672 Sexual Jihad by ISIS; ISIS "a Zionist instrument"

Sexual Jihad by ISIS; ISIS "a Zionist instrument"

Newsletter published on 15 August 2014

(1) ISIS "Abetted by Israel" to fragment the Middle East
(2) Islamic movement ISIS in Iraq & Syria "is a Zionist instrument"
(3) Sexual Jihad by ISIS in Syria - includes rape of Christian &
minority women
(4) Sexual jihad in Sunni Islam

(1) ISIS "Abetted by Israel" to fragment the Middle East

From: Willem Wolters <willemwolters@me.com>
Subject: Farsnews
Date: Thu, 14 Aug 2014 12:20:31 +0200

Dear Peter,

Please find below an article on Farsnews by a Canadian journalist about
the background of ISIS or ISIL.

Willem Wolters

http://english.farsnews.com/newstext.aspx?nn=13930515000176

Sat Aug 09, 2014 9:9

Brandon Martinez: ISIL Is Being Aided and Abetted by Israel

TEHRAN (FNA)- Brandon Martinez, a Canadian journalist and freelance
writer, believes that the so-called Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant
(ISIL or ISIS) is the co-product of the Israeli regime and the United
States who are supporting it financially and militarily.

According to Brandon Martinez, ISIL is pursuing a Zionist agenda that
was set out in 1980s by a fanatic Israeli strategist Oded Yinon who had
envisaged the balkanization of the Middle East nations that are not
supportive of Israel’s expansionistic, imperial agenda.

“Recently we saw Israel bomb several Syrian military sites to aid the
ISIL insurgency in the south of the country, which illustrates quite
clearly that ISIL is being aided and abetted by Tel Aviv as part of a
broader Zionist destabilization plot in Syria,” said Brandon Martinez in
an interview with Fars News Agency.

“Israel’s ultimate agenda, as outlined in the [Oded] Yinon document and
other Israeli geopolitical manifestos, is to have Muslims and Arabs
fighting and squabbling amongst themselves so that nobody can challenge
its hegemony and also so that it can get away with the ongoing ethnic
cleansing of Palestine with little protest from the outside world,” he
added.

As said by Mr. Martinez, it’s in the best interests of Israel to ignite
infighting and dispute among the Muslims and Arab nations, while in
effect the different Muslim denominations, including the Shiites and
Sunnis, are not at odds and always lived in peaceful coexistence as long
as the foreign powers don’t pit them against each other.

Brandon Martinez is a journalist and freelance writer with a special
focus on the foreign policy issues and Middle East current affairs. A
critic of the “farcical War on Terror”, he has long blogged on Zionism,
Israel-Palestine, American and Canadian foreign policy, war, terrorism
and deception in media and politics. Martinez is a frequent contributor
to Press TV.

What follows is the text of FNA’s interview with Mr. Brandon Martinez on
the recent rise of the ISIL in Iraq and Syria and their relationship
with the world powers.

Q: Brandon; what do you think are the ultimate objectives of the
so-called Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant? Why have they embarked
on a project of rabblerousing and igniting sectarian conflict in the region?

A: I believe the stated goal of ISIL to create an “Islamic caliphate” in
the Middle East is just a cover story for a more sinister agenda. In my
opinion, the real objective of ISIL is to deliberately blacken the name
of Islam as well as to purposefully cause sectarian strife across the
Muslim world. As we have seen, ISIL militants have engaged in medieval
savagery and have often videotaped their brutalities for the world to
see. They commit these heinous inhuman acts, such as beheadings, mass
shootings, etc., in the name of Islam by flying Islamic banners and
symbols. But the fact is that most of those targeted and victimized by
the group are Muslims.

ISIL is not waging a “jihad” against the bandit state of Israel, which
kills and injures thousands of Arabs and Muslims each year; nor is the
group acting against the corrupt dictatorships plaguing the Persian Gulf
(Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Bahrain, etc.) Yet ISIL radicals have a menacing
presence in Syria and Iraq, two Arab, Muslim countries neighboring
Israel that the Zionists have long sought to weaken and subjugate for
the sake of “Greater Israel.” This is hardly a coincidence. In my honest
opinion, ISIL is nothing more than a conglomeration of hardened
criminals, psychopaths and murder-for-hire thugs in the employ of the
Americans, the Israelis and the Saudis.

Q: Can we consider the threat of the disintegration and balkanization of
Iraq serious? Is the ISIL capable of realizing its plans for dominating
Iraq and Syria and destroying their sovereign governments?

A: ISIL is certainly a formidable threat to the sovereignty and
well-being ofIraq, Syria and other Middle Eastern countries. As we have
seen over the past few years, the ISIL, Al-Nusra insurgency in Syria has
thrown the entire country into chaos and devastation. The terror group
is relatively well-armed, well-trained and well-organized and its
fighters are ruthless fanatics consumed by a violent ideology. The
current Iraqi government under Maliki is weak and fragile, as it has to
deal with so many other problems plaguing the country. Now faced with
ISIL incursions into major Iraqi cities, the Maliki regime may well
collapse under the pressure. No matter how many setbacks ISIL suffers,
they always seem to recuperate and launch more attacks. ISIL’s Israeli,
American, Saudi backers seem willing to throw infinite amounts of money
and resources at the group. If that support continues indefinitely, the
governments of Iraq and Syria may not be able to withstand the ISIL
onslaught. Let’s hope that is not the case.

