Stopisis
By now, most Americans have heard tales of the atrocities perpetrated by the Islamic State (IS or ISIS) against anyone who refuses to bow down to their radical Islamic caliphate. Christians, Yazidis, and moderate Muslims alike have all been captured, raped, and slaughtered en masse by ISIS.
Yet despite the mounting evidence of the ever-increasing brutality and influence of ISIS, very little is being done to stop their tide of evil.
Here are 5 reasons why it is imperative that the United States and its Western allies take the Islamic State seriously and stop their evil once and for all:
1. The brutality of the Islamic State knows no limits.
Mass beheadings of Christians, children burned alive in cages, and the latest reports of 10 men accused of apostasy in Afghanistan being forced to lay over bombs buried in the sand before the captors press the detonators – the scope of these jihadists’ terror knows no bounds.
And just when you think it can’t possibly get any worse, it does.
This week, the Catholic relief agency Aid to the Church in Need announced that “Christians have become a form [of] currency in this tragedy.” They report that many Arab Christians are being abducted and held for ransom as a means of funding ISIS. One priest’s family managed to scrape together the $120,000 ransom put on his head, but once they paid the sum, they were mailed his cut up body parts in a box.
This sort of brutality is inconceivable! These men are ruthless and cruel, and seem to have turned the torture and murder of their captives into some sort of sick sport.
If this is not the kind of evil that our government is established to stop, then one must ask what is.
This evil must be stopped!
2. The Islamic State has institutionalized a culture of rape and sex-slavery.
ISIS is waging a literal war against women.
It is well documented by survivors who have escaped and from ISIS internal documents that the women and girls ISIS captures are immediately forced into a highly organized system of sex slavery. As we previously reported, ISIS published a “price list” of Yazidi and Christian women available for purchase at ISIS sex-slave markets, even going as far as naming the price of girls aged 0-9 years old!
The New York Times recently reported that ISIS has now enshrined the rape of its female captives into its radical Islamic theology.
A growing body of internal policy memos and theological discussions has established guidelines for slavery, including a lengthy how-to manual issued by the Islamic State Research and Fatwa Department just last month. Repeatedly, the ISIS leadership has emphasized a narrow and selective reading of the Quran and other religious rulings to not only justify violence, but also to elevate and celebrate each sexual assault as spiritually beneficial, even virtuous.
“Every time that he came to rape me, he would pray,” said F, a 15-year-old girl who was captured on the shoulder of Mount Sinjar one year ago and was sold to an Iraqi fighter in his 20s. Like some others interviewed by The New York Times, she wanted to be identified only by her first initial because of the shame associated with rape.
“He kept telling me this is ibadah,” she said, using a term from Islamic scripture meaning worship.
It is estimated that thousands of Christian and Yazidi women are currently being held in warehouses, ready to be sold on the auction block and subjected to a lifetime of rape and torture. This evil must be stopped!
3. The Islamic State consistently and systematically defies international law.
Although ISIS claims to have set up a system of courts and government within their caliphate, they continually mock international laws and legal norms with almost every action they take.
It is undeniable that ISIS has perpetrated thousands of war crimes, including directing attacks against civilians, murdering and mistreating prisoners of war, and wantonly destroying entire villages and religious relics not warranted by military necessity.
They have also clearly perpetrated many crimes against humanity, as their widespread and systematic jihadist military campaigns are often directed at civilian populations.
Not to mention, their actions appear congruent with the very definition of genocide: “Genocide is the systematic elimination of all or a significant part of a racial, ethnic, religious, cultural or national group.” ISIS’s mindset and actions against the Christian and Yazidi religious minorities they have captured, raped, and murdered in Iraq seem to fit squarely within this definition.
Not only is ISIS murdering these groups and forcing them from their lands, but ISIS is also destroying all historical evidence of these cultures from the regions they conquer. If this isn’t the definition of genocide, I’m not sure what is.
And just this week, evidence has emerged that ISIS may be using chemical weapons. The New York Times reported:
The group responsible for monitoring adherence to the global ban on chemical weapons said Monday that it had contacted Iraq over reports of the possible use of such munitions there. A statement by the group, the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons, based in The Hague, came a few days after United States officials said Islamic State militants appeared to have used such munitions, possibly mustard gas, on Kurdish fighters in Iraq.
