thousands of years, is
possibly the most

painful to witness.

When thousands of Yazidis
fled an ISIS onslaught,

many brought with
them horrific memories.

According to a United
Nations report,

ISIS then gathered all males
older than 10 years of age,

took them outside the village
by pickup trucks, and shot them.

But the women suffer a fate
that may be worse than death.

Sold into slavery, sometimes
many times over,

to suffer unimaginable
brutality.

Captive women have been
bought and sold across

Iraq and Syria, like cattle.

He showed me a letter and said,

This shows any captured women
will become Muslim

if 10 ISIS fighters rape her.

Then Noor says he raped her.

After that, he gave
her to his friends.

She says each one raped her.

How many men did he pass you to?

One day there were
14 girls with me.

They tried to kill themselves
by drinking rat poison,

but they took them to the
hospital

and cleaned their stomach.

They told us, "We'll not
let you die so easy."

We're talking about child
sexual trafficking,

the rape and the sale of
children on a stunning scale.

They captured all of us.

They separated my
husband from me.

They forced him onto his
stomach and shot him twice.

We experienced
horrifying things.

The most difficult was seeing

women and girls
taken to be sold.

They took one girl for three
days. Ten men raped her.

She was 12-years old.

Someone grabbed me
and took my baby.

He said, "This is not shameful.
Now you're my wife."

They locked me and
my baby in a room.

He was crying.
There was no water

I shouted and banged
on the door.

I broke open the door.
I gave water to my baby.

I took a deep breath.
I closed the door and ran.

We had a lot of difficulties
until we reached safety.

When I got to the Kurdish
police, I called my brother

and he found me.

After, we decided
it's impossible to stay.

We must leave the country.
So we began preparations

all the papers and everything,
so we could travel.

Four or five days after
I was released,

my husband was in his car
coming back from work.

My son and I came out. We saw
another car behind him.

Four people got out.
They grabbed him.

They didn't ask for anything.

They beheaded him.

The threats kept coming.

"You must leave the house,
your stuff, your cars."

I decided I had to take my
children and escape.

Right when I decided to get
out, they came to me at night

three or four guys.

We had gold and
money in the house.

They took it and gave me
24 hours to leave.

So I had to take my children
and get out of Syria.

After my son saw his father's
beheading, he stopped speaking.

Syria is famous for its
churches and monasteries.

Lots of places you can pray.

I heard about a Monastery of St.
Takla. High in the mountains.

So I went up there barefoot.
The whole way up, I was praying

and crying.

During this time I also
lost my father.

I said, "It's over.

I've lost so many.

I just want my boy,
my child to speak."

And the very next morning,
he woke up, and he said,

"Mom, please make
me breakfast."

I was so happy.

I didn't want to travel.
I wanted to go back.

But while in Syria, I heard
about all the killing in Iraq.

I realized it's not
possible to go back.

And then I was approved to
come to the United States.

It was wonderful because my
children finally had a future.

Those who are able to
escape from ISIS

did not
do so unscathed.

Every refugee I've spoken to
has been left with scars

from a horror that they
will never forget.

Everybody fled Qaraqosh.

Everybody locked the doors
on their houses and fled.

They left all their
belongings and fled.

After ISIS took over,
the problem worsened.

They cut off our electricity.

And then they cut off our water.

And then they cut off the
supplies to our area.

After about two months,
when the army retreated,

ISIS invaded a little
after 5 in the morning.

[explosions]

My brother was running. He had
gone to the security forces.

He said, "ISIS is
going to invade."

We were scared to death.

The Peshmerga fired their guns
in the air to wake people up.

[gunfire]

So everyone packed
their things and we ran.

ISIS attacked with mortars,

which landed in
the middle of town.

[explosion]

The town was besieged.

[explosion]

[screams]

After that happened, we escaped.

We were seven people
in one small car.

my two children, my husband,
and my relatives.

The road was packed. Cars
bumping into each other.

Both sides of the road became
one direction, to flee.

Even the median was
packed with cars.

Any path that had room
had cars on it.