Q: In one of your recent articles, you noted that fragmenting and
weakening the Middle East has been part and parcel of the Israeli
regime’s plans for the Middle East. You cited the Zionist strategist
Oded Yinon as writing in 1982 that “[e]very kind of inter-Arab
confrontation” will assist Israel in the short run and “will shorten the
way to the more important aim of breaking up Iraq into denominations as
in Syria and in Lebanon.” So can we conclude that the ISIL and the
Al-Nusra Front are being funded and equipped in part by the Israeli
regime, while it apparently sounds like they are Muslim fighters trying
to establish an Islamic caliphate in the Middle East?

A: Yes, I have drawn that conclusion indeed. Recently we saw Israel bomb
several Syrian military sites to aid the ISIL insurgency in the south of
the country, which illustrates quite clearly that ISIL is being aided
and abetted by Tel Aviv as part of a broader Zionist destabilization
plot in Syria. Israel’s ultimate agenda, as outlined in the Yinon
document and other Israeli geopolitical manifestos, is to have Muslims
and Arabs fighting and squabbling amongst themselves so that nobody can
challenge its hegemony and also so that it can get away with the ongoing
ethnic cleansing of Palestine with little protest from the outside
world. With international attention focused on the turmoil happening in
Syria and Iraq, Israel escapes the gaze of the international community
and can move forward with its imperialist objectives relatively
unnoticed. Israeli PM Netanyahu for instance has pointed to the
atrocities occurring in Syria and Iraq as “proof” that the Arab, Muslim
world is inherently backwards and uncivilized and that Israel is the
only civilized, rational actor in the region. What Netanyahu failed to
mention is that he and his gang in Tel Aviv are the hidden hand behind
much of the unrest in the Middle East.

Q: Do you consider the current crisis in Iraq and Syria the result of a
division between the Shiites and the Sunnis? Iran’s Supreme Leader
Ayatollah Khamenei has said that the different Islamic denominations,
including the Shiites and Sunnis, don’t have any conflict or dispute
with each other, and what is burning the region in unrest is foreign
intervention combined with the greediness of the extremist,
fundamentalist sects for furthering their territorial ambitions. What’s
your take on that?

A: I believe the Sunni-Shia divide is largely a manufactured one. This
type of sectarian rivalry was relatively benign until the US invaded
Iraq on false pretenses in 2003 on behalf of the Israeli regime. Israeli
geopolitical thinkers like Oded Yinon talked about pitting different
Middle Eastern ethnic and religious factions against one another as a
strategy of tension. This is exactly what we see unfolding today in
Syria, Iraq and other states in the region. There may well be some
fanatics in both the Sunni and Shia camps who are promoting division and
distrust, but such people are little more than useful idiots for the
imperial powers who are bent on subjugating the various peoples of the
Middle East. The US and Israel are covertly supporting the
fundamentalist, sectarian groups as proxies to accomplish their goals.
The only beneficiary of such a conflict between the Sunni and the Shia
is Israel and the US. The Zionists have made it an art form to trick
others into confrontations that ultimately benefit Israel. Muslims must
wake up and realize who the real enemy of their religion is – and it is
not other members of their religion.

Q: It’s reported that around 3,000 of the ISIL fighters in Syria and
Iraq are foreigners. Aren’t the United States and the European countries
afraid of the returning of these terrorists to their countries? How do
they justify the presence of their citizens in the ranks of terrorists
fighting in a distant country thousands of miles away?

A: It is very hard to believe that these militants emanating from
Western countries aren’t known to the intelligence agencies; the very
same spy agencies that have the capability to tap everybody’s phone, as
former NSA contractor Edward Snowden revealed. These people presumably
pass through security check-ins at airports and border crossings, yet
Western governments have routinely failed to detain any of them before
they reach their destination or upon their return back home. This isn’t
believable. In my opinion, the US and other Western countries are
covertly allowing these malcontents to make their way to Syria and Iraq;
perhaps even aiding and abetting their travels. To comprehend this you
must understand that these Western countries are not acting in the
interests of their own respective nations, but have prioritized the
interests of a foreign state above their own; that state is Israel.

Q: Some military analysts have said that ISIL possesses remarkable and
advanced armament and military equipment, and since its manpower is made
of foreign fighters and prisoner escapees, it can carry out its
operations and hit the targets without difficulty. Who is equipping ISIL
and providing it with the state-of-the-art armament it currently
possesses? Is it really possible for a fundamentalist cult to conquer
and gain control over so many cities and provinces without the support
and sponsorship of foreign powers?

A: ISIL is a Frankenstein monster manufactured in the laboratories of
the CIA and Mossad. ISIL is undoubtedly receiving military armaments
from abroad. It has been demonstrated that ISIL’s advanced weaponry,
including chemical weapons, originates from the US, Saudi Arabia and
other places. ISIL most likely attains weapons from the black market as
well; the black market weapons trade is dominated by the American and
Israeli secret services. The group’s meteoric rise is not simply owed to
the fanaticism of its members. Nobody would even have heard of this
group if not for the financial and military backing of its American,
Israeli and Saudi benefactors. The crisis in Syria is not the result of
indigenous discontent with the government of Bashar al-Assad. Most
members of ISIL and al-Nusra Front are not even Syrians. The chaos
reigning down upon that Arab country was scripted in Washington and Tel
Aviv a long time ago.