This is why we at the ACLJ are working on Capitol Hill and at the United Nations to ensure ISIS is fully brought to justice for all the international crimes they are currently committing. This evil must be stopped!
4. The Islamic State is gaining ground rapidly.
Despite President Obama’s insistence that there is no need for greater U.S. involvement with ISIS, these jihadists continue to gain more influence, money, and power. Every day, we see new accounts of Christians Yazidis begin captured, women being enslaved, and mass murders being committed by ISIS.
Their scope now reaches beyond their primary battlefields in Iraq and Syria. A US General in Kabul told the Pentagon this week that ISIS is now making inroads into Afghanistan. They just reestablished their control of the Libyan city of Sirte. ISIS also reportedly released a hit list of US and British airmen in England, asking their allies abroad to target and kill those listed. And these are a few on the many advances they have made just this month!
These are not the actions of a military that is in retreat. These are the actions of an emboldened jihadist army that is on the offensive and whose numbers and conquests are growing daily. And this evil must be stopped!
5. The mission of ISIS is to annihilate all Christians and all people who do not bow down to the caliphate.
The express goal of ISIS is to extinguish all Christians and other religious minorities from the Middle East. The first western journalist allowed inside the ISIS regime reported that ISIS is “enthusiastic about killing hundreds of millions of people.”
And last December, an eye-opening documentary revealed very young boys pledging their allegiance to the Islamic State, saying they are joining the ISIS fighters “because they kill infidels and apostates.”
Radical Islam will not stop until everyone bows down to them or is extinguished. Genocide against Christians and others is the natural consequence of their radical ideology.
Even The New York Times realizes what is happening, recently publishing an article entitled “Is this the End of Christianity in the Middle East” which details how ISIS is “looking to eradicate Christians and other minorities altogether.”
Yet, for more than a year, President Obama has failed to appoint an Ambassador to lead a Special Envoy to Promote Religious Freedom of Religious Minorities in the Near East and South Central Asia.
While Christians and other religious minorities are decimated in that region, the Obama Administration leaves this vital position unfilled. This is why the ACLJ has urged them to fill this spot and will continue to do so.
We must help our brothers and sisters in Christ and all people who are suffering daily at the hands of pure evil. We cannot stand by and let our fellow human beings be tortured and exterminated.
As Dietrich Bonhoeffer stated, “Silence in the face of evil is itself evil: God will not hold us guiltless. Not to speak is to speak. Not to act is to act.”
We must act. And we must demand that our leaders act!
At the ACLJ, we continue our work on Capitol Hill and around the world to not only raise awareness to ISIS’s genocidal reign of terror, but to urge our government to take the lead in ending this historic evil.
stopisis
They all have names. Every one of the people who ISIS has murdered has a name and every day more people die trying to protect their right to a life free from persecution and terror.
All decent human beings are disgusted and horrified by the atrocities perpetrated by ISIS, yet ISIS continues its evil work unhindered, even affiliating with other extremist organisations. In the meantime there are some half-hearted coalition air strikes which, at best, succeed only in temporarily containing ISIS. Yet all across Northern Syria especially, Rojavan Kurds continue to fight, essentially unassisted, to protect people of all religions and ethnic backgrounds and support refugees.
Western governments have largely ignored these Kurdish people yet think about what would be happening if these Kurds had not stepped forward and resisted. ISIS would now own most of Northern Syria and would be pressing forward with its stated aim of spreading its extremist ideology across the world. It doesn’t bear thinking about.
Despite Kurdish progress ISIS is not defeated. How long can the Kurds continue to hold ISIS back without help? How many of them must die in this battle? How many more people from the west, shamed by their governments’ apathy, must go out to do battle against ISIS? How many must give their lives, like my son Kosta did, while western governments sit back and watch? How many more civilians must be brutally murdered before the rest of the world does something convincing to stop this evil?
It’s time for us to work together and do something to help.
It’s time to stop ISIS.
Join the fight against extremism. Step up, be brave, sign the petition. Help us get more than 100.000 signatures so that governments can’t ignore what’s going on any more.
