The Prophet�s Compassion for Children

 

Children are a great blessing from Allah. With their tender hearts, children can be molded into righteous people only with a positive and tender approach. Islam considers children to be an amanah (trust) given to the family and says it is fard(obligatory) for the family to raise a child in a righteous manner. One should not favor one child over another. In Islam, both male and female children should be treated equally and should be loved and cherished. The children have certain rights over their parents; it is the family�s obligation to shelter, feed, clothe, educate, support, nurture, and love them.

In today�s world many parents are so immersed in worldly life that they forget to pay attention to their children. Many parents think that providing financial support for their child is enough. The fact is, financial support alone doesn�t fulfill a parent�s duty towards their child. One can only win a child�s heart through love and a gentle attitude. It is the child�s right to be loved and cherished.

I remember that, as a child, I yearned for the attention of my family, but being in a joint family�my family and my uncle�s family lived together and a few other cousins stayed with us as their parents were working abroad�did not give me the opportunity to experience the kind of attention I expected. My parents felt that they should not express their love for their children in front of others, as people might think they were favoring us. As a child (and even now), I heard people saying �We need not to express our love to prove that it is there, it is enough to have a loving heart.� But the fact is that only when one expresses love to a child will the child feel more confident and stronger. Children have the capacity to easily distinguish when there is a difference in the attitude of the adults. Whether an adult shows or does not show love will have a significant impact on a child. Hence, we adults have to be conscious with our behavior in the child�s presence and be constantly aware of the emotions we project to our children.

Nowadays, we see people have become hardhearted so that their attitude towards children is unpleasant. There are some who show much partiality toward one gender, and there are some who don�t treat others� children with the same kindness or affection which they show to their own children. It is common to see even people who claim that they act on the Qur�an and Sunnah showing less interest in playing with their children or giving them the due attention or expression of love.

The Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) is the model for the whole of humankind. His attitude towards children was always compassionate and merciful. Being fond of children, Prophet Muhammad showed great interest in playing with them. His involvement in children�s games shows us the great importance in playing with our children. He would have fun with the children who had come back from Abyssinia and tried to speak in Abyssinian with them. It was his practice to give lifts on his camel to children when he returned from journeys.

Prophet Muhammad never held back his love for the children and always expressed his fondness to them. In one hadith Abu Hurairah (may Allah be pleased with him) narrated:

I went along with Allah�s Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him) at a time during the day but he did not talk to me and I did not talk to him until he reached the market of Banu Qainuqa`. He came back to the tent of Fatimah and said, �Is the little chap (meaning Al-Hasan) there?� We were under the impression that his mother had detained him in order to bathe him and dress him and garland him with sweet garland. Not much time had passed that he (Al-Hasan) came running until both of them embraced each other, thereupon Allah�s Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him) said, �O Allah, I love him; love him and love one who loves him.� (Muslim)

Anas ibn Malik (may Allah be pleased with him), the servant of the Prophet, had another recollection:

I never saw anyone who was more compassionate towards children than Allah�s Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him). His son Ibrahim was in the care of a wet nurse in the hills around Madinah. He would go there, and we would go with him, and he would enter the house, pick up his son and kiss him, then come back. (Muslim)

The Prophet�s love for children was not restricted to his children and grandchildren. The scope of his mercy and affection embraced all children, and he showed the same interest and gentleness to his Companion�s children. The following hadith narrated by Usamah ibn Zaid (may Allah be pleased with him) shows this humane aspect of the Prophet�s personality:

Allah�s Messenger used to put me on (one of) his thighs and put Al-Hasan ibn `Ali on his other thigh, and then embrace us and say, �O Allah! Please be merciful to them, as I am merciful to them.� (Bukhari)

Some people who were not able to understand the power of expressing love to children wondered why the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) played with children and took such an interest in them. Narrated Abu Hurairah (may Allah be pleased with him),

Allah�s Messenger kissed Al-Hasan ibn `Ali while Al-Aqra` ibn Habis At-Tamim was sitting with him . Al-Aqra` said, �I have ten children and have never kissed one of them.� The Prophet cast a look at him and said, �Whoever is not merciful to others will not be treated mercifully.� (Al-Bukhari)

The Prophet was always concerned about everyone�s thought and feeling. The following hadith narrated by Anas ibn Malik (may Allah be pleased with him) proves his thoughtful character:

The Prophet said, �(It happens that) I start the prayer intending to prolong it, but on hearing the cries of a child, I shorten the prayer because I know that the cries of the child will incite its mother�s passions.� (Al-Bukhari)

The Prophet was always patient and considerate with children and took great pain not to hurt their tender feelings.

Narrated Abu Qatadah: �The Messenger of Allah came towards us while carrying Umamah the daughter of Abi Al-`As (Prophet�s granddaughter) over his shoulder. He prayed, and when he wanted to bow, he put her down, and when he stood up he lifted her up.� (Al-Bukhari)

In a another hadith,

Narrated Umm Khalid: I (the daughter of Khalid ibn Said) went to Allah�s Messenger with my father and I was wearing a yellow shirt. Allah�s Messenger said, �Sanah, Sanah!� (`Abdullah, the narrator, said that sanah meant �good� in the Ethiopian language). I then started playing with the seal of prophethood (between the Prophet�s shoulders) and my father rebuked me harshly for that. Allah�s Messenger said, �Leave her.� The Prophet, then, invoked Allah to grant her a long life thrice. (Al-Bukhari)

In another narration we see the Prophet�s tolerance towards children.