Q: The U.S. Department of State and the European powers as well as
international organizations such as the UN Security Council have so far
refused to brand ISIL a terrorist organization, and the Western security
experts mostly talk of it as a “militant organization” rather than a
terrorist group; this is while they claim that they have no interest in
the empowerment and rise of the ISIL. How do you explain this? How can
we interpret the U.S. approach to the current turmoil in the region? Is
it really the case that the U.S. officials prefer to stay away from the
developments and let the ISIL move forward with its devilish plans for
the balkanization of Iraq and Syria?

A: It is very interesting indeed that the US and Europe refuse to brand
ISIL a terrorist organization, despite the group’s crystal clear
track-record of blood-curdling atrocities against civilians, including
women, children and elderly. At the same time many Western governments,
under Israeli pressure, have designated Hamas and Hezbollah, two clear
enemies of Israel, as “terrorist groups.” The reality is that ISIL is
not a clear enemy of Israel and is in fact a geopolitical tool of the
Zionists. As such the US and Europe are not eager to put the terrorist
label on ISIL and thereby undermine the group’s support networks. If the
US and EU were to slap the “terrorist” distinction on ISIL it would be
illegal to provide that group with money or weaponry under international
and even national laws. Since the US and many European powers are
overtly and covertly supporting the ISIL terrorists, these governments
will likely never label it a terrorist organization.

The US policy has been one of extreme partisanship in favor of the
“rebels” in Syria. It has contributed in no small way to the havoc and
mayhem plaguing that nation, and deliberately so. Now that the world has
seen what these “rebels” are truly all about, mass murder and carnage,
Washington is, on the surface, distancing itself from them, but only on
the surface. The covert support for ISIL and al-Nusra Front will
continue on through the CIA’s back-channels.

US foreign policy in the Middle East has, for many decades, been guided
by Israel’s imperial desires. America’s current policies vis-à-vis
Syria, Libya, Iraq, Afghanistan and other Arab-Muslim countries clearly
underscore that reality. Destabilization is a Zionist stratagem to
divide and conquer Israel’s Middle Eastern adversaries and competitors.
It doesn’t serve any true US national interest to pursue this
bull-headed approach to the Muslim world, but it does advance Israel’s
regional goals as well as the broader Zionist-Neocon pursuit of a “clash
of civilizations” between the West and the Islamic world.

In this respect, we must view Washington’s destructive and scandalous
actions in the Middle East and North Africa as an extension of Tel
Aviv’s pernicious agenda.

Interview by Kourosh Ziaba

(2) Islamic movement ISIS in Iraq & Syria "is a Zionist instrument"

From: Willem Wolters <willemwolters@me.com>
Date: Thu, 14 Aug 2014 12:43:11 +0200

Dear Peter,

A civil servant from the Dutch ministry of Justice and Security, ms.
Yasmina Haifi, has sent a twitter message stating that the islamic
movement ISIS in Irak is a zionist instrument en not an true islamic
movement and that the goal of this movement is to blacken the name of
islam. This statement has drawn protests from right wing members of
parliament (the anti-islam politic group and christian democrats). She
has been suspended. This shows that publicly pointing to the link
between Israel and the zionist movement and ISIS is not allowed in the
Netherlands.

Ms. Yasmina Haifi was working for the National Cyber Security Center
under the National Coordinator Terrorism and Security (NCTV), an
organization to monitor and prevent radicalization of young people in
the Netherlands.

Recently there has been both a pro-ISIS demonstration and an anti-ISIS
demonstration in a neighborhood (Schilderswijk) of the city of The Hague
, with a large muslim population. In this neighborhood both pro-and
anti-ISIS young people are living.

It is clear that Ms. Yasmina Haifi's message was meant to support the
anti-ISIS people among the muslim youth. An action that was clearly in
line with the mandate of the organization she was working for: stopping
the radicalization of the muslim youth in Dutch cities.

Willem Wolters
Nijmegen

http://www.nrc.nl/nieuws/2014/08/13/islamitische-staat-is-een-zionistisch-complot-ambtenaar-geschorst

‘Islamitische Staat is een zionistisch complot’ - ambtenaar geschorst

door Frederiek Weeda
BINNENLAND Een ambtenaar van Justitie en Veiligheid, Yasmina Haifi, is
vanmiddag geschorst nadat ze vanochtend op twitter de islamitische
terreurorganisatie ISIS in verband bracht met een “vooropgezet plan van
zionisten”.
Enkele PVV-Kamerleden en Kamerlid Pieter Omzigt (CDA) uitten op twitter
kritiek op haar tweet en de Telegraaf publiceerde dat online, waarna ze
haar tweet wiste. Die luidde:

“ISIS heeft niets met Islam te maken. Is vooropgezet plan van zionisten
om islam zwart te maken”
Haifi werd ingehuurd door Justitie bij het Nationaal Cyber Security
Center, dat valt onder de Nationaal Coördinator Terrorisme en Veiligheid
(NCTV). Dat orgaan is er om terrorisme te voorkomen, signaleren en
bestrijden en om radicalisering van jongeren in Nederland te voorkomen.

In een reactie zegt de woordvoerder van Justitie dat:

“Veiligheid en Justitie en de NCTV afstand nemen van haar uitlatingen.
En aangezien die betrekking hebben op het werk van de NCTV en het
Nationaal Cyber Security Center wordt haar detachering onmiddellijk
beëindigd.”
Verder zal met haar worden gesproken en bekeken worden ‘of er nadere
maatregelen nodig zijn’ tegen de ambtenaar.

