The explosion of ethno-religious hatred, forced expulsions and gruesome murders by Islamic State militants in Iraq and Syria has risen to the level of genocide, says Andrew Bennett, Canada’s ambassador for religious freedom.

“ISIS is a barbaric terrorist group that has taken Sunni Islam and warped it, distorted it, twisted it and usurped it for its own barbaric goals of establishing a so-called caliphate,” Bennett said in an interview in Toronto on Monday, referring to the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria, as the group was previously known.

Although the factors are complex, he added, “it is religiously motivated and religion is at the centre of this conflict.”

Last week, Ottawa announced the deployment of “several dozen” members of the military who will join U.S. forces in advising the Iraqi government on becoming more effective in fighting the militants, who have killed, pillaged and terrorized their way through Iraq and Syria in an effort to revive the Muslim conquests that began in the 7th century after the Prophet Muhammad’s death.

On Monday Jordan’s Zeid Ra’ad al Hussein, the UN’s first Muslim human rights chief, accused the militants of trying to create a “house of blood” in the Middle East and denounced them for “barbarically slaughtering captives” in the name of religion.

Bennett, whose mandate is to promote and defend freedom of religion in the world, has been in the job fewer than two years. During that time, attacks on religious groups have escalated across the Middle East and parts of Africa, as well as Ukraine.

And, he says, it’s time that Canadians, who live in a secular society, brought religion into public debate — something many Western governments have shied away from.

“We can’t be afraid of religion in public discourse and how we advance foreign policy goals. We cannot say that religion is just bad, because it isn’t. It motivates people to great good and justice. But when we talk about the advancement of religious freedom we don’t mean theological disputes. We’re looking at the inherent dignity of every human being.”

Canada is well placed to set an example of tolerance, he said. But it is also correct to take military and humanitarian action on “religiously based persecutions,” that amount to “genocides in the case of the Yazidis and Christians.” The Islamic State has threatened both groups with conversion to their brand of radical Islam or death, and has massacred hundreds of men, women and children.

“The worst thing we can do is to throw up our hands and say it’s too complicated and we need to back away,” Bennett said. “It depends on countries of goodwill like Canada and its allies — that believe in democracy, freedom, rule of law and human rights — to take a stand.”

The Islamic State has accelerated attacks on the Christian minority in the Middle East to new levels of brutality, but it is only part of the ongoing shrinkage of the beleaguered Christian population in the region, he said.

“We need to speak out in their defence, but also understand their traditions and the precarious position they find themselves in. They are members of ancient apostolic churches present for the better part of two millennia.”

While the most serious religion-linked bloodshed is currently in the Middle East, Ukraine’s religious communities are also under threat said Bennett, a Ukrainian Greek Catholic convert.

“There is certainly religious cleansing there, and we have serious concerns about persecution in eastern Ukraine and Crimea by Russian proxies, so-called separatists. In the wake of Russia’s invasion of Crimea, Greek Catholic priests were driven out of their homes and kidnapped for hours as a form of intimidation.”

Ukrainian Orthodox priests have been threatened when serving liturgies, and a Ukrainian Greek Catholic order of nuns was expelled from a convent, he said.

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Under President Vladimir Putin, the Moscow-based Russian Orthodox church has been increasingly active and influential, carried by a tide of nationalism.

A shaky truce is now in force in Ukraine, where pro-Russian forces have been battling the Ukrainian military over territory in eastern Ukraine, and more than 2,600 civilians have reportedly died. On Monday, Foreign Minister John Baird said he was skeptical of Russia’s willingness to de-escalate the crisis.

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