Narrated `A�ishah: The Prophet took a child in his lap � and then the child urinated on him, so he asked for water and poured it over the place of the urine. (Al-Bukhari)

Finally I would like to add another saying of the Prophet that proves that Muslims should be conscious to treat their sons and daughters justly:

�Fear Allah and treat your children [small or grown] fairly (with equal justice).� (Al-Bukhari and Muslim)

Source

Obama's "not Islamic" Islamic State Claim Ridiculed

Not included in the IPT article was this satirical cartoon, which sums it up nicely (h/t Jim).

by IPT News � September 11, 2014

President Obama's assertion Wednesday night that the Islamic State terrorist group "is not 'Islamic'" is drawing derision from a number of quarters.

The claim, also made by Obama's predecessors, is "preposterous," Daniel Pipes wrote for the National Review Online. "To state the obvious: As non-Muslims and politicians, rather than Muslims and scholars, they are in no position to declare what is Islamic and what is not."

Author Sam Harris, an atheist who challenges all religions, went further, dismissing Obama's argument as a "scrim of pretense and delusion."

"Which will come first, flying cars and vacations to Mars, or a simple acknowledgment that beliefs guide behavior and that certain religious ideas�jihad, martyrdom, blasphemy, apostasy�reliably lead to oppression and murder?" Harris wondered in an essay. "It may be true that no faith teaches people to massacre innocents exactly�but innocence, as the President surely knows, is in the eye of the beholder. Are apostates 'innocent'? Blasphemers? Polytheists? Islam has the answer, and the answer is 'no.'"

But Obama's argument echoes statements made by Muslim American leaders during a news conference Wednesday morning. "All of this is against the foundation and teaching of Islam," former Islamic Society of North America (ISNA) President Mohamed Magid told reporters. He also is a member of the president's Homeland Security Advisory Council.

The Quran includes numerous passages encouraging violent jihad and inspiring hatred of non-believers, Harris notes. Robert Spencer offers specific examples here, and asks why the Islamic State has become such a magnet for wannabe jihadists if it was not seen as inherently Islamic.

But instead of acknowledging those verses and debating their modern application, the president used a nationally televised speech to act as if they do not exist. Harris blames "a large industry of obfuscation designed to protect Muslims from having to grapple with these truths."

We saw that in action during Wednesday's news conference at the National Press Club.

It's a difficult sell, Pipes concludes, because of the clear theological statements and justifications Islamic State terrorists invoke for their brutality.

"Anyone with eyes and ears realizes that the Islamic State, like the Taliban and al-Qaeda before it, is 100 percent Islamic. And most Westerners, as indicated by detailed polling in Europe, do have eyes and ears. Over time, they are increasingly relying on common sense to conclude that the group is indeed profoundly Islamic."

Orthodox Christian Nun warns against Islam, slams media silence (with video)

�The reason for all this disaster is the Qur�an.� Sister Hatune Dogan - See more at: http://pamelageller.com/2014/09/muslims-slice-off-the-breasts-of-kidnapped-christian-girls-in-syria-and-iraq.html/#sthash.Os3VIOmb.dpuf

"The reason for all this disaster is the Quran." 

� Sister Hatune Dogan

via 'Muslims Slice off the Breasts of Kidnapped Christian Girls in Syria and Iraq'
Sharia Unveiled, September 16, 2014

Sometimes it takes a David to defeat a Goliath � or, in this case, unassuming nuns to speak where the media remain silent. Speaking out for Christians persecuted in the Middle East, Mother Olga Yaqob and Sister Hatune Dogan slammed the American media for keeping silent. 

The nuns spoke with MRC (Media Research Center) during the In Defense of Christians (IDC) Inaugural Summit in Washington, D.C. Sept. 9-11. Both told the stories journalists ignore: of refugees displaced and Christian girls �repeatedly raped� and �misused� � some as young as 5-years-old. 

Mother Olga of the Daughters of Mary of Nazareth, an Iraqi native recognized by the Iraqi government for her care of the poor, recently established a religious order in Boston.

Raised in Germany after fleeing from Turkey, Sister Hatune Dogan, is an Orthodox Christian nun who aids Christians in Syria and Turkey through her organization, �A Helping Hand to the Poor.� Addressing the American coverage of Christian persecution in the Middle East, Mother Olga stressed, �In the early months, there wasn�t much coverage.� �Some of the Christian networks � media networks � were covering [the persecution]. But not very much the secular media.�

Sister Hatune expressed similar dismay. �The media make a mistake,� she began, �Because they don�t say the truth.� She criticized, �But the media has big duty to tell the truth, to make Americans see what is really going on.�

That truth, she explained, consists of �slaughtering, raping, kidnapping, taking ransom, killing, crucifying, and ridding the Christians of what they need.�

As one of her �thousands of stories� of Christian persecution, Sister Hatune began:

 �I met an Iraqi girl, five-and-a-half-years maybe, and they kidnapped her. I met her at seven-and-a-half-years. Until today, she [will not] say, no one knows, what happened to her, because she was misused. They [were] paid $30,000 dollars to release her. They released her, but under that condition. I am sorry for her. That was the youngest girl that I met. She was misused.�

Sister Hatune also told of meeting a 21-year-old Christian girl from Jordan. Once a captive, her abductors �every day� �were raping her all night.� When they weren�t satisfied with her ransom money, they �cut her face in different ways.� 

Another time, Sister Hatune met 280 girls. She described how they were �misused� by their kidnappers, some of whom �cut breasts and other [sensitive areas].� �I saw them with my own eyes,� she emphasized. 

