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Trump holds Oval Office meeting with survivors of religious persecution

By Daniel Uria
Paula White speaks as President Donald Trump met with a group of survivors of religious persecution in the Oval Office at the White House on Wednesday. Photo by Kevin Dietsch/UPI
Paula White speaks as President Donald Trump met with a group of survivors of religious persecution in the Oval Office at the White House on Wednesday. Photo by Kevin Dietsch/UPI | License Photo

July 17 (UPI) -- President Donald Trump met with survivors of religious persecution in the Oval Office on Wednesday.

The meeting featured 27 people from 17 countries and a variety of religious backgrounds as Trump and the White House reaffirmed their commitment to religious liberty.

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"Each of you has suffered tremendously for your faith," Trump said. "Each of you has now become a witness to the importance of advancing religious liberty all around the world."

The meeting included 2018 Nobel Peace Prize winner, Nadia Murad, a member of the Iraq's Yazidi minority who survived sexual slavery under the Islamic State in 2014 and has since advocated for refugee and women's rights.

Other attendees included Farid Ahmed, a survivor of the Christchurch mosque shooting in New Zealand and a Christian woman named Mariam Ibraheem, who was detained in a Sudanese jail while pregnant.

"These folks here represent the faiths of billions of people around the world and the United States is the main country ... to stand up and fight for their religious freedom," said United States Ambassador-at-Large for International and Religious Freedom Sam Brownback.

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Some of the attendees shared their stories with Trump and thanked him for his efforts to defend religious freedom.

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