Daesh (IS) School Closures in Syria Affect 670,000

Geneva: An estimated 670,000 children in Syria are being deprived of an education after Daesh forces ordered schools to close pending a change in curriculum, the United Nation Children’s Fund (Unicef) said on Tuesday.

Daesh has seized land in Syria and Iraq and imposed its strict version of Islamic law.

In November, it shut schools in areas it controls in eastern Syria pending a religious revision of the curriculum.

The group stands accused of massacres, sexually enslaving women and girls and recruiting children as fighters.

“In December there was a decree of [Daesh] ordering the stoppage of education in areas under its control,” Unicef spokesman Christophe Boulierac said.

“Daesh said that the curriculum needed to be reshaped or re-conceived.” Children enrolled in primary and secondary schools in Raqqa, and rural areas of Deir Al Zor and Aleppo provinces are affected by the closures, he said. Teachers must undergo retraining.

Unicef also said that at least 160 children were killed and 343 wounded in attacks on schools across Syria last year. The toll was probably an underestimate due to difficulties of access and obtaining data generally, Boulierac said.

“In addition to lack of school access, attacks on schools, teachers and students are further horrific reminders of the terrible price Syria’s children are paying in a crisis approaching its fifth year,” Hanaa Singer, Unicef representative in Syria, said in a statement.

Daesh has been the target of US-led air strikes in both Syria and Iraq since September.

How Deep was Saudi Involvement in 911? And Why is the US Still in Bed with Them?

Column by Neil Macdonald - CBC

Venezuela President Nicholas Maduro

Just before the holidays, Barack Obama signed a new law punishing Venezuela's leaders for human rights violations — for persecution and imprisonment of union leaders, journalists and protesters, and for a general disregard for the law.

"The United States," proclaimed the sanctions, "supports the people of Venezuela in their efforts to … advance representative democracy, human rights and the rule of law."

Also, the State Department says, Venezuela is far too cozy with terrorists, maintaining a "permissive environment" for, among other villains, agents of Iran and Hezbollah.

Nasty, nasty Venezuela. How could Obama allow such sins to go unpunished?

Now, at about the same time as Obama was sanctioning Venezuela's terrorist-coddling human rights violators, Loujain al Hathloul and Maysa al Hathmoudi were arrested at the border of Saudi Arabia, a close and loyal ally of the U.S. in its struggle against global terror.

Their crime was an act that's actually encouraged in Venezuela; more on that in a minute.

In Washington's view, Saudi Arabia is all that Venezuela is not. It disapproves of violent Islamists (or at least the ones in other countries). It's allowed to buy all sorts of advanced American weaponry. It's described as a "force for regional stability."

The advice of Saudi leaders is publicly cherished by American presidents: "I thought it was very important to come to the place where Islam began and to seek his majesty's counsel," Obama gushed during a 2009 visit.

George W. Bush was once photographed, to the amusement of some Republicans, holding hands with the Saudi monarch. Barack Obama was videoed bowing to the king, something he did not do to Queen Elizabeth.

Anyway, back to the two suspects arrested at the border in December.

The pair, both women, were whisked off to face the country's anti-terror court.

What punishment they might eventually receive is unclear, but given Saudi's reputation for torturing and scourging and beheading, suffice it to say you wouldn't want to be Loujain al Halthoul or Maysa al Hathmoudi right now.

Their crime? Driving. Or, to be precise: driving while female.

Now, driving while female is a pretty serious charge in the kingdom, although not as bad as sorcery. Or criticizing the government.

The Saudis chopped off an accused sorcerer's head (along with dozens of other heads) in August.

In October, a Saudi court sentenced a revered Shia cleric to death for advocating non-violent protests against the treatment of the country's minority Shia population. Police then arrested his brother for tweeting about the death sentence.

Washington, though, isn't quite so keen on standing with the people of Saudi Arabia in their efforts to advance rule of law, etc., etc.

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry
with Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Saud al-Faisal 

First of all, lawmakers here are far too busy attacking and sanctioning countries that commit violence America disapproves of.

Second, and I say this at the risk of sounding idiotically naive, Saudi Arabia has, um, oil.

Mideast Saudi Arabia Islamic State

Not only does it have oil, it's willing to keep pumping and selling it in undiminished quantities as oil prices worldwide plummet, making it a lot cheaper to drive big cars and SUVs, and in the process, crippling other less cherished oil producers such as Russia, Iran and Venezuela.

Given all that, what's a few hundred annual beheadings and floggings and the widespread crushing of legitimate dissent? So what if the Saudis dispatch the occasional sorcerer? Who likes sorcerers anyway?