Those are the stories the media should report � the �human face of this tragic reality,� as Mother Olga described. 

Mother Olga compared the news coverage of Christian persecution to the coverage of NFL player Ray Rice�s abuse scandal. �I know he�s probably a famous player, and this [football] team, it�s a big, big issue in America, but this is a personal life of two people.� While, at the same time, she continued, �200,000 people are displaced� and �people are dying from hunger� in the Middle East.

�It�s just like I try to put in perspective these kind of things,� she explained. �I�m just surprised how much sometime our secular media they cover some things over and over and they miss such a big picture.� Raised in Kirkuk, Iraq, Mother Olga had some stories of her own. �My old parish, and other parishes, and my sisters� home and lot of church communities there and houses,� she said, are �full of refugees from Nineveh region, from Mosul.� The locals, �are cooking meals every day, and bringing mattresses and pillows.� �It�s too big of a reality,� she concluded.

She called for �raising awareness� in the States. �People are just frustrated with our own politics here,� she acknowledged, �so we don�t have time to worry about the foreign policies.� But, she added, �If we don�t stop this, this is dangerous for the whole Middle Eastern region.�

�Now it�s Iraq, but if we don�t stop it, it will impact the whole Middle Eastern region, and it will impact us in the West,� she continued.

She offered an additional warning on the silence of Christian persecution:

�Only recently, after, unfortunately, the tragedy of beheading two of our American journalists we realize now how many we have foreigners who are, whether American, Canadian, Australian, British, who have joined ISIS. And they have access to come back to the Western countries, and so, if they have such a radical mentality, and this is what they�re doing in the Middle East, do we think we will be safe here?�

Sister Hatune similarly concluded, �The media have to condemn this, and to be a witness, and to tell the truth.�

�What is going on here?� she asked at one point. �We are human beings.�

Instead, the networks prefer royal baby anticipation to things like Iraqi Christians given one week to �leave, convert to Islam or face the sword� or videos of Iraqis desperately escaping ISIS terror.


For Mother Olga�s full interview, please click here.

Peace Propaganda And The Promised Land: U.S. Media & the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict (2004)

I was molested in the Delhi metro...

 

It was a Saturday afternoon I had lunch with a friend in Gurgaon before I decided to head home. The metro for those who do not take it or belong to Delhi can get crowded and air tight to an extent that the Tupperware guys could take inspiration. I luckily managed to find a seat till Rajiv Chowk metro station (Connaught Place) where I had to change my train. The doors opened� Btw I was in a regular and not the women�s only coach � why is this little detail important for this post? Well the answer lies ahead.

So where were we? Yes, the doors opened and people began to flood in. I tried to push and nudge my way out but no luck. With a huge sigh I decided to get off at the next station - New Delhi. As I positioned myself close to the exit door I felt a sense of unease run through my body, like someone has pierced their gaze on me or someone is watching me. Suddenly I felt something touch me from behind. With half my mind on trying to get off at the next station I turned thinking it was someone�s bag or hand touching me repeatedly. I turned to see a man in a white kurta (long shirt) staring right at me and he had no baggage with him. In fact both his hands were clenching the railing next to him. But if both his hands were up there what was it that� I got my answer as soon as I lowered my sight. There beneath that long shirt I could clearly see that this man was UNZIPPED. I felt the blood rush to my head, boiling and fuming and fury ran through every nerve in my body.

Within that fraction of a second every single eve teasing incident, every darn face of those guys who had the guts to molest someone I know flashed in my mind. Before I knew my voice escaped my lungs and there I was screaming at the man who dared to mess with me.

�KYA problem hai?� (What is your problem?)
�Kya samjh rakha hai saale?� (What the hell do you think?)
�Himmat kaise huyi teri?� (How dare you?)

These were some of the things I uttered looking right into his eyes. He was startled and started blabbering that he is sorry and insisted that it was his hand that touched me by mistake. Your �HAND� that comes out from your pants? How the hell was your zip open? I was screaming in a coach full of men and women. Did anyone come forward to help or even displayed basic courtesy to ask me what was wrong? The answer was a big unsurprising NO. I turned and spotted two men in fact smirking at me. Their silence tried my patience and ALL HELL BROKE LOOSE.

I held that (namesake) man�s collar and dragged him out of the train. He was on a loop mode �It was my hand, it was a crowded train�. The moment we set foot at the platform he managed to escape. I ran, with all the strength and courage in me, I ran after him making as much noise as I could. A few saw (the tamasha), the others gasped while one man in the uniform began to chase him. I went towards the other side and we managed to get hold of him. I yelled again How dare you? How did you dare to touch me? People like you make Delhi a nightmare for girls? You make us question every time before we step a foot outside. HOW DARE YOU?

People watched the guards dragging a man to the control room and a girl screaming at him. They only watched.

As we took him to the control room he told the police that I am mistaken, it was his hand that touched me by mistake and it could happen to anyone because it was a crowded train. �Ask her� it was my hand�, he said. 15 guards, all men turned towards me as he tried to shame me. But if he had the guts to do it I had the spine to say it. You see anger brings out the strength you never thought you had in you but in my case anger brought out a language I never thought I could use. I was outright and I had all the right to be � �Lift up that kurta and you will know exactly what touched me�. There. I said it out loud and clear. The guards felt outraged and charged at him. Within seconds he begged for an apology and suddenly the hand in question transformed into a part of his body he wished he never had. �Why would this girl lie? After all she is taking the blame on herself�, said the police officer to the criminal infront of me. He committed the crime, I raised my voice and yet somehow the shame was on me. That statement reflected the thought process of our society, in fact it said much more. I argued with the officer and told the man in question that I have lost NOTHING in this entire episode and in fact I will make him pay for this. He immediately begged for an apology and I instead, insisted to file an FIR. After a few calls, 5 friends of mine reached the station to back me up and how? They were equally angered and showed no mercy.