Haifi probeerde haar uitlatingen nog te nuanceren met nieuwe tweets,
waarin ze stelde dat het geweld van ISIS niets te maken heeft met de islam.


HaifiY Yasmina Haifi
Tweet over ISIS heb ik zojuist verwijderd. Realiseer mij de politieke
gevoeligheid in relatie tot mijn werk. Dit was nimmer mijn bedoeling.
6 uur geleden

HaifiY Yasmina Haifi
Voor de volledigheid: heb willen zeggen dat ISIS onmogelijk islamitisch
kan zijn. daden ISIS staan lijnrecht tov de islam predikt
4 uur geleden

HaifiY Yasmina Haifi
Tot slot: ik neem volledig afstand van het gedachtengoed van ISIS en
haar daden. En zeg dit met volle overtuiging.
4 uur geleden
Op Radio 1 zei Haifi net dat er “kennelijk alleen vrijheid van
meningsuiting is voor bepaalde groepen”. En dat er “genoeg” aanwijzingen
zijn voor links tussen ISIS en het bewind in Israël.

Overigens is Yasmina Haifi ook lid van het Haagse Comité ‘Herstel van
Vertrouwen’ dat zich keert tegen “etnisch profilerenZdoor
politie-agenten. Politie-agenten zouden, op grond van de
criminaliteitsstatistiek, eerder burgers met een huiskleur als verdachte
aanhouden dan autochtone burgers. Volgens critici doen ze dit op basis
van vooroordelen. Het comité “Herstel van vertrouwen” stelt ook dat de
politie bij aanhoudingen soms excessief geweld gebruikt.

(3) Sexual Jihad by ISIS in Syria - includes rape of Christian &
minority women

From: "Ken Freeland diogenesquest@gmail.com [shamireaders]"
Date: Sun, 03 Aug 2014 12:51:43 -0500

Wiping Out the Christians of Syria and Iraq to Remap the Middle East:
Prerequisite to a Clash of Civilizations?

By  Mahdi Darius Nazemroaya
Global Research, July 30, 2014

http://www.globalresearch.ca/wiping-out-the-christians-of-syria-and-iraq-to-remap-the-mid-east-prerequisite-to-a-clash-of-civilizations/5394075

Historically, the Levant is the birthplace of Christianity and the
oldest Christian communities have lived in it and the entire Fertile
Crescent since the start of Christian history. Early Christian called
themselves followers or people of «the Way» before they adopted the term
Christian; in Arabic their antiquated name would be «Ahl Al-Deen». [1]
Traces of this original name are also available in the New Testament of
the Bible and can be read in John 14:5-7, Acts 9:1-2, Acts 24:4 and 14.
 From the Fertile Crescent these Christian communities spread across
Africa, Asia, and Europe. Since that time the ancient communities of
Christians, many of which still use the Syriac dialects of Aramaic in
their churches, have been an integral and important part of the social
fabrics of the pluralistic societies of Palestine, Lebanon, Syria, Iraq,
Turkey, and Iran. Nevertheless, the Christians of the Levant and Iraq
are now in the cross-hairs.

Deceit and mischief has been at play. It is no coincidence that Egyptian
Christians were attacked at the same time as the South Sudan Referendum,
which was supposed to signal a split between the Muslims in Khartoum and
the Christians and animists in Juba. Nor is it an accident that Iraq's
Christian, one of the oldest Christian communities in the world, began
to face a modern exodus, leaving their homes and ancestral homeland in
Iraq in 2003. Mysterious groups targeted both them and Palestinian
refugees...

Coinciding with the exodus of Iraqi Christians, which occurred under the
watchful eyes of US and British military forces, the neighborhoods in
Baghdad became sectarian as Shiite Muslims and Sunni Muslims were forced
by violence and death squads to form sectarian enclaves. This is all
tied to a US and Israeli project of redrawing the map.

The Christian communities of the Levant and Iraq have long distrusted
the US government for its support of Israel, the Kingdom of Saudi
Arabia, and fanatical militants with anti-Christian leanings. Lebanon's
Christians have also been weary of US support for Israeli expansion and
ideas about resettling Palestinians into Lebanon. There is also a widely
held belief that the US and Israel have been involved in a policy to
remove or «purge» the Christians from Iraq and the Levant in some type
of Zionist-linked resettlement plan. Since the US-supported
anti-government fighters started targeting Christian Syrians, there has
been renewed talk about a Christian exodus in the Middle East centering
on Washington's war on Syria.

Silencing the Ancient Church Bells of Sham and Shinar

Christian Arabs and both the Assyrian and Armenian ethnic communities,
which are overwhelming composed of Christian, inside Lebanon and Syria
have been in the crosshairs. From Homs and Maaloula to Kessab, Syria's
Christians have been under siege. Various ecclesiastic councils or
synods have expressed concerns as have Ecumenical Patriarch of
Constantinople Bartholomew I, the Vatican or Holy See, Russian Orthodox
Patriarch of Moscow Cyril (Kirill) I, Armenian Apostolic Catholicos Aram
I, the Maronite Greek Catholic Patriarchate in Lebanon, Jerusalemite
Greek Orthodox Archbishop Theodosios (Attallah) Hanna of Sebastia, the
Anglican See of Canterbury, Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan, Lebanese
President Michel Suleiman, the Free Patriotic Movement of Lebanon's
Michel Aoun, the World Council of Churches, and various interfaith
bodies. Even US celebrities Cherilyn Sarkisian (Cher) and Kimberly
Kardashian joined the chorus and voiced their concerns about Syria's
Christians after the Turkish government perfidiously helped Al-Nusra
overrun the predominately Armenian town of Kessab in Lattakia Governate
on March 24, 2014. [2]