28 pages

American forbearance, though, goes much further where the Saudis are concerned. So much further.

For more than a decade now, 28 pages in a congressional report about the 9/11 attacks have been entirely excised.

Did censoring the 9/11 report pave the way for ISIS?

To allow the American public access to the information they contain, says the government, would imperil national security.

President Bush first ordered them censored, and President Obama has kept them sealed.

The section deals with foreign financial support of the 19 men who flew passenger jets into the World Trade Center and the Pentagon in 2001.

By several accounts — including statements by two former Senators who sat on the 9/11 commission — the sealed pages point the finger at America's close friend and ally in the war on terror, Saudi Arabia.

Saudi Arabia has consistently denied any advance knowledge of, or connection to the hijackers, but some information in the 28 pages has already leaked.

According to multiple reports here, the FBI and CIA suggest Saudi Arabia provided at least indirect support and funding for the attackers.

And the report isn't talking about the usual "wealthy Saudi sympathizers," we so often hear about. No, the pages reportedly describe consular and financial support by officials of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.

It is a long-established fact that 15 of the 19 attackers were Saudi citizens. That in itself, let alone official complicity, would likely have provoked a pestilence of drone-launched missiles on any other country.

But Saudi Arabia is different. Americans have been trained to believe the royal family is decent and pro-American, and must unfortunately allow the odd excess in order to satisfy the awful fundamentalist Wahhabist clerics who constantly threaten the royals from within.

Excesses like encouraging pedophilia.

So America must be understanding, you see. Though some U.S. lawmakers who have seen the 28 pages are not terribly understanding. They are as outraged as you'd probably expect.

Former Senator Bob Graham of Florida, who chaired the congressional inquiry, has tried to get at some of the case files written by FBI investigators looking into Saudi connections. He has been calling it a "coverup."

Congressmen Walter Jones, a Republican, and Stephen Lynch, a Democrat, have read the 28 pages, but are constrained by law from discussing their contents. So they have now proposed a Congressional resolution asking Obama to declassify the material.

Trouble is, the 28 pages might contain the truth, and as Jack Nicholson once famously yelled, people can't handle the truth.

It's a diplomatic dilemma.

Let's see: Venezuela, Saudi Arabia. Saudi Arabia, Venezuela. Hmmmmm.

Well, they have at least one thing in common: Both of them sit on the UN Human Rights Council.

Honor Killings in Gaza You Won't Find in the New York Times

The Unmentioned Murders of the Middle East

First One Through

Honor killings have a sad history throughout the Muslim world. Many families deliberately and systematically kill wives and daughters if there is any suspicion of the women bringing “dishonor” to the family. The cause of such shame may come from actual or feared adultery, refusal to marry a designated spouse, or even dressing inappropriately. The cultural rationale for the honor killings is that by murdering the offending women, honor is restored to the families.

Gaza and the West Bank are similar to other parts of the Muslim world regarding the reasons for honor killings. However, the recent spike in the number of killings in the territories has been very dramatic and atypical. In 2011, there were five such murders in the territories. The number of homicides jumped to 13 in 2012, and doubled again to 27 in 2013. In just the first two months of 2014, 8 honor killings were reported by Palestinian media sources, a pace that would have put it on course for nearly doubling again.

By comparison, in Afghanistan an estimated 150 women are killed each year in honor killings. Afghanistan has over eight times the population of Gaza and West Bank, and 18 times Gaza alone. Therefore, on a proportionate basis, the Palestinians now kill twice as many women in honor killings as Afghanistan (or over three times as many if one only counts Gaza where most of the murders take place).

Adding insult to these horrific murders increasing popularity, was the lax way such murders were treated in Palestinian courts. According to the Palestinian Law (Article 340), the killers were not subject to any punishment.

“He who discovers his wife or female relative committing adultery and kills,
wounds or injuries one or both of them is exempted from any penalty,
and he who discovers his wife, or one of his female ascendants or descendants
or sisters with another in an unlawful bed and he kills, wounds or injures one
or both of them, benefits from a reduction of penalty.”

The terrible jump in honor killing of women in Gaza and the West Bank did not make it to the pages of The New York Times. The courts absolution granted to the murderers was not a subject that the Times decided to cover. In 2011. In 2012. In 2013. In 2014.

The closest the New York Times came to an article about the Palestinians’ disregard for a woman’s life in the territories was in an article by Jodi Rudoren in October 2012. That article was about a particular women’s rights advocate. While one would imagine some specifics about the lack of women’s rights and a review of honor killings being covered in such an article, there was barely any mention.