We moved to Kashmere Gate police station and I slapped a sexual molestation case against him. He was arrested and put behind bars immediately. I decided to not let this one go and appeared at the court on Monday to record my statement in front of the magistrate. Meanwhile this man has been moved to Tihar jail and will spend his time behind the bars until he gets bail.

You see there are several measures being taken to make our public spots and transport safe. Someone asked me as to why I did not take the women�s only coach? But honestly that�s not a solution. These reservations in fact paint the idea that it is not ok or safe for women to be in public spaces. It's debatable, I know but are reservations really improving the situation? Then what would?

I think the answer lies within us. Unless women put forward that is not OKAY for someone to touch and get away with it, nothing will change.

I could just bite the bullet and accept that I was eve teased or molested. Or I can raise my voice and instill the fear in the criminal instead of victimising myself. If this man has the guts to unzip in a metro full of people, he probably started off by doing something less offensive to another girl. Her silence was his encouragement. Remember every time you choose to ignore or walk away, you put someone else in danger. 

So I urge women to respect their body and know that it�s okay for you to say that someone touched you without your consent and you have to muster the courage to reach out to the police. I insist please for the sake of womanhood � SPEAK UP!

By Megha Vishwanath
 Taken from facebook page 'Muslim Feminists' 

Raymond Ibrahim � Beheading Infidels: How Allah �Heals the Hearts of Believers�

Essential article on the Muslim jihadi mind. As gruesome as the below pictures are, this article is ultimately about Islamic and Koranic spirituality. It reveals starkly how Muslim jihadis are avidly following pure Islam. Read and share widely.

"When young Muslims express their anger and frustration at the state of affairs of the Islamic world, their clerics council them to go to the jihad in Iraq and Syria and decapitate themselves an infidel�which, according to the Koran, should �heal their hearts.� [...] 

"Such Muslims join the jihad, and not only do they decapitate, but they mutilate, humiliate, and laugh at the disgraced enemies of Allah�in perfect emulation of the Islamic glory/gory stories they grew up on. 

"This is the true cult of jihad which few non-Muslims can begin to comprehend..."

by Raymond Ibrahim � September 11, 2014

What will �heal� and �remove the rage� from �the hearts of the believers�? Infidel carnage, says the Koran.

To understand why the Islamic State not only decapitates its �infidel� captives, but also mutilates and mocks their corpses�and all to sadistic laughter�one need only turn to the Koran and deeds of Islamic prophet Muhammad.

The Koran exhorts believers to �Fight them [those who oppose Islam], Allah will torment them with your hands, humiliate them, empower you over them, and heal the hearts of the believers, removing the rage from their hearts� (Koran 9:14-15).

As usual, to understand the significance of any Koran verse, one must turn to the sira and hadith�the biography and anecdotes of Muhammad, respectively�for context.

Thus we come to the following account concerning the slaughter of �Amr bin Hisham, a pagan Arab chieftain originally  known as �Abu Hakim� (Father of Wisdom) until Muhammad dubbed him �Abu Jahl� (Father of Stupidity) for his staunch opposition to Islam.

After �Amr was mortally wounded by a new convert to Islam during the Battle of Badr, Abdullah ibn Mas�ud, a close companion of Muhammad, saw the �infidel� chieftain collapsed on the ground.  So he went to him and started abusing him.  Among other things, Abdullah grabbed and pulled �Amr�s beard and stood in triumph on the dying man�s chest.

According to Al-Bidaya wa Al-Nihaya (�The Beginning and the End�), Ibn Kathir�s authoritiative history of Islam, �After that, he [Abdullah] slit his [�Amr�s] head off and bore it till he placed it between the hands of the Prophet. Thus did Allah heal the hearts of the believers with it.�

This, then, is the true significance of Koran 9:14-15: �Fight them, Allah will torment them with your hands [mortally wounding and eventually decapitating �Amr], humiliate them [pulling his beard], empower you over them [standing atop him], and heal the hearts of the believers, removing the rage from their hearts [at the sight of his decapitated head].�

The logic here is that, pious Muslims are so full of zeal for Allah�s cause that the only way their inflamed hearts can be at rest is to see those who oppose Allah and his prophet utterly crushed�humiliated, mutilated, decapitated.  Then the hearts of the believers can be at ease and �healed.�

This is surely one of the reasons behind the Islamic State�s dissemination of gory videos and pictures of its victims: the new �caliphate� is trying to heal the hearts of every believer inflamed for the cause of Allah.

