This week I hosted a U.S. Senate Human Rights Caucus Field Hearing to discuss ISIS’s growing threats to security and human dignity in the Middle East. ISIS controls more money, fighters and land than al-Qaeda did on 9/11 and is committing mass atrocities against women, children, and ethnic and religious minorities in the Middle East. ISIS’s violence has displaced over 2 million Iraqis, and the terrorist movement captured and killed more than 1,500 Iraqi troops stationed at the former U.S. Camp Speicher military base. In August, ISIS reportedly kidnapped nearly 500 women and girls, selling them as sex slaves or giving them to terrorist fighters as a reward.

During the Field Hearing, Dr. Khalil Marrar, a professor at Governors State University, explained why ISIS may target Chicago.

“Where they really want to hit is what they call high value targets or significant value targets,” Marrar said. “Chicago, Illinois, is not just a major financial hub and a transportation hub,” but also “a soft target” and “the hometown of President Obama.”

This summer, a pro-ISIS Twitter user posted a photograph featuring a handwritten threat to Chicago, dated June 20th, with the city’s Old Republic Building in the background.

Sandra Raheem, an Iraqi national who applied for asylum in the United States due to ISIS threats against her hometown, testified that ISIS’s advances forced her family to flee their hometown and take refuge in an Iraqi morgue.

“Upon reaching where the morgue was, they met with other refugees, and they had no food, no water, minimal clothing, minimal shelter,” Raheem said through translator Bishop Mar Gewargis Younan. “Many of the children became very sick and many died because of unsanitary conditions and lack of basic necessities to survive.”

The witnesses included:

Reine Hanna, an Assyrian-American from Skokie, Ill., is currently working as a paralegal at an immigration firm in the Chicagoland area. She is the director of various Assyrian organizations, including the Assyrian National Council of Illinois and the Assyria Foundation.

Dr. Khalil Marrar is a professor at Governors State University and previously belonged to the faculty of DePaul University. He has taught courses in history, religion and political science. While specializing in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, his research interests include international relations, American culture, foreign policy, political organizations and terrorism. He has served in editorial positions at the Arab Studies Quarterly and the Association of Arab-American University Graduates.

Sandra Raheem is an Iraqi national who applied for asylum in the United States due to the ISIS threat against her hometown. She is an Assyrian Christian whose family fled their home after many families in their town were forced by ISIS to pay a tax called a jizya. Many families were killed, even if the tax was paid. Sandra’s family was forced to abandon their home and temporarily live in a morgue with no access to food or water while fleeing ISIS.

Bishop Mar Gewargis Younan was born in Baghdad, Iraq, in 1980 – at the start of the Iran/Iraq war. Due to the growing turmoil and his father’s refusal to become a Baath Party member, his family was forced to leave Iraq when he was only 40 days old. He was raised in Chicago. His Grace received his education on Church liturgy and Sacraments, with a focus on the Assyrian/Aramaic language in Chicago. He served as a Deacon at Saint Odisho Church in Chicago for 20 years, and was ordained a priest in 2012. In June 2014, His Grace was elevated to the rank of Bishop for the Chicago Diocese of the Ancient Church of the East. He obtained a Bachelor of Science in Management degree from Northeastern Illinois University.

Co-founded with U.S. Senator Chris Coons (D-Del.), the Senate Human Rights Caucus works to raise awareness and take action against egregious human rights violations throughout the world. The U.S. Senate Human Rights Caucus was formed in the spirit of the Congressional Human Rights Caucus, which former Congressmen Tom Lantos (D-Calif.) and John Porter (R-Ill.) created in 1983. Later re-named the Tom Lantos Human Rights Commission, its members have been working to defend and advocate for internationally recognized human rights in a nonpartisan manner for more than 30 years. In this vein, the Senate Human Rights Caucus will continue the Commission’s legacy by highlighting and defending key human rights issues throughout the world. In bringing congressional-level attention to global human rights issues that the public may be unaware of, the Caucus will be able to provide a voice to the voiceless and work to provide a lifeline to those suffering at the hand of repressive regimes.

The Senate Human Rights Caucus held its first hearing on September 10, 2014, in Washington, D.C., entitled “A Region at Risk: ISIS’s Barbaric Tactics in Iraq & Syria.” Learn more about my work on human rights.