Inside Syria, Maronite Greek Catholic Archbishop of Damascus Samir
Nassar, Melkite Greek Catholic Patriarch Gregory III Laham, Antiochian
Greek Orthodox Patriarch Ignatius IV, and Syriac Orthodox Patriarch
Ignatius Zakka I Iwas have all condemned the violence. The leaders of
Syria's other faiths, Druze Sheikh Al-Aql Hamoud Hennawi, Sunni Grand
Mufti Ahmed Badreddin, and Ashari Imam Mohammed Said Ramadan, have
joined the Christian leaders in their calls for peace and condemnations
of Washington's war on Syria. These leaders have risked their lives and
the lives of their loved ones by taking these positions. Sheikh Ramadan,
who was also an ethnic Kurd, was murdered while he was teaching in a
mosque for his backing of the Syrian government on March 21, 2013.
Patriarch Ignatius IV had his brother kidnapped in Aleppo whereas Grand
Mufti Hassoun had his twenty-two year-old son murdered on his way to
university in Idlib. Despite the threats, all these figures have spoken
against the insurgency as a cancerous threat to coexistence in Syrian
society and the broader region. Melkite Patriarch Gregory III Laham has
very vocally said that his country is being attacked by bandits and
terrorists under the fiction of a revolution that seek to destroy the
Christians and all Syria. [3]

The Christian communities of Syria, which constitute at least 10% of the
Syrian population, have been systematically targeted; their churches
have been attached and desecrated; their priests, monks, and nuns
murdered; and generally discriminated against by the anti-government
forces that the US, UK, France, Israel, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Turkey, and
their allies support. The objectives of establishing this exodus are
reflected by the anti-government chants: «Alawites to the ground and
Christians to Lebanon!» What this chant means is that Syria is no longer
a place where either Alawis or Christians can live.

America's Foot Soldiers and the Rape of Christians in Syria and Iraq

Fides News Agency, the official news agency of the Vatican and the Roman
Catholic Church, has reported that the so-called religious leaders of
the anti-government fighters declared it lawful for the anti-government
fighters to rape «any non-Sunni Syrian woman» that they desired; the
declarations of these corrupt pastors have been used to justify the
rape, humiliation, torture, and murder of women and girls in towns and
territory captured by groups like the so-called Free Syrian Army, Jabhat
Al-Nusra, and the so-called Islamic State of Iraq and the
Levant/Al-Dawlah Al-Islamiyah fi Al-Iraq wa Al-Sham (ISIL/DAISH). [4]

Here is the account given to the Fides News Agency by two priests about
what was done to one fifteen year-old Syrian Christian girl in Homs
Governate after the anti-government fighters took control of it:

The commander of the battalion «Jabhat al-Nusra» in Qusair took Mariam,
married and raped her. Then he repudiated her. The next day the young
woman was forced to marry another Islamic militant. He also raped her
and then repudiated her. The same trend was repeated for 15 days, and
Mariam was raped by 15 different men. This psychologically destabilized
her and made her insane. Mariam, became mentally unstable and was
eventually killed. These atrocities are not told by any «International
Commission» say to Fides two Greek-Catholic priests, Fr. Issam and Fr.
Elias who have just returned to town. [5]

These same US-supported multinational insurgent groups have begun to do
this to Iraqi Christians too. «On June 12, [2014,] only two day after
capturing Mosul and other territories in Iraq, the Islamic State of Iraq
and Syria issued a decree ordering the people to send their unmarried
women to ?jihad by sex?» and made a decree ordering that unmarried women
sexually be offered to their fighters for fornication. [6] The following
account, which was confirmed by the Iraqi High Commission for Human
Rights and reported by the Assyrian International News Agency, deals
with Mosul after its takeover by the insurrectionary forces entering
Iraq from Syria on June 25, 2014:

A Christian father who watched his wife and daughter get brutally raped
by members of the militant group, Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS)
because he couldn?t pay them a poll tax in Mosul, Iraq, killed himself
under the weight of the trauma this past weekend. [7]

The molestation and rape of Christian women and girls as sex objects has
not been limited to Christians alone. Syrian women and girls, regardless
of their faiths, that have been captured by the anti-government forces
are being raped and molested. Muslims, Christians, and Druze are all
equally at risk. These perverted acts are being encouraged by corrupt
clerics issuing legal opinions and decrees (fatwas) that support rape
and womanizing.