There was no description of honor killings
No report on the increasing number of killings
No review of Palestinian Law absolving the murderers

Instead, Roduren chose to describe the difficulty of a specific woman acting as a rights advocate in Gaza (as opposed to the hardship all women face in Gaza). Of course, according to Roduren, the main source of the hardship was Israel:

““psychological siege” imposed by a combination of Israeli restrictions on travel and trade”
“lost a personal battle last month when Israel’s Supreme Court rejected a petition by her and three other women to study in the West Bank.”
“the resistance of the Israeli occupation as a priority,”
Israeli court ruled, 2 to 1, against the four women
“Israeli warplane hit an apartment building”

So what does a reader take-away from the New York Times?

While the New York Times occasionally covered stories of honor killings in Afghanistan or Pakistan, it never covered those killings in Gaza, despite the greater prevalence in Gaza.

When the paper had a chance to describe the honor killings in Gaza in an article about a woman’s rights advocates, it opted not to do so.

The thrust of the sole article on the morbid topic laid most of the blame on Israel, as opposed to the Palestinians themselves

Hooray New York Times. You gave a pass for Muslim misogyny and murder meted out by Palestinians. Absolution of the Arab sins came from Jews just across the Green Line.

It would be much more convenient for the left-wing fringe if Israel bordered Pakistan and Afghanistan as well, so they could blame Jews for the entire reprehensible ritual.

IS Massacre at Least 150 Women and Girls in Iraq

A statement released by Iraq’s Ministry of Human Rights on Tuesday said the militants had attacked women in the western Iraqi province of Al-Anbar before burying them in mass graves in Fallujah.

Some of the women killed were pregnant at the time, according to the Anadolu Agency.

“At least 150 females, including pregnant women, were executed in Fallujah by a militant named Abu Anas Al-Libi after they refused to accept jihad marriage,” the statement said.

God bless and have mercy on these incredibly brave women who would rather die than serve Satan.

“Many families were also forced to migrate from the province’s northern town of Al-Wafa after hundreds of residents received death threats.”

Isis has overrun a large part of the western Anbar province in its push to expand its territory across swathes of Iraq and Syria.

The Independent is attempting to verify the reports.

Do you know why Muslims pray with their face to the ground and their backsides in the air? It gets their mouths closer to their Father, and shows disrespect to the real God and Father. That's my theory anyway.

The executions come after the militant group shot dead at least 50 men, women and children in a tribe massacre in the province last month.

The attack against the Al Bu Nimr tribe took place in the village of Ras al-Maa, north of Ramadi, the provincial capital. There, the militant group killed at least 40 men, six women and four children.

A senior tribesman said they were lined up and publicly killed one by one. An official within the Anbar governor’s office corroborated the tribesman’s account, according to The Associated Press.

Isis also recently published what appeared to be an “abhorrent” pamphlet providing its followers with guidelines on how to capture, keep and sexually abuse female slaves.

Can Sharia Co-exist with Western Laws?

Pamela Geller

Slowly but surely, Western nations are adopting sharia (Islamic law) and Muslim legal standards. Being Muslim is now a defense for rape and soon, I suspect, murder.

Here in the States, when Noor Almaleki’s devout Muslim father stood trial for her Islamic honor killing, he did not face the death penalty, so that there was “no appearance that a Christian is seeking to execute a Muslim for racial, political, religious or cultural beliefs.” It's funny, there's never any problem with Muslim countries seeking the death penalty for Christians.

And in Australia, a judge found “cultural differences” a valid excuse for rape. Utterly insane!

Think it doesn’t affect you? Think again: Obama has lifted a ban on training Libyans. They’ll be going to our flight schools and training in nuclear science. Obama say, inshallah.

Libyan cadet

The British authorities should have told the Libyan cadets that in Britain, the Qur’an verses that allow for the capture and use of Infidel women as sex slaves are not to be acted upon. But to have told them that would have been “Islamophobic.”

“The believers must (eventually) win through, those who humble themselves in their prayers; who avoid vain talk; who are active in deeds of charity; who abstain from sex, except with those joined to them in the marriage bond, or (the captives) whom their right hands possess, for (in their case) they are free from blame.” (Qur’an 23:1-6)

According to Islamic law, Muslim men can take “captives of the right hand” (Qur’an 4:3, 4:24, 33:50). The Qur’an says: “O Prophet! Lo! We have made lawful unto thee thy wives unto whom thou hast paid their dowries, and those whom thy right hand possesseth of those whom Allah hath given thee as spoils of war” (33:50). 4:3 and 4:24 extend this privilege to Muslim men in general.