If this sounds too farfetched, consider the following picture of a decapitated �infidel� from the Islamic State�s websites.  The Arabic caption to the left says �healing for hearts��a clear reference to the aforementioned Koran verse:

Koran 96:15-16 also alludes to the fate of �Amr and offers more context applicable to the Islamic State: �No! If he does not desist, we will surely drag him by the forelock�a lying, sinning forelock.�

According to al-Alusi�s tafsir, or exegesis, after Abdullah placed his foot on the dying foe of Islam, �Amr opened his eyes and recognized him.  The once proud chieftain lamented that he was being killed by a common �goat herder,� to which Abdullah replied, �Islam elevates and nothing is elevated above it.�  He then sheared his head off.  �But he could not carry it, so he made holes in the ears and put thread through them and dragged the head to the prophet.  Then Gabriel, peace be upon him, came laughing and saying, �O prophet, you got an ear and an ear�and the head between for a bonus!�

Based, then, on the treatment of �Amr bin Hisham (AKA �Abu Jahl�) as recorded in Islam�s core texts�Koran, hadith, sira, and tafsirs�all sadistic acts being carried out by the Islamic State were in fact committed by the earliest Muslims and all to the complete approval of Muhammad (and apparently the �angel� Gabriel, too).  They include:

• Beheadings and mutilations (e.g., holes in ears of �Amr)
• Humiliation and gestures of triumph (feet on chest of fallen victim, dragging his body, or head, on the ground)
• Laughter, mockery, and celebration (for the hearts of the believers are now �healed�)

Indeed, along with the �healing for hearts� image above, consider some other pictures taken from the Islamic State�s websites and how well they conform to the above accounts describing the slaughter of �Amr[*]:

Note how in the following four pictures, to demonstrate that the enemies of Islam have been brought low, as Koran 9:14-15 promised, Islamic State members make it a point to place their feet atop their fallen corpses, most of which were first decapitated.  Note also how the ubiquitous black flag of Islam is always raised above the fallen �infidels��a reminder that �Islam elevates and nothing is elevated above it,� as Abdullah told �Amr, with his foot on his chest, before beheading him.

Note the jocularity in the following picture�reminiscent of the �angel� Gabriel laughing and joking about the mutilated head of �Amr.  (If Allah�s angel finds such human carnage amusing, shouldn�t Allah�s jihadi servants as well?)

The following picture is reminiscent of how �Amr�s head was treated: mutilated and dragged on the ground.  In this case, it is a decapitated body that is being degraded:

The next two pictures are of especial interest because they actually use the relatively arcane Arabic word haz (bottom left-hand corner), which means to �slice� off, to describe the beheading of Islam�s enemies.  The standard Arabic word for �cut� generally used to describe a beheading is qata�.  That the word used (haz) is the same word found in the early jihad literature is no coincidence and indicative of the source of inspiration: Islam�s scriptures.   (Also watch this video with English subtitles of an Islamic cleric explaining to his followers how one must �slice� (haz) heads off � and do it slowly to enjoy it more � as opposed to merely chopping it off.)

In short, not only are the members of the Islamic State closely patterning themselves after Muhammad�whom Koran 33:21 exhorts believers to emulate in all ways�but even in the most sadistic of details are they finding support in their prophet.

Nor should it come as any surprise that Muslims are aware of these accounts from early Islamic history.  After all, the near hagiographic Battle of Badr, including the story of �Amr�s slaughter, is routinely glorified worldwide in mosque sermons, on Islamic satellite stations, and in Islamic texts.  It is a source of great pride.

Thus when young Muslims express their anger and frustration at the state of affairs of the Islamic world, their clerics council them to go to the jihad in Iraq and Syria and decapitate themselves an infidel�which, according to the Koran, should �heal their hearts.�

(Perhaps that�s why a British female convert to Islam is so eager to �behead Christians with a blunt knife�?  Perhaps that�s why a jihadi savagely pulled out and bit into the heart of a fallen Syrian soldier�to heal his own heart by sating his rage against Allah�s �enemies�?)

Such Muslims join the jihad, and not only do they decapitate, but they mutilate, humiliate, and laugh at the disgraced enemies of Allah�in perfect emulation of the Islamic glory/gory stories they grew up on.

This is the true cult of jihad which few non-Muslims can begin to comprehend�and little wonder, considering that their political leaders, professors, and media continue to babble foolishly about how Islam is the �religion of peace.�

[*] Thanks to Rachid for compiling and presenting the above pictures and accounts.

Russia fears the eastward spread of 'jihadist cancer'

"Eyewitnesses indicate that, on the territory it controls, IS is able to provide order � naturally, within the boundaries outlined by its rigid ideological paradigm. IS has created more jobs; work is not badly paid; criminal activity has decreased; the land is farmed; and trade is functioning. Part of the population � in any case, the Sunnis � are already getting used to living by the new rules. It is scary, but stable."

by Vitaly Naumkin, AL Monitor � September 11, 2014

The military successes of the Islamic State (IS); the possibility of the �jihadist cancer� spreading to Iraq and Syria�s neighboring countries; the uncertainty of the situation in and around Syria; the growth of internal tensions in a number of countries in the Arab Mashreq; the high level of violence and cruelty; the unresolved Palestinian issue; the interfaith and intrafaith (sectarian) rifts; the anxiety engulfing the population in many parts of the region � all this, against a background of shrinking cooperation between Moscow and the West, increases the former�s concern about the future of this part of the Arab world, to whose fate Russians are certainly not indifferent.

Rumors circulating about the possibility of the US airstrikes on IS positions inside Syria have generated lively debate in the Russian expert community and in the media. Obviously, if such attacks were carried out without the consent of the Syrian authorities, Damascus would regard this as a violation of the country�s sovereignty, and Moscow would support this position. In diplomatic circles, rumors are also spreading that the Syrian government would not mind if Russia used airstrikes in areas where the forces of IS militants are concentrated in Syria. No official request, however, appears to have come from Damascus. Thus for now, we can only say that the Syrian government would prefer that such course of action be taken � in case it becomes necessary to stop the onslaught of the terrorists � by Russia, rather than the United States and other forces hostile to Damascus. Yet, it is safe to assume that Moscow is unlikely to intervene militarily in the conflict, even if such an official appeal were to be issued.