These twisted legal opinions and decrees being issued include calls for
foreign women to become concubines to the anti-government fighters in
Syria in what is disgracefully called a «sexual holy struggle» (jihad
al-nikah). The Tunisian government was even prompted to react in
mid-2013 to these calls for sexual offering, because they were
exploiting young Tunisian girls. [8] Tunisian Minister of Religious
Affairs Noureddine Al-Khadimi condemned the corrupt and ignorant clerics
and individuals behind the calls, insisting that they had nothing to do
with Muslim teachings:

The minister's statements came after the spread of an anonymous «sexual
jihad» fatwa on the Internet calling on young women to support
opposition fighters in Syria by providing sexual services. According to
media reports and mujahideen who returned to Tunisia after participating
in jihad in Syria, 13 Tunisian girls headed to the battlefield in
response to the «sexual jihad» fatwa. [9]

«After the sexual liaisons they have [in Syria] in the name of ?jihad
al-nikah? ? (sexual holy war, in Arabic) ? [these girls] come home
pregnant», Tunisian Interior Minister Lotfi bin Jeddou testified to
Tunisian legislators months after Al-Khadimi's condemnations, explaining
that the misguided girls could have over a hundred partners. [10]

Targeting Bishops, Priests, Monks, and Nuns: Besieging the People of
«The Way»

Since the start of the fighting, Christian spiritual figures have been
targeted in one way or another. There are the cases of Greek Orthodox
Archbishop Sayedna Paul (Boulos) Yazigi and Syriac Orthodox Metropolitan
Mar Gregorios John Abraham (Yohanna Ibrahim), which were kidnapped near
the Turkish border, on April 22, 2013. Their driver, a Christian priest
himself, was killed instantly for protecting the two Christian
metropolitans by refusing to let them leave their car. A fourth person
in the car, Fouad Eliya, managed to remain free (and explain what
happened). [11]

The Turkish government is directly involved in the kidnapping of the two
Orthodox Christian bishops. The Turkish newswire Dogan News Agency
(Dogan Haber Ajans?) reported on July 23, 2013 that the murders or,
using the report's words, «assassins» of the two Syrian bishops were
arrested in Konya. [12] The arrest happened to be of anti-Russian
fighters from the North Caucasus, which corresponded to Foud Eliya's
account that Boulos Yazigi and Yohanna Ibrahim were taken by North
Caucasian militants dressed like Taliban fighters from Afghanistan. [13]

Grand Mufti Hassoun revealed that Turkish-trained Chechen fighters were
dispatched by Ankara to kidnap Sayedna Boulos Yazigi and Mar Gregorios,
because of two important reasons. According to Sheikh Hassoun, the first
reason is that Metropolitan Gregorios was asked by Syriac Orthodox
Patriarch Ignatius Zakka I Iwas to head a church committee to begin the
process of reclaiming the vast holdings of the Syriac Orthodox Church
that the Turkish government had confiscated during its persecution of
Syriac Orthodox Christians. [14]

In a meeting between Prime Minister Erdogan and Mar Gregorios, the
Turkish government asked that the Syriac Orthodox Church of Antioch
establish a eparchy (an ecclesiastical province or administrative
division of the church with a metropolitan) in Turkey and to even
relocate its patriarchate from Damascus to Hatay (Antioch), but
Gregorios Yohanna Ibrahim refused and said that the patriarchate of the
Syriac Orthodox Church will never change locations, that Syriac Orthodox
Christians recognized the Levant as one unified land, and that a bishop
would be assigned to Turkey when the Syriac Orthodox Church's properties
were returned by the Turkish government, which angered Turkish
officials. [15] The other reason that the Orthodox Christian cleric was
targeted was that he was reconciling anti-government fighters peacefully
with the Syrian government in Aleppo Governate, which upset Turkey and
its allies. [16]

Other cases include those of: Father (Abouna) Fadi Jamal Haddad, a
Antiochian Greek Orthodox priest acting as a mediator in Qatana during
the fighting, who was tortured and shot in the head after he tried to
mediate the release of a doctor that was being ransomed for money;
Father (Abouna) Francois Al-Mourad, a Catholic priest of the Franciscan
Order, who was shot for preventing fellow Christians and Syrians from
being hurt by the anti-government fighters; and Father Frans van der
Lugt, a Dutch priest of the Jesuit Order working in Homs. When Abouna
Fadi went to pay the insurgents for the doctor they had abducted, they
kidnapped him too; they would later kill the Christian priests and leave
him on the side of the highway, «horribly tortured and [with] his eyes
gouged out», where his body would be found on September 25, 2012. [17]

According to the Franciscan Order's representatives in Syria, the
insurgents «broke into the convent, looted it and destroyed everything.
When Fr. Fran?ois tried to defend the nuns and other people, the gunmen
shot him dead» on June 23, 2013. [18]

The insurgents murdered Father Frans van der Lugt on April 7, 2014.This
an account of the circumstances behind his murder:

Wael Salibi, 26, recalled how when the Christian area in Homs was taken
over by rebels, 66,000 of the faithful «left their home, and just few of
them stayed there. He was the only priest, he stayed in his church.»

«Just months before he died, he said ?I can?t leave my people, I can?t
leave my church, I am director of this church, how can I leave them??»
Salibi told CNA on April 11.

Salibi, who hails from the now-ravished city of Homs, grew up as a close
friend and pupil of Fr. Frans, who was brutally killed on April 7. Days
before his 76th birthday, an unknown gunman entered his church, beat him
and shot him in the head. [19]

In Hasakah (Hasce) many of the Christian Syrians fled, but almost 30,000
stayed as internal refugees. The Syrian Christians who belonged to the
Chaldean Catholic Church, Syriac Orthodox Church, Syriac Catholic
Church, Armenian Apostolic Orthodox Church, and the Armenian Catholic
Church collectively asked the world for help and to put an end to the
fighting, in an appeal that went unheard, in late-2012; they have
suffered from persecution, lawlessness, kidnappings, ransoms, and
murder. One Christian from the area told Fides News Agency that Al-Nusra
was targeting «all young people who were born between 1990 and 1992.
They look for them, accuse them of being soldiers for the national
service and kill them cold-bloodedly. They want to terrorize young
people to prevent them from enlisting.» [20]

Another example of the assault on the Christian community is Al-Nusra's
assault on the town of Maaloula. Maaloula is one of a few villages
maintaining an old dialect of Aramaic, known as the language of Jesus of
Nazareth. Many Christian structures and historic sites fill the Syrian
town, but the Melkite Greek Catholic Saint Sergius (Mar Sarkis)
Monastery and Antiochian Greek Orthodox Saint Thecla (Mar Taqla)
Monastery standout. The town became the scene of fighting between
Al-Nusra and the Syrian Arab Army and switched hands between the
insurgents and Syrian government four times between late-2013 and mid-2014.