We had a very old car. I put my
children in and we escaped.

At the main road we saw the
bodies of dead children,

men and women who
had been killed,

corpses on the side
of the road.

I believe they shot over 100
bullets at us.

Many bullets hit my car.

The sound of bullets
was nonstop.

You didn't know if they were
hitting enemies or friends

You didn't know if it
would hit you

you or where it came from.

We were anxious for 11 hours.

Add to that our fear,

and the sound of children
screaming and crying.

I mean, the women, we
didn't know if at any moment

we might be captured
or we might escape.

My son kept telling me
that they will kill us

I kept calming him, saying,
"No, they don't kill us."

Eventually, we were all crying

uncontrollably and
just terrified.

We didn't know what to do.

We were low on gas.

[car beeping and
explosion sounds]

And our car had
about eight people.

The car was scraping the
ground.

Finally, we went off-road.

The car would've gotten stuck.
There had never been

a car there before

We cleared rocks by hand
and drove through.

People were fleeing and
leaving their homes behind.

Will they die of starvation?
Will they be killed?

Will they be sleeping
in the streets?

They didn't think.
They just fled.

Just running, car after car.

People just running and crying,
crying because of what happened.

That's how it was.

We felt like we looked
death in the eyes.

Though I'm here, I'm constantly
thinking of our people.

It's still hard to sleep.
They are all I can think about.

We think of their fear,
how they were killed,

and all that.

We fled and took what we
could because we were terrified.

We left behind most
of our things.

We fled with our wives,
our daughters,

our children, to escape ISIS.

We left our lands.
We left our memories.

We left everything and
ran for our lives.

The world many times over
has vowed "Never again,"

and then another atrocity comes,
and we say, "Never again".

If we're going to
say never again,

then we should actually
do something.

Often people will say it's so
overwhelming to read the paper

or to hear the news.

And they say what
can one person do.

There is a certain frustration.

I will be the first
to admit that.

Sometimes when you
see a massive problem,

you feel helpless.

You really don't know
what to do.

If people are opening their
hearts and minds to this,

and are learning about this,

they cannot walk away saying
we'll pray for them,

and we'll feel bad for them,
and that's all we can do.

You have a voice. And doesn't
matter how small is your voice.

You can make a difference, even
if you are just one person.

What we try to do is connect a
system where we can connect

from abroad to the homeland.

If somebody in the U.S. or in
Europe wants to

send any kind of help or
any kind of direct impact,

we're basically like a bridge.

I mean, that's our strength,
is abroad,

and if they can help us to
strengthen ourselves

in our homeland, y
ou know, why not?

There's a cry for
help from here.

And you know, these small
things like coloring books,

something as simple as this

a five-year-old child
will remember it forever.

And that's what we
try to focus on,

just making the kids forget
about their situation

for a couple of days.

Thank you.

[acoustic guitar]

[kids singing]

This new wave of ISIS is
not something new.

It's something that we've dealt
with for a very long time.

This is how,

the Middle East went from
being really Christian majority,

which most people don't even
know at this point,

to being almost entirely
Muslim in certain areas.

And so they're in fact,
there is regions right now

that have no Christians at all
that a century ago they did.

It's pretty much

unless something
fairy dramatic is done,

we will see the extinction of
Christianity in that region.

We're watching a real genocide
unfold in real time.

And when something happens
on the other side of the world,

we know it immediately here.

And that knowledge bears
with it responsibility.

All that is needed for
evil to triumph

is for good men to do nothing.

There are some things in life
that are worth fighting for.

Freedom is worth
fighting for.

Okay, protection of your
family is worth fighting for.

Stopping genocide is something
worth fighting for.

They are taking our land.

They are killing us, and no
one is paying attention to us.

Look at these people.
Why are they being killed,

forcing them to emigrate,

making them flee.

And the most powerful countries
are just sitting

and watching us.

And nothing is being done.

Why?

Why is this happening?

Let them stand with us.

"One hand can't clap
on its own."

Let them stand with us.

We will not be
silenced regarding our rights.

[Acoustic Music]

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