The rape of captive women is also sanctioned in Islamic tradition:

Abu Sirma said to Abu Sa’id al Khadri (Allah he pleased with him): 0 Abu Sa’id, did you hear Allah’s Messenger (may peace be upon him) mentioning al-’azl? He said: Yes, and added: We went out with Allah’s Messenger (may peace be upon him) on the expedition to the Bi’l-Mustaliq and took captive some excellent Arab women; and we desired them, for we were suffering from the absence of our wives, (but at the same time) we also desired ransom for them. So we decided to have sexual intercourse with them but by observing ‘azl (Withdrawing the male sexual organ before emission of semen to avoid conception). But we said: We are doing an act whereas Allah’s Messenger is amongst us; why not ask him? So we asked Allah’s Messenger (may peace be upon him), and he said: It does not matter if you do not do it, for every soul that is to be born up to the Day of Resurrection will be born. (Muslim 3371)

“Libyan cadet in Bassingbourn claims ‘poor treatment,’"

A Libyan soldier has spoken to BBC News from the Cambridgeshire barracks at the centre of Britain’s controversial training mission for the Libyan army.

About 300 cadets are being sent home early from Bassingbourn Barracks after allegations of sex attacks.

Bassingbourn Barracks

The Ministry of Defence confirmed some recruits left the UK earlier and the others will go in the “coming days”.

Omar Al-Mukhtar, not one of the accused, said the Libyan soldiers think the men concerned were badly treated….

Two of the cadets have admitted sexual assaults against women in Cambridge, with another charged but yet to enter a plea, and a further two have appeared in court charged with rape.

Security reinforced

Nearby residents have complained about the Libyan cadets leaving the base to buy alcohol and the Ministry of Defence (MoD) has admitted there have been disciplinary issues….

Mr Al-Mukhtar said the Libyan cadets were allowed out for only three hours a week and were always accompanied by British soldiers when they left the barracks.

He added that when soldiers left the base they had been offered drugs, alcohol and sex for money….

However, he then said there had been “several problems” between the Libyan cadets and British soldiers….

However, he said the cadets were unhappy with the way they had been treated by the British government, which he said had “not offered a comfortable way of living here [at the barracks]“, and that some people were “trying to ruin the reputation of the Libyan Army”.

Asked why the cadets were being flown home two weeks before the end of their course, he said: “I feel, like all the rest of us, there is no problem.

“It was the British from the beginning. They should have sought a solution and finished the training well.

“They didn’t tell us about British law and what’s the difference between right and wrong here.”

Mr Al-Mukhtar complained that when the cadets were arrested and their comrades went to ask the authorities at the base what was happening, they were given no information.

He said the cadets believed the arrested men were “unlawfully treated”, adding: “We blame the British authorities for dealing with it in this way.”

He said Libyan cadets at the base believed the British authorities dealt with the arrested men in “an unlawful way… we blame the British authorities for not taking proper care of us”.

Asked if the cadets had a message for the British government he said: “Not to take things too seriously”. Well, yeah, after all they're just women!!! Good grief.

The last of the Libyan cadets are due to leave the base on Friday, and the MOD said the training of Libyan soldiers in the UK was “being reviewed”.

Cultural differences should never be an excuse for breaking the laws of any country. It is the responsibility of anyone going to a new country that they have a basic understanding of the laws of that country, whether visiting or immigrating. We would not walk the streets of Riyadh with a bottle of wine in hand, or with a girl in a bikini, and we should not let foreigners flagrantly violate our laws, especially when it does harm to someone.

12 Nigerian Soldiers Sentenced to Death by Firing Squad for Mutiny

Twelve soldiers fighting an Islamist insurgency in north-east Nigeria have been sentenced to death by firing squad for mutiny and attempted murder of their commanding officer.

In a decision read out early on Tuesday by Brig Gen Chukwuemeka Okonkwo, the military tribunal found 12 soldiers guilty and cleared five others. One was sentenced to 28 days in jail with hard labour.

Nigerian soldiers

All the accused, ranging in rank from private to corporal, had denied the charges.

The revolt occurred after a convoy of soldiers was ordered to drive at night on a road frequently attacked by Boko Haram extremists. The soldiers initially refused, saying it was a suicide mission. But they eventually followed orders and were ambushed on 13 May by insurgents on the road from the north-east town of Chibok. An unknown number were killed.

Chibok is the town from which more than 270 schoolgirls were kidnapped a month earlier. More than 50 have escaped but the rest remain captive.