Many of Maaloula's residents, both Christian and Muslim alike, became
trapped in their homes and local buildings, including forty Greek
Orthodox Christian nuns and the orphans they were looking after, which
sparked panic in the Christian populations of Syria and Lebanon. Hence
the strong backing of Bashar Al-Assad's government by all of Syria's
minorities and the expression of these type of sentiments were nearly
universal among Christian Syrians: «?They?re coming after us,? [said]
Odette Abu Zakham, a 65-year-old woman in the congregation who lives in
the nearby historic Christian district of Bab Touma. ?All they do is
massacre people, all they know is killing.?» [21] Not only were the nuns
held hostage by Al-Nusra, but the anti-government fighters desecrated
absolutely all of Maaloula's shrines and Christian buildings, stole its
historic artifacts to sell in the black market, and scattered the
partially Aramaic-speaking population of the town. Eyewitnesses who
escaped Maaloula give this account below:

[The insurgents] tried to change the religious and
architectural-historical look of the ancient Christian town entirely:
completely destroying some churches, the militants brought down all
bells from other ones. The fate of two other world-famous monuments of
Ma?loula was no less tragic: extremists blew up the statue of Christ the
Savior, which had stood at the entrance of St. Thecla Convent, as well
as the statue of the Most Holy Virgin Mary, which had stood close to the
Safir hotel, the latter of which served as the main shelter for
Takfirists for many months. [22]

Easter, in 2014 was a special time for Maaloula. Around Easter, the
Syrian government regained the town. Maaloula was finally secured and
residents were returning. «The display of hatred was clear ? the houses
are totally destroyed, the whole village was destroyed. I can?t describe
the amount of damage to the village», a returning resident by the name
of Lorain told the press about what the insurgents did. [23] President
Al-Assad visited too. Al-Assad himself came to visit it as a sign of the
Syrian government's commitment to its entire population regardless of
their faith or ethnicity. Both the Western rite and Eastern rite
Christian celebrations of Easter, respectively using the Gregorian and
Julian calendars, fell on the same date too: April 20, 2014.

(To be continued)

NOTES

[1] The term Christian is akin to the term Mohammedian, which was once
used to describe Muslims. It was a name originally used as a derogatory
term by non-Christians to identify the followers of Jesus of Nazareth
and «the Way» by them, but would eventually be accepted and adopted by
many of the Christians; the Arabic word «deen» means «way» and not
religion as it is commonly substituted for.
[2] Pinar Tremblay, «Armenian-Americans blame Turkey for Kassab
invasion, Al-Monitor, April 3, 2014.
[3] «Syria has been reduced to banditry and anarchy, says Gregory III
Laham», Vatican Insider, May 4, 2012.
[4] «13 Syrian Christian Women Raped and Killed by Islamists»
Pravoslavie, April 5, 2013; «Rape and atrocities on a young Christian in
Qusair», Fides News Agency, July 2, 2013; Stoyan Zaimov, «Syrian
Christian Mother Reveals Stories of Rape, Church Attacks in Streets of
Damascus», Christian Post, October 17, 2013; Jamie Dettmer, «Syria's
Christians Flee Kidnappings, Rape, Executions», Daily Beast, November
19, 2013.
[5] «Rape and atrocities», Fides, op. cit.
[6] «ISIS in Mosul Orders Unmarried Women to ?Jihad By Sex,?» Assyrian
International News Agency, June 21, 2014.
[7] Leonardo Blair, «Christian Father Commits Suicide After ISIS Members
Rape Wife and Daughter in Front of Him Because He Couldn?t Pay Poll
Tax», Christian Post, June 25, 2014.
[8] Mohammed Yassin Al-Jalassi, «Tunisians Raise Alarm on Fatwa
Encouraging ?Sexual Jihad,?» Al-Monitor, March 27, 2013.
[9] Ibid.
[10] «Sex Jihad raging in Syria, claims minister», Agence France-Presse,
September 20, 2013.
[11] Dikran Ego, «Turkey's Role in the Kidnapping of the Syrian
Bishops», Assyrian International News Agency, February 1, 2012.
[12] Ismail Akkaya, «Suriyeli metropolitlerin katil zanl?lar? Konya?da
yakaland?» [«Syrian metropolitan's alleged assassins were caught in
Konya»], Dogan Haber Ajans?, July 23, 2013.
[13] Dikran Ego, «Turkey's Role in Kidnapping», AINA, op. cit.
[14] Grand Mufti Hassoun explains this in a video released by the
Stockholm-based Syriac Foundation on May 4, 2014.
[15] Ibid.
[16] Ibid.
[17] «Fr. Fadi Jamil Haddad: Priest, Trusted By All, Martyred in Syria»,
Pravmir.com, October 28, 2012: .
[18] «Custos of the Holy Land: Fr Fran?ois Mourad killed by Islamist
insurgents in al-Ghassaniyah», AsiaNews.it, June 25, 2013: .
[19] Elise Harris, «?I can?t leave my people?: Priest killed in Syria
hailed as martyr», Catholic News Agency, April 15, 2014.
[20] «Appeal from the people of Mesopotamia, left to themselves», Fides
News Agency, January 17, 2013.
[21] Lee Keath, «Seizure of nuns stokes Syrian Christian fears»,
Associated Press, December 8, 2013.
[22] «All Shrines of Ma?loula Either Destroyed or Desecrated»,
Pravoslavie, January 13, 2014.
[23] Firas Makdesi, «Syria's Assad pays Easter visit to recaptured
Christian town», Reuters, April 20, 2014.