Russian analysts are very concerned about the scenario of �squeezing� IS out of Iraq and into Syria, and then �sealing off� the Iraqi-Syrian border (though the complete closure of a border is hardly possible) by Iraqi forces and the anti-IS coalition, with the support of the US Air Force and possibly, in the future, of other Western states. In this scenario, the likelihood of ultraradical Islamists attacking the positions of Syrian government forces rises dramatically. Here, a simple fact demands attention: Contrary to the pictures on television channels, IS fighters do not only torture, maim, behead and shoot all those citizens who disagree with them, though they do indeed commit all these atrocities. Eyewitnesses indicate that, on the territory it controls, IS is able to provide order � naturally, within the boundaries outlined by its rigid ideological paradigm. IS has created more jobs; work is not badly paid; criminal activity has decreased; the land is farmed; and trade is functioning. Part of the population � in any case, the Sunnis � are already getting used to living by the new rules. It is scary, but stable.

Diplomatic sources have informed me that IS militants appear to have started a lucrative trade in oil, whose extraction in Syria they control. This is profitable not only for them, but also � and especially � for their partners in this new business. These sources say that the oil is allegedly sold to Turkey at a very low price. I am even afraid to mention the figure that I have learned, given how much lower it is to the world price. This is not surprising, however. One would do well to recall by analogy the sale of oil by Baghdad to neighboring countries at dumping prices at the time of Saddam Hussein, when the country was under sanctions. According to my information, the Turkish companies allegedly sell the oil on to Israel, but at much higher prices. Of course, I cannot verify the accuracy of this information, but business is business, especially in this domain.

Worse still is that as a result of the offensive against the positions of Syrian government troops, IS militants have managed to seize substantial weaponry in addition to that which had been taken into the country from the north of Iraq. A Syrian officer, who wishes to remain anonymous, bitterly told me that the soldiers of some units in the Syrian Arab army abandoned their weapons and the battlefield under the onslaught of IS militants, who caught up with them and executed them. The reason is the same as that which governed the behavior of Iraqi forces in Mosul. Young and often inexperienced young men are overwhelmed by horror when facing IS fighters crazed with religious drive and who fear nothing. Does this mean that the cohesion of Syrian government troops, a source of wonder to all thus far, is starting to crack due to the fear instilled by the unbelievable cruelty and motivation of the enemy? Maybe, but I see another trend as well: Even many opposition-minded people are siding with the regime to participate in the fight against the IS enemy.

That Damascus fills the role, in one way or another, of the (albeit unacknowledged) de facto ally of the West and the countries in the region leading the fight against the ultra-Islamist radicals, in Moscow�s view increases the chances for a diplomatic settlement of the Syrian conflict. Russian diplomats and experts who are in touch with their US counterparts � and of late those contacts are unsurprisingly many � often have to discuss the details of possible cooperation in this realm, including those points on which the parties hold different positions.

For instance, we have had to listen to our American partners� desire to take a common position to ban the use of so-called barrel bombs by the Syrian authorities. There is no question that this weapon is barbaric, but is it better perhaps to use other types of bombs, rockets, grenades, shells or even all other kinds of lethal weapons? And I am not even talking about the sawing off of heads by IS militants or the mass shootings of unarmed prisoners that they carry out. According to Russian officials and to the overwhelming majority of Russian experts, the only way to reach a solution to the conflict is through a full and total cessation of hostilities by all warring parties, no matter what weapons they use, and their entering into negotiations. It goes without saying that the IS killers would not be included.

For negotiations to be conducted, political will and appropriate conditions are needed. In this regard, the Geneva platform � formed on the basis of the relevant protocol � in my opinion has not lost its relevance at all, though Geneva II failed to achieve tangible results. Russian analysts, however, have often expressed regret at the decision of the Arab League to exclude Damascus and replace the regime�s delegation with that of the opposition. This is not because Moscow is acting as an advocate for the Syrian government, despite that the two closely cooperate. It is because, first of all, this decision clashes in legal terms with that of another, and bigger, international framework, namely the United Nations (UN), which continues to consider the government in Damascus as legitimate and work with its mission. Second, it is because the exclusion of Damascus hinders the possibility that the Arab League may successfully play the role of peacemaker, thus helping to rid Syria of the nightmare of civil war.

Another issue usually raised by our US partners concerns the need for a joint agreement about the search for �undeclared� and hidden chemical weapons. The Russian side is not enthusiastic about this topic either. Why should this be dealt with by the Americans and the Russians? Isn�t the issue of chemical weapons managed by the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons, which has an international mandate to carry out the relevant work?

When I recently discussed with a former high-ranking American diplomat the possible consequences of US airstrikes on IS bases in Syria � in case President Barack Obama decides to go ahead � he raised the question of the fate of the so-called liberated territories (liberated from IS, of course). I was somewhat surprised by the idea my interlocutor put forward, namely that � since a return by the regime would be undesirable � these areas such as, for example, the district of al-Raqqa be transferred to UN control, or under their �umbrella� (it is clear that the United States does not want to help Assad in any way). But then again, how can the UN, which recognizes the legitimacy of the Assad government, arbitrarily take control of part of the area under Damascus� sovereignty? This would not be possible even if the UN were asked to do so by the Americans, along with the anti-IS coalition currently in place.

