WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. and Middle East Christian leaders are hoping President Obama won’t overlook the plight of religious minorities when he tells Americans how he’ll respond to the Islamic State militants in Iraq and Syria.

On the eve of Obama’s address to the nation, Cardinal Donald Wuerl welcomed the Middle East’s Christian patriarchs to a Washington summit.

Nina Shea (NEE’-nah SHAY), director of the Hudson Institute’s Center for Religious Freedom, says it’s not enough for the U.S. and allied forces to degrade and destroy the Islamic State group. She says President Obama also should address the plight of religious minorities who are being killed, kidnapped or exiled from their historic homelands.

Robert George, vice chair of the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom, says Americans “should demand action” so that the Middle East’s persecuted Christians know they haven’t been abandoned or forgotten.

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