"My purpose in appearing before you today is to assert that in my judgment, Daesh [Arabic acronym for IS] is responsible for genocide against groups in areas under its control, including Yazidis, Christians and Shia Muslims," Kerry said during a press conference. "Daesh is genocidal by self-proclamation, by ideology and by actions—in what it says, what it believes and what it does.

While the label is unlikely to change U.S. policy, Mark Arabo, a Chaldean leader in San Diego who has fought for this recognition since 2014, called the move "a defining moment in American history," as the government will now be morally compelled to stop the genocide committed against Christians in the Middle East.

"This is the second time in the history of the United States that the State Department and Congress have recognized Christian genocide; it's historic by all measures," he told The Gospel Herald during a phone interview on Thursday. "It means that Congress, the President, and the State Department now have a moral obligation to act. It's not enough that they recognized the problem, they need to fix the problem. We hope and pray that the moral conscience of Congress is going to wake up, and God will open up their hearts and minds to the victims of genocide."

Arabo, who is the president of the California-based Minority Humanitarian Foundation, said the recognition also provides hope to those suffering for their beliefs.

"Christians are being massacred because of their faith," he said. "Their churches have been bombed, their houses have been taken away, their clothes have been stripped from them. They're left in the desert in..."

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