Activists campaigning for the return of the schoolgirls kidnapped from Chibok,
near to where the soldiers had been ambushed.

The failure to rescue the girls is a sign of the inability of Nigeria's military and government to contain a five-year-old Islamist uprising that has killed thousands, with soldiers accused of gross human rights abuses in the process.

Demoralised soldiers have told the Associated Press that they are outgunned by the insurgents, frequently are not paid in full, and feel abandoned on the battlefield, left without enough ammunition or food. Endemic corruption in Nigeria means millions of dollars budgeted for the fight against the extremists goes missing.

When the bodies of the ambushed soldiers were brought to the barracks in the north-eastern city of Maiduguri on 14 May, the soldiers revolted, throwing stones at their commanding officer, firing into the air and then shooting at him. Several bullets hit the armour-plated vehicle in which he sought refuge. The officer, Maj Gen A Mohammed, was unharmed.

Boko Haram insurgents - better armed than military

The judgment issued by the nine-member court martial panel said the soldiers accused their officers of cowardice and threatened to shoot them.

The panel said it "considered the gravity of the offence alleged, particularly the attempt to kill the general officer commanding 7 Division, Nigerian army, and its likely effect on the counter-insurgency operations in the north-east as well as its implications on national security."

Before sentencing, the soldiers' private lawyers pleaded for leniency, saying some of the defendants supported aged parents, others were the sole breadwinners in their family, and some of them had served in the army for 10 years, including in foreign peacekeeping missions.

Journalists who were barred from attending the trial were invited to hear the reading of the verdict and the sentencing, which are both subject to review by military authorities.

The judgment did not state what the soldiers said in their defence during the trial.

Boko Haram has made huge gains in recent weeks, seizing a string of towns along the border with Cameroon where they have declared an Islamic caliphate under sharia law.

The sentences seem pretty harsh to me when you consider the circumstances, the corruption, the lack of leadership, the lack of provision, and the lack of moral in the military. Then to send them to a fool's mission, well, that was obviously too much. I hope the military review is more understanding.

I think the Major-General should be charged with gross incompetence.

Why is Rotherham Child Sex Abuse Scandal Important to You?

This past week, I have posted a number of articles on the Rotherham scandal which continues to horrify me with each revelation. If you're not up on this issue, you can catch-up here, here, here, here, and here.

Rotherham Town Hall

Why is this issue so important for us to understand? 

There are several reasons besides the obvious of 1400+ girls being horribly abused as police and social services completely ignore the travesty. The 'how' and 'why' they ignored the issue must be understood to prevent it (or stop it) happening elsewhere.

There were, it appears, two main factors for the excuses that the police and social services had for doing little or nothing to save the girls. The first was the attitude that the girls - as young as 11 or 12 - were promiscuous, sexually active children. They believed that most of the children were in consensual relationships. They probably believed that nothing they could do would make any difference anyway.

There are several glaring weaknesses in those arguments. For one, the age of consent in the UK is 16. Consequently, consensual sex is impossible for girls 15 and under, which most of the girls were. It used to be called statutory rape. Apparently the South Yorkshire police didn't deem it a crime worthy of their time.

Even if some of the girls started as a consensual relationship with men twice their age, Professor Jay's report reveals that they quickly became a slave-master relationship. The police and social workers would have known that if they had bothered with even a minimal investigation.

The girls were often treated violently, beaten, gang-raped. They were fed drugs and alcohol. How is any of that not worth a criminal investigation?

Also, because these girls were thrown out with the trash, many of those who had babies from the abuse, had them confiscated by social services who never allowed anymore contact between the mother and child. It appears they were considered 'not worth the effort to try to rehabilitate'. Many such girls were certainly on drugs or suicidal, but they got that way because police and social services allowed them to be victimized over and over.

The second excuse was that police and social services/city council were paralized by the fear of being called racist. In an age of 'multiculturalism' when white guys are all racist and ethnic minorities are always victims, people bent over backwards to appear to be 'tolerant' if not enthusiastic of diversity. Consequently, 1400+ girls, mostly white, were sacrificed on the altar of political correctness.
Political correctness and the almost hysterical response from those who jump on any sign of nationalism or complaint about immigrants, are largely responsible for this. Of course, there are ultra-nationalists who are just as hysterical as their opponents, but their arguments are rejected as racist and therefore are invalid.

But what the ultra-nationalists realize, and greatly fear, is 'cultural jihad'. If you've never heard this term, it means spreading Islam to the world by sending 'missionaries' to non-Muslim countries to make converts. It also means emigrating to non-Muslim countries where you have large families, which have large families, which have large families.

