In the wake of the violence in Iraq, 55 members of Congress last week called on the Obama Administration to do more to help protect religious minorities in Iraq.

In a letter to the president spearheaded by Reps. Frank Wolf (R-VA) and Anna G. Eshoo (D-CA), co-chairs of the Religious Minorities in the Middle East Caucus, the bipartisan group of House members urged the Administration to actively engage with the Iraqi central government and the Kurdistan Regional Government to prioritize additional security support for especially vulnerable populations, notably Iraq’s ancient Christian community and provide emergency humanitarian assistance to those affected communities.

“Absent immediate action, we will most certainly witness the annihilation of an ancient faith community from the lands they’ve inhabited for centuries,” the group wrote. The group pointed to the rapid fall of multiple cities in Iraq to the terrorist Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS), which brings the militant group notably closer to its declared aim of establishing a caliphate that spans the northern sections of Syria and Iraq. 

 “For years we have witnessed a precipitous decline of Iraq’s Christian community,” the letter said. “Thousands have fled in the face of targeted violence. Many of those that remained relocated to Mosul and the Nineveh Plain. To people of faith, Nineveh is familiar name: the site of a dramatic spiritual revival as told in the biblical book of Jonah. These areas were one of the last remaining havens for this beleaguered community.” 

The letter also highlighted the fact that for the first time in 1,600 years there was no Mass in Mosul on Sunday after having fallen to the ISIS last week.