A couple of weeks ago I wrote a post ISIS in Iraq and the
persecution that was being faced by the Christians in Mosul and elsewhere:
http://stevenuessle.blogspot.com/2014/07/isis-and-iraq-now-this-is-persecution.html
I talked about the historical decisions that led to the rise
of ISIS, and also talked a little bit about the choices faced by Christians –
namely convert, pay huge taxes, flee or die.
Since this blog post, the facts on the ground have seemed to
change, and not for the better. I have been reading quite a bit of accounts
from a variety of sources and I have to say that I am still pretty confused
about what exactly is happening.
What is known for sure is that ISIS is a pretty terrible
group committing atrocities of some sort. Here are a series of tweets by Tom
Holland (a historian who wrote one of my favorite books, The Shadow of the
Sword, that covers the rise of Islam, especially applicable with ISIS) as he
provides some context for what is happening.
Although the brutality exercised by ISIS, recorded as it is on social media, is very much of the 21st Century, it also moves to ancient rhythms.
The enemies that ISIS are pledged to subdue or annihilate are phantoms conjured up from the pages of ancient Islamic histories.
When ISIS behead captured Shias, they dismiss them as “Safavids” – casting them as agents of the great 16th century Shia empire in Iran.
(my note – as mentioned, the Safavid empire was an Iranian ruling dynasty from 1501-1722 that established Shia Islam as their official religion, making them clear enemies of the Shia ISIS)
The photos ISIS post of beheaded Shia are images conjured up from ancient propaganda as well as from the darkest depths of the internet.
When ISIS threaten Christians with paying danger money or death, they imagine themselves to be humbling both the modern West and Rome.
When ISIS attack the Yazidis, they imagine themselves to be following in the footsteps of Muhammed himself, who overthrew paganism.
ISIS leave Yazidis with 2 choices: starve to death on a mountain or come down and risk being slaughtered.
There is no richer or more ancient fabric of religions than the one to be found in Syria and Iraq – and ISIS are doing their best to destroy it.
I will confess that I was not that aware of the religious
diversity in this part of the world until the actions of ISIS really exposed
it. I was aware of Christians in Syria and Lebanon as well as Egypt and I was
aware of the role that they play in local politics, but I was not aware of the
flourishing communities of religions outside of Islam within these countries.
This is being destroyed by an extremist organization with no government strong
enough to stop them.
As someone who really enjoys the study of history, I am very
interested in what has led up to these atrocities. So much more complicated
than saying one religion leads to one thing and a different religion might lead
to another. There are grievances from centuries ago that are still being cited
for actions today.
The treatment of Christians with the choice of convert, tax,
flee or die goes back 1400 years as the rising Arab states took on the might of
a strong (though declining) Roman Empire in the East (often called the
Byzantine Empire). That is what ISIS, and groups like them, harken back to as
they justify their actions today.
There are reports of atrocities that have been committed
against Iraqi Christians that sprung up mostly from this interview with Mark
Arabo:
This information has been spread around in various reports,
but it is unclear how true these claims are. As was mentioned in my previous
post, there is surely persecution of the Christians in Iraq, and it is quite
likely that the community that existed and flourished may be no more, even
after ISIS is (hopefully) pushed out of the region. It is believed that the
vast majority of Christians left the area, and there are still journalists in
the area and there have not been corroborated accounts of atrocities against
Christians. What we read are repackaged versions of the Arabo interview. I am
not saying he is incorrect, but there isn’t anything to corroborate his
account. This is best summed up in this article:
This is small consolation for the people that actually are
being killed, sometimes in the most gruesome ways imaginable, the
aforementioned Yazidis. Without going into too much detail, the Yazidis are
neither Christian nor Muslim, but the descendants of an ancient religion
(Zoroastrianism) that was common in the Persian Empire over 1500 years ago.
This religion is especially offensive to an extremist Muslim group like ISIS,
which is leading to the kidnapping and rape of woman, killing of men and even
children.
This has caused the Yazidi to flee to the mountains, where
they risk dying of thirst and starvation, but still have better odds of
survival than staying put and taking on ISIS. Traditionally, the Kurdish people
of Northern Iraq were able to provide some protection for the Yazidi, but they
have been unable to hold back ISIS advances, which has led to the onset of the
atrocities.
This is the situation that we find ourselves in as President
Obama has ordered some airstrikes against ISIS. It serves the dual purpose of
providing relief for the Yazidis (and potential rescue), while also supporting
the Kurdish people, who are probably the best and most stable partner of the US
in the region.
ISIS is an evil organization doing evil things to a wide
variety of innocent people. They must be stopped. I am not a big fan of war,
especially not of the way our country has waged war in the past several years,
but there is a time when it is the only recourse from a horrific situation,
that will not improve on its own.
I have struggled with this situation as much as anything that
has happened over the past several years. It is a good time to pray. For our
leaders as they make the best decisions they can with the information that they
have, and for the victims of these horrific atrocities.
If interested, I am including some links with additional
information:
The current story of the Yazidis and some background:
Some more information on the Yazidi and there connections to
the Kurds:
I will return with some of my more traditional types of
writing going forward, but I wanted to wrestle with this issue one more time.
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