This is happening in many western countries. Some will debate whether it is a conspiracy or not, but, actually, it doesn't matter; it's happening, and that's what matters.

In France, ethnic French people average one child per couple - meaning a significant decrease in numbers with each generation. Muslims in France average 8 children per couple. So for each generation, French nationalists reduce by about half while Muslims increase by a factor of four.

Parts of France are already dominated by Muslims and within one or two generations, France will be a Muslim country. It will be followed within another generation or two by several other EU countries. This is cultural suicide!

What happens when a country becomes Muslim? At some point, radical and/or radical extremists will rise to power and invoke Sharia law. Then European women will be made to wear burkas and men will be made to pray to Allah or die. This will happen in all western countries if it is allowed. 

The paradox in allowing this travesty to continue for fear of being labelled racist, is that the Pakistani perpetrators and customers were being very much racist. Most of the girls were young, white girls. Islam calls them Kafirs - cattle. They are infidels, so they are worthless except to satisfy the perverted tastes of Muslim deviates.

What to do?

First, the police should be going after the customers and any 'go-betweens' like taxi drivers, etc.

Second, there must be a public inquiry into all aspects of this sorry affair.

Third, new laws need to be written, for instance:

Immigration should come with a 5 year probation period where, if you are found to be unwilling to adopt the host countries morals and laws, you are repatriated to your home country.

Rotherman's Pakistani deviates

There should be no tolerance whatsoever, of Imams or anyone else who preaches jihad or who attempts to recruit people to jihad. They should be held in prison, incommunicado, until all appeals are exhausted, then deported.

Those who travel to the middle east to join jihad, should have their passports and citizenship revoked as soon as it can be proven. They should never be allowed to return to this country. They cannot be American, Canadian, British, Dutch, German or any other western citizen as well as being jihad.

ISIS is ‘Systematically Beheading Children’ in ‘Christian Genocide’

This is deadly serious people. Christians, Yazidis, Shiia Muslims are being slaughtered in norther Iraq as you read this in the most powerful display of unmitigated evil since Hitler. The pictures are hard to look at, the stories hard to read, and the videos are not fun to watch, but you need to know what is going on before it comes to a theatre near you.

Whar is most disappointing is that as of a few hours ago none of the left wing media are even carrying the story of the Christian genocide in Iraq. They may have a brief story on the horrific plight of the Yazidi people, but nothing on the Christians.

“Christianity in Mosul is dead, and a Christian holocaust is in our midst,” said Mark Arabo, a Californian businessman and Chaldean-American leader. In an interview with CNN’s Jonathan Mann, he called what’s happening in Iraq a “Christian genocide” and said “children are being beheaded, mothers are being raped and killed, and fathers are being hung.”

“Right now, three thousand Christians are in Iraq fleeing to neighboring cities,” he told Mann. Arabo is calling on the international community to follow France’s lead and offer the Christians of Iraq asylum.

“You’re startling me with the severity of what you’re describing,” the CNN host said. “You said they are — beheading children?”

From this photo it appears that the boys are unconscious before the beheading

“They are systematically beheading children,” Arabo repeated slowly. “And mothers and fathers. The world hasn’t seen an evil like this for generations.” Indeed, not since Nazi Germany, unless you lived in the killing fields of Cambodia.

The photo above is very difficult to look at, but this is going on as you read this. Our first response should be to pray for these people and against Isis.

“There’s actually a park in Mosul where they actually beheaded children and put their heads on a stick… this is crimes against humanity. They are doing the most horrendous, the most heart-breaking crimes that you can think of.”

Mann asked about the ISIS letter sent to Christians in Mosul, demanding that they either convert to Islam, pay a fine or be put to “death by the sword.”

“It’s very clear they are killing people, but are Christians managing to escape by paying a fine?” he asked.

Arabo reports that after Christians pay the fine, the fighters take the Christian wives and children “and make them their wives – so it’s really convert, or die.”

A quick scan of Youtube shows the truth of what Arabo is saying – there are gruesome videos of heads on spikes, and many of live beheadings (one poor Christian is forced to say the Shahada ‘there is no God but Allah and Muhammad is his Prophet’ and then beheaded anyway.)

Warning: don’t Google these things unless you have a strong stomach.

“They are absolutely killing every Christian they see,” Arabo said of ISIS. “This is absolutely a genocide in every sense of the word. They want everyone to convert, and they want sharia law to be the law of the land.”