Disheartened at the lack of progress in trying to establish an intra-Syrian dialogue � while Moscow has always maintained that the Syrians themselves must determine their own future � Russia is now actively promoting the idea of broad intra-Syrian talks in Moscow. As far as I know, this idea has the support of many Syrians, including those representing the opposition. However, an official decision has yet to be taken by all sides. It would be desirable that they do so.

Religious minorities under Ottoman rule

 Jews at the western or wailing wall circa 1900.

 

Much like previous Muslim Empires, the Ottomans showed great toleration and acceptance of non-Muslim communities in their empire. This is based on existing Muslim laws regarding the status of non-Muslims. They are protected, given religious freedoms, and free from persecution according to the Shariah. One of the first precedents of this was the Treaty of Umar ibn al-Khattab, in which he guaranteed the Christians of Jerusalem total religious freedom and safety.

The Millet System

The first instance of the Ottomans having to rule a large number of Christians was after the conquest of Constantinople by Sultan Mehmed II in 1453. Constantinople had historically been the center of the Orthodox Christian world, and still had a large Christian population. As the empire grew into Europe, more and more non-Muslims came under Ottoman authority. For example, in the 1530s, over 80% of the population in Ottoman Europe was not Muslim. In order to deal with these new Ottoman subjects, Mehmed instituted a new system, later called the millet system.

Under this system, each religious group was organized into a millet. Millet comes from the Arabic word for �nation�, indicating that the Ottomans considered themselves the protectors of multiple nations. Each religious group was considered its own millet, with multiple millets existing in the empire. For example, all Orthodox Christians in the Ottoman Empire were considered as constituting a millet, while all Jews constituted another millet. 

Each millet was allowed to elect its own religious figure to lead them. In the case of the Orthodox Church (the biggest Church in the Ottoman Empire), the Orthodox Patriarch (the Archbishop of Constantinople) was the elected leader of the millet. The leaders of the millets were allowed to enforce their own religion�s rules on their people. Islamic law (Shariah) had no jurisdiction over non-Muslims in the Ottoman Empire.

In cases of crime, people would be punished according to the rules of their own religion, not Islamic rules or rules of other religions. For example, if a Christian were to steal, he would be punished according to the Christian laws regarding theft. If a Jew were to steal, he were to be punished according to Jewish laws, etc. The only time Islamic law would come into account was if the criminal was a Muslim, or when there was a case involving two people from different millets. In that case, a Muslim judge was to preside over the case and judge according to his best judgement and common law.

In addition to religious law, millets were given freedom to use their own language, develop their own institutions (churches, schools, etc), and collect taxes. The Ottoman sultan only exercised control over the millets through their leaders. The millet leaders ultimately reported to the sultan, and if there was a problem with a millet, the sultan would consult that millet leader. Theoretically, the Muslim population of the Ottoman Empire also constituted a millet, with the Ottoman sultan as the millet leader.

Legacy

The Ottoman Empire lasted from 1300 to 1922. Throughout most of this history, the millet system provided a system of religious harmony and belonging throughout the empire. As the empire expanded, more millets were organized. Separate millets existed for Armenian, Catholic, and Orthodox Christians, for example, with each sect being divided further into more specific regional churches.

The millet system did not last until the end of the Ottoman Empire. As the empire weakened in the 1700s and 1800s, European intervention in the empire expanded. When the liberal Tanzimat were passed in the 1800s, the millet system was abolished, in favor of a more European-style secularist government. The Ottomans were forced to guarantee vague �rights� to religious minorities, which in fact limited their freedoms. Instead of being allowed to rule themselves according to their own rules, all religious groups were forced to follow the same set of secular laws. This actually ended up causing more religious tension in the empire, which was one of the causes of the genocide of the Armenians during World War One in the Ottoman Empire�s dying days.

The millet system was a unique and creative solution to running a multi-ethnic and multi-religious empire. The rights and freedoms it gave to religious minorities were far ahead of their time. While Europe struggled with religious persecution into the 1900s, the Ottomans created a harmonious and stable religious pluralistic system that guaranteed religious freedom for hundreds of years.

 Source: http://lostislamichistory.com/

ISIL�s Ottoman �Caliphate� Forbears Brutally Slaughtered 250,000 Assyrian-Chaldean, and Orthodox Christians A Century Ago

This devastating report proves the underlying allegiance of so-called "moderate" Muslims to the Global Jihad, who are not only siding with ISIS but committing the worst of atrocities against their Christian and Yazidi neighbors. As Andrew Bostom relates from eyewitness testimony:

"Local Sunni Muslims, the Christians' erstwhile 'neighbors', not only aided and abetted ISIL, but were more responsible for killings, other atrocities, and expulsions than the 'foreign' invading jihadists."

It is important to keep in mind that the historical episode Mr. Bostom cites from a century ago of Islamic jihad/genocide against Middle East Christians, is only one small component of the wider thirty year Orthodox Christian holocaust (1894 � 1922), during which over 3.6 million Eastern Christians were killed by their Turkish Muslim 'neighbors'.  


ISIL�s Ottoman �Caliphate� Forbears Brutally Slaughtered 250,000 Assyrian-Chaldean, and Orthodox Christians A Century Ago
by Andrew Bostom � August 15, 2014
h/t Fr A

Albeit belated, and ever grudgingly, the non-Muslim world has been compelled to acknowledge ISIL's ghastly, murderous jihad rampages against both the Christian and Yazidi religious minorities of northern Iraq.