We want:
1. A UN presence/ monitors all along the Turkish Syrian border to ensure:
a. that supplies and volunteers for Daesh/ISIS are not entering the conflict using this route and if they are, then to stop them immediately.
b. a humanitarian corridor is opened so that aid, including medical supplies, and the resources needed to rebuild towns and villages after ISIS has retreated, reach the civilians in Rojava consistently
Why: a. ISIS are getting their supplies and new members from somewhere. There are many reports that indicate that they are coming through the Turkish/Syrian border. If this is the case then evidence needs to be collected and it needs to be stopped immediately. b. Also supplies and aid are being stopped from getting through to the Kurdish people. A protected and independent corridor is vital to ensure they get the help they need.
2. Western governments to open up a dialogue directly with the YPG in Rojava to find out what they need in order to defeat ISIS conclusively and then supply it.
Why: The best way to help Rojavan Kurds on the frontline is to ask them what they need. It’s obvious. Why is no-one listening to them? Why is no-one asking them? The YPG is not a listed organisation so there is no barrier to doing this.
3. the immediate release of Silhan Ozcelik and any other person being held for wishing to fight against ISIS.
Why: We should not demonise people going out to fight against ISIS.
4. the de-listing of the PKK.
Why: The PKK are trying to be conciliatory. They are prepared to work at creating a positive relationship with Turkey. They could be a useful ally in the fight against ISIS. If we can de-list Cuba, work with Iran and the IRA we can de-list the PKK.
5. a commitment to dedicate resources to ensuring the return of every girl taken by ISIS and sold into slavery and their return to their families and communities with appropriate support.
Why: slavery and rape are unacceptable under any circumstances. These women need justice.
6. an investigation into Western ‘allies’ who may be funding or supporting ISIS and immediate punitive measures if they are found to be doing so.
Why: ISIS are getting funding, supplies and members from somewhere and these are reaching them somehow. They are selling oil, antiquities and women/ children somewhere. This needs to stop whether it is being done with or without the relevant governments’ awareness.
Please speak out and sign this petition.
This Esquire article suggests that the only realistic way to stop ISIS is to cut their funding off at the source: The wealthy oil kingdoms of the Arabian Peninsula.
Saudi Arabia is the world's largest source of funds for Islamist militant groups such as the Afghan Taliban and Lashkar-e-Taiba – but the Saudi government is reluctant to stem the flow of money, according to Hillary Clinton. "More needs to be done since Saudi Arabia remains a critical financial support base for al-Qaida, the Taliban, LeT and other terrorist groups," says a secret December 2009 paper signed by the US secretary of state. Her memo urged US diplomats to redouble their efforts to stop Gulf money reaching extremists in Pakistan and Afghanistan. "Donors in Saudi Arabia constitute the most significant source of funding to Sunni terrorist groups worldwide," she said. Three other Arab countries are listed as sources of militant money: Qatar, Kuwait and the United Arab Emirates. The cables highlight an often ignored factor in the Pakistani and Afghan conflicts: that the violence is partly bankrolled by rich, conservative donors across the Arabian Sea whose governments do little to stop them. The problem is particularly acute in Saudi Arabia, where militants soliciting funds slip into the country disguised as holy pilgrims, set up front companies to launder funds and receive money from government-sanctioned charities.
It's time for this to stop. It's time to be pitiless against the bankers and against the people who invest in murder to assure their own survival in power. Assets from these states should be frozen, all over the west. Money trails should be followed, wherever they lead. People should go to jail, in every country in the world. It should be done state-to-state. Stop funding the murder of our citizens and you can have your money back. Maybe. If we're satisfied that you'll stop doing it. And, it goes without saying, but we'll say it anyway – not another bullet will be sold to you, let alone advanced warplanes, until this act gets cleaned up to our satisfaction. If that endangers your political position back home, that's your problem, not ours. You are no longer trusted allies. Complain, and your diplomats will be going home. Complain more loudly, and your diplomats will be investigated and, if necessary, detained. Retaliate, and you do not want to know what will happen, but it will done with cold, reasoned and, yes, pitiless calculation. It will not be a blind punch. You will not see it coming. It will not be an attack on your faith. It will be an attack on how you conduct your business as sovereign states in a world full of sovereign states.
I'm inclined to agree that enough is enough and we should turn our backs on the Saudis and the other oil kingdoms, but is this realistic?
Is it the best way to fight ISIS and extremism?
What is the best way?
It is possible that there isn't something we can do, or at the very least does the the most prudent path to middle east stabilization involves less or no intervention from the U.S? (Thanks /u/rynebrandon for that last option)