(4) Sexual jihad in Sunni Islam

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sexual_jihad

Sexual jihad

Jihad Al-Nikah (Arabic, often translated as Sex jihad or Sexual jihad)
is a controversial concept that refers to Sunni women allegedly offering
themselves in sexual comfort roles to fighters for the establishment of
Islamic rule.[1]

Allegations of this practise is related to the Tunisian government's war
effort against Al Qaida linked Islamic terrorism in the mountainous
Jebel ech Chambi region bordering Algeria. The Tunisian coalition
government alleges that the practise began with Tunisian girls
sympathetic to the Islamic jihad movement there, and then spread with
Tunisian girls volunteering comfort to Syrian jihadis. [2]

Publicity first arose in 2013, and the veracity of the alleged practice
became the subject of greater debate in September 2013 after the
Interior Minister of Tunisia made a public statement as a significant
issue.[3][4]

Reports and allegations [edit]

The concept originated in a fatwa titled Jihad ul Nikaah and attributed
to Saudi Wahhabi cleric Sheikh Mohamad al-Arefe around 2013, that called
for Sunni women supporters to come forward for sex jihad and boost the
mujaheddin fighting the Bashar al Assad regime in Syria.[5]

The Tunisian allegation is that this practice is based on the concept
that "the Law of Necessity allows forbidden things in exceptional
circumstances."[citation needed]

Sources close to Sheikh Mohammad al-Arefe denied issuing the fatwa.[6]
Sheikh al-Arefe himself has denied allegations that he issued such a
fatwa, dismissing it on his Twitter account as a "fabrication."[7]

On the basis of the fatwa, it was reported in Tunisian media that young
Tunisian Sunni Muslim girls traveled to Syria to comfort jihadis. At
least thirteen Tunisian girls were reported to have traveled to the
rebel-held north Syria for sex jihad.[6] Interviews of worried parents
were published in the Internet. One girl, who was interviewed by
Egyptian news agency Masrawy, regretted her action when she realized
that she was exploited.[citation needed]

In July 2013, on a Facebook page claiming to be connected to the Muslim
Brotherhood, a commentator allegedly promoted "sexual jihad". The page
has been deemed a "hoax," and a senior Muslim Brotherhood supported
called the page a "smear campaign".[8]

On September 19, 2013, Lofti bin Jeddou, the Interior Minister of
Tunisia stated in the National Constituent Assembly that Sunni Tunisian
women traveling to Syria for sex jihad were having sex with 20, 30 and
even up to 100 rebels, and that some of the women had returned home
pregnant.[9]

On October 6, 2013, a Tunisian official downplayed this prior claim,
saying at most 15 Tunisian women traveled to Syria, though some were
forced to have sex with several Islamist militants.[10]

On October 7, 2013 the German magazine Der Spiegel reported that "sex
jihad" to Syria was "an elaborate disinformation campaign by the Assad
regime to distract international attention from its own crimes."[11]

The Tunisian Jihadist Abu Qusay who was interviewed by Tunisian TV after
his return from Syria confirmed that stories about "Jihad al-Nikah" or
what is also referred to as "sexual Jihad" is not just a rumor but is
real, as he himself had experienced it firsthand. He also confirmed the
nationalities of the girls who travel to Syria to partake in this kind
of Jihad.[12]

In June 2014, the website Another Western Dawn  claimed that Harith
al-Dhari, the Sunni chairman of Association of Muslim Scholars had
"issued a fatwa ( Islamic edicts) calling for Iraqi women in Mosul, as
well as all Arab women to practice sexual Jihad and submit themselves
voluntarily to the Jihadists fighting Iraqi Army".[13] Earlier that
month, the same website had presented a Turkish doctor having
established — after "meticulous medical examination" — that "around 70%
of Islamists who fight in Syria and northern Iraq are diagnosed with
sexually transmitted disease due unsafe sexual intercourses and in
accordance with the results of the medical tests, approximately 30% of
them are infected with HIV".[14]
According to some media outlets, after this supposed fatwa ISIS fighters
allegedly told families to "hand over [their] daughters for sex".
Despite Sheikh Mohamad al-Arefe's denial, the Daily Mirror reported that
"leaflets in the captured cities of Mosul and Tikrit claim the women —
virgins or not — must join jihad (...) and cleanse themselves by
sleeping with militants. Those that refuse to do so are violating God’s
will, it is claimed, and will be beaten or killed. ISIS fighters have
been taking women captive in Syria since last year [2013] when a
Saudi-based cleric issued a fatwa (...) telling them to." [15][16]

This page was last modified on 9 August 2014 at 09:09.