UPDATE: Arabo isn’t the only one going public with horror stories of the atrocities being committed. An Iraqi member of Parliament and a Syrian Orthodox Archbishop have also broadcast tales of “genocide.”

ISIS Militants Rape Christian Mother and Daughter Who Couldn't Pay Poll Tax

The nightmare continues for Christians living in ISIS-controlled areas as militants exact brutal punishment for those who fall short of their strict and violent interpretation of Islam.

The AINA news agency is reporting that an Assyrian mother and daughter were raped by militants in Mosul after saying they did not have the money to pay the jizya poll tax for non-Muslims.

See my other blog for articles on the rapidly rising persecution of Christians around the world. One wonders if God is moving Christians out of Iraq before His judgement falls?

The rapes were carried out in front of the father who was so traumatised that he committed suicide, reports Dr Sallama Al Khafaji, a member of the Iraq High Commission for Human Rights.

ISIS declares Shariah law over occupied territory in Iraq

ISIS has demanded that all non-Muslims pay the jizya tax and abide by strict Sharia regulations.

"The Christians have told me that they cannot pay this tax and they say 'what am I to do, shall I kill myself?'" Dr Al Khafaji told AINA.

There are also unsubstantiated reports that ISIS militants shot and killed four Christian women because they were not wearing veils.

Barnabas Fund said the ISIS takeover may be the "death knell" for Iraq's Christian community, which had already dwindled since the US-led invasion of 2003.

"Having previously sought refuge in Syria, this is no longer an option and as ISIS violence threatens the stability of the wider region, Christians have very few places of safety to which to run," said Barnabas Fund international director Patrick Sookhdeo.

Boko Haram Still Murdering and Kidnapping But Islam Finally Speaks Out

Islamic extremists blew up a bridge, killed an unknown number of people and abducted the wife and two children of a retired police officer in northeast Nigeria, residents said Saturday amid mounting condemnation by Muslims of the Nigerian terrorist network that abducted more than 300 schoolgirls nearly a month ago.

News of Friday night's attack came as international efforts to help rescue the 276 girls still missing got under way.

A team of French experts arrived Saturday in Nigeria, said an official in President Francois Hollande's office in Paris. He said they are expert in collecting intelligence from technical and human sources and in image analysis.

British security experts arrived Friday to join Nigerian and American forces, and Britain said its aim is not only to help in the crisis over the girls but to defeat Nigeria's homegrown Boko Haram terrorist network.

Canadian demonstrators rally for Nigerian schoolgirls

 International outrage at the prolonged failure of Nigeria's military to rescue the girls was joined Saturday by U.S. first lady Michelle Obama. In a radio address on the eve of the Sunday honouring mothers in the United States she said she and U.S. President Barack Obama are "outraged and heartbroken" over the April 15 mass abduction.

"In these girls, Barack and I see our own daughters," Mrs. Obama said, referring to Malia, 15, and Sasha, 12. "We see their hopes, their dreams and we can only imagine the anguish their parents are feeling right now."

One of them, the Rev. Enoch Mark, described his despair and anger at the military for not finding his two abducted daughters. "For a good 11 days, our daughters were sitting in one place," he told The Associated Press. "They camped them near Chibok (the town from which they were abducted), not more than 30 kilometres, and no help in hand." And no real interest in saving the girls - the military are afraid of Boko Haram and the government has a vested interest in keeping this story alive to keep the focus off the incredible corruption within where $15 Billion has disappeared this year alone.

Protestors demonstrate against government inaction against the abduction of schoolgirls in Nigeria outside the Nigerian Embassy in London on May 9, 2014. Though Nigeria has reportedly welcomed a U.S. offer of assistance, former U.S. diplomats say the country is typically reluctant to accept international help, particularly on security issues.

A well-known Nigerian Islamic scholar meanwhile warned that having foreign soldiers on Nigerian soil could escalate the conflict and draw foreign extremists to the West African nation. Ahmed Mahmud-Gumi, speaking in northern Kaduna city on Friday, said it "may trigger waves of terrorism never seen before."

"Foreign terrorists are eager to engage foreign forces, making Nigeria just another battle ground" like Afghanistan and Iraq, he said.

Former Nigerian military ruler Gen. Ibrahim Babangida urged the country's Muslims to rise up against the extremists sullying the name of Islam.

"Islam enjoins you to live peacefully with fellow human beings. ... Therefore, anybody who will come and smear our name, all Muslims should kick against that. Muslims should also do everything possible to stop this continued blackmail against the religion of Islam," he said in an interview Saturday with the BBC Hausa Service.

