Mike Pence says Trump administration will treat religious freedom as 'foreign policy priority'

Vice President Mike Pence has stated that religious freedom will be regarded as a "foreign policy priority" under the administration of President Donald Trump and that the U.S. will condemn the persecution of any faith anywhere in the world.

Pence, who was a featured speaker at the National Catholic Prayer Breakfast held at the Marriott Marquis Hotel on Tuesday, highlighted the persecution of Christians in the Middle East carried out by the Islamic State terror group

The vice president noted that the Islamic terrorists had persecuted people from every religious background, including those belonging to other Islamic sects, but they seem to "harbor a special hatred for the followers of Christ and none more so than the barbarians known as ISIS."

He likened the atrocities committed by ISIS to savagery not seen since the Middle Ages and said that he believes that the group is "is guilty of nothing short of genocide."

Pence pointed to the attacks on Coptic Christians in two separate cities in Egypt on Palm Sunday as an example of the group's atrocities. He also noted that Christians in Syria are fleeing in large numbers because the Christian communities in the country are being burned to the ground.

"In Iraq we see ancient churches demolished, priests and monks beheaded, two millennia old Christian traditions in Mosul virtually extinguished," the vice president said, according to The Christian Post.

"Whether in Mosul, Iraq or Syria, followers of Christ have fallen 80 percent in the last decade and a half. This must end. This will end," he continued.

The vice president vowed that the Trump administration will prioritize religious freedom and continue to "condemn persecution of any faith in any place at any time."

He further stated that the United States would not relent "until we drive the cancer of terrorism from the face of the earth."

Pence, who is an evangelical but was raised in a devout Irish Catholic family, praised Catholicism in his speech, saying it had left an "indelible mark on the American spirit." He said that he was honored to speak at the event and added that his mother would be proud of him.

He urged faithful American Catholics to consider Trump as an "ally" and he assured them that the president "stands with the most vulnerable: the aged, the infirm, and unborn."

According to the Daily Caller, Trump received 52 percent of the Catholic vote in the 2016 presidential elections. He was well-received among "weekly churchgoers," gaining 56 percent of the vote compared to former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton who got 40 percent.