Even now, however, no U.S. television network has been willing to air the explicit testimonies of both Yazidi and Christian refugees from these jihad depredations about the following salient issue: how local Sunni Muslims, their erstwhile "neighbors," not only aided and abetted ISIL, but were more responsible for killings, other atrocities, and expulsions than the "foreign" invading jihadists. For example, Sabah Hajji Hassan, a 68-year-old Yazidi, lamented,

The (non-Iraqi) jihadists were Afghans, Bosnians, Arabs and even Americans and British fighters. But the worst killings came from the people living among us, our (Sunni) Muslim neighbors. The Metwet, Khawata and Kejala tribes-they were all our neighbors. But they joined the IS [Islamic State; ISIL], took heavy weapons from them, and informed on who was Yazidi and who was not. Our neighbors made the IS takeover possible.

The Yazidi Hassan's observations independently validated this prior, concordant assessment (video here) by an Christian refugee from Mosul:

[Unnamed Christian refugee]: We left Mosul because ISIL came to the city. The [Sunni] people of Mosul embraced ISIS and drove the Christians out of the city. When ISIS entered Mosul, the people hailed them and drove out the Christians. Why did they expel just the Christians from Mosul? There are many sects in Mosul. Why just the Christians? This is nothing new. Even before, the Christians could not go anywhere. The Christians have faced threats of murder, kidnapping, jizya [deliberately humiliating "poll-tax," per Koran 9:29, imposed upon non-Muslim Jews/Christians/Zoroastrians, vanquished by jihad, along with a slew of other "sacralized" debasing regulations] This is nothing new. [...] I was told to leave Mosul. They said that this was a Muslim country, not a Christian one. I am being very honest. They said that this land belongs to Islam and that Christians should not live there.

[Interviewer]: Who told you that? 

[Christian refugee]: The people who embraced ISIS, the people who lived there with us... 

[Interviewer]: Your neighbors? 

[Christian refugee]: Yes, my neighbors. Our neighbors and other people threatened us.

There is another more significant, yet equally verboten truth about ISIL's jihad. The carnage presently wrought by these avatars of a revitalized Caliphate, simply mirrors, in all its gory, and seemingly depraved detail, the actions of their Ottoman Caliphate "prototype" forbears-also abetted by local Muslims-vis-�-vis the region's indigenous, pre-Islamic Yazidis, and Christians.

Riveting upon the Assyrian, Chaldean, and Syrian Orthodox Christian populations of northern Iraq (then Mesopotamia), and eastern Anatolia, historian David Gaunt's pioneering 2006 study described their horrific plight under the Ottomans in 1915. Gaunt noted that "an intense extermination of the Christians was completed in a short period between June and September 1915"-killings on a grisly scale of magnitude far beyond ISIL's exploits. Most of the 250,000 eventually slaughtered during the years between 1914 and 1919 were killed in this compressed 4-month time frame.

After describing the "concrete details" of what he characterized as the "Ottoman ethnic and religious wars and the full scale of religiously-inspired massacres," Gaunt concluded with this summary assessment which conveyed the sheer horror and depravity of these jihad ravages:

The degree of extermination and the brutality of the massacres indicate extreme pent-up hatred on the popular level. Christians, the so-called gawur [also giaour or ghiaour] infidels, were killed in almost all sorts of situations. 

They were collected at the local town hall, walking in the streets, fleeing on the roads, at harvest, in the villages, in the caves and tunnels, in the caravanserais [an inn with a central courtyard], in the prisons, under torture, on the river rafts, on road repair gangs, on the way to be put on trial. There was no specific and technological way of carrying out the murders like the Nazis' extermination camps. A common feature was those killed were unarmed, tied up, or otherwise defenseless. 

All possible methods of killing were used: shooting, stabbing, stoning, crushing, throat cutting, throwing off of roofs, drowning, decapitation. Witnesses talk of seeing collections of ears and noses and of brigands boasting of their collections of female body parts. The perpetrators not only killed but humiliated the victims... 

In several instances, decapitated heads of well-known Christians, such as Hanne Safar of Midyat and Ibrahim the Syriac priest of Sa'irt were used as footballs...In Derike, the Syriac Catholic priest Ibrahim Qrom had his beard torn off and was then forced to crawl on all fours with a tormentor on his back, while others kicked him, stabbed him, and finally cut him to pieces.

Virtually every deportation caravan and village massacre was accompanied by serial mass rape of the women. Young girls were abducted as sex slaves and children as household servants. Even when they were not killed outright, the women were often stripped of their clothes. The homes of Christians were broken into, plundered, furniture smashed, windows, and doors removed, set on fire. Sometimes a survivor had little to return home to. 

The number of perpetrators of the local massacres was staggering. Apparently the local officials....or the local politicians...had no difficulty in motivating the populace for extermination. The officials established death squads from middle-aged Muslim men. National Assembly deputies...agitated among the Kurdish tribes and even managed to get notorious outlaws...to cooperate in return for loot, adventure, and a promise of amnesty. On a few occasions, Muslim women were present, for instance...at the public humiliation of Christian dignitaries, but mostly the perpetrators were males. There were literally thousands of perpetrators, most of them locals.

How tragic that a century later, plus �a change, plus c'est la m�me chose. The question remains: how much longer will U.S. policymaking elites across the political spectrum persist in their denial about how such jihad carnage is a recurring, grass roots, traditionalist Islamic phenomenon?