From Doha, Qatar, the International Union for Muslim Scholars condemned "the terrible crimes offensive to Islam" and said the actions of Boko Haram "are very far from Islamic teachings."

It called on Boko Haram to immediately release the girls, saying that threats to sell them into slavery are against Islamic Shariah law. Boko Haram has said it wants to enforce Shariah law across the entire country though Nigeria's population of 170 million is divided almost equally between Christians and Muslims. Shariah is pursued to varying degrees in most northern states.

The Nigerian extremists also were condemned in online conversations at jihadi forums. "There is no justification for kidnapping girls and children," one member wrote. "Prophet Muhammed prohibited killing women or even scaring them. Do those who carried out this act know that they are defying God's orders?"

Activist Dr. Delois Blakely chants while holding a flower and
the flag of Nigeria during a rally in front of the Nigerian consulate
on Saturday in New York. More such rallies were expected
 to be held around the world on Sunday. (Julio Cortez/The Associated Press)

In the Saudi city of Jiddah, the 56-country Organization of Islamic Cooperation, the world's largest bloc of Islamic countries, said it is mobilizing for a meeting next week that will focus on groups like Boko Haram that are part of "the growing phenomenon of dangerous extremist groups who hijacked Islam and are committing crimes in the name of religion."

Its secretary-general Iyad Madani said Saturday that the mass abduction was "inhumane and barbaric." In an interview with The Associated Press, he called Boko Haram fighters "simply criminal outlaws."

In Nigeria's northeast war zone, local government chairman Abawu James Watharda said no one could count the dead because 3,000 survivors have fled Friday night's attack on the town of Liman Kara.

Fleeing residents say the insurgents blew up the bridge that links the states of Adamawa and Borno that are under a military state of emergency to halt the Islamic uprising. That would cut off any military vehicles attempting a hot pursuit.

On Monday, militants destroyed a bridge linking Nigeria to neighbouring Chad, where it has hideouts in mountain caves.

There were no details about the latest children to be abducted. The Boko Haram terrorist network has said that its abductions of family members of Nigerian officials is a tit-for-tat measure since Nigeria's military and police often detain the spouses and children of wanted suspects, holding them hostage until the suspect surrenders.

Boko Haram has staged many attacks in northeastern Nigeria over the years, a campaign of bombings and massacres that has intensified despite a strong military offensive. Since May 2013 there has been a state of emergency in three northeastern Nigerian states.

Boko Haram has killed more than 1,500 people this year, compared to an estimated 3,600 between 2010 and 2013. Sin is progressive; so is madness!

One of the teenagers who escaped from Islamic extremists who abducted more than 300 schoolgirls said Sunday the kidnapping was "too terrifying for words," and she is scared to go back to school.

Science student Sarah Lawan, 19, told The Associated Press that more of the girls could have escaped but that they were frightened by their captors' threats to shoot them.

"I am pained that my other colleagues could not summon the courage to run away with me," she said. "Now I cry each time I came across their parents and see how they weep when they see me."

Lawan, said other girls who escaped later have told her that the abductors spoke of their plans to marry them.

She said the thought of going back to school terrifies her — either the burned out ruins of Chibok Government Girls Secondary School or any other school.

"I am really scared to go back there; but I have no option if I am asked to go because I need to finish my final year exams which were stopped half way through."

Sarah, we pray that you and all the kidnapped girls will have the opportunity to finish your exams and continue your schooling. Bless you for the courage to run and the courage to speak out.

Is Boko Haram Using Kidnapped Girls to Build Utopian Society?

It's been nearly three weeks since men dressed as soldiers kidnapped more than 300 girls from a Nigerian boarding school, an attack that has critics decrying the lack of action from a military that may not have the capability to mount an effective rescue operation.

“It’s really hard to say what will happen,"said Brandon Kendhammer, assistant professor of political science at Ohio University, who focuses on religion and politics in northern Nigeria . "The Nigerian military doesn’t have a particularly strong track record in being able to free hostages.”

Although they haven’t claimed responsibility, nearly all have pinned the kidnappings on the Islamic extremist group Boko Haram, which had threatened to take young women captive almost a year ago.

Nigerians have expressed their outrage that the girls have not been found, accusing the government, even with its limited military capacity, of not doing more.

People attend a demonstration calling on government to rescue
kidnapped school girls of a government secondary school Chibok,
during workers day celebration in Lagos, Nigeria. 

According to a report from allAfrica.com, the army has drawn up plans to storm Sambisa Forest this weekend with about four battalions in an attempt to find and rescue the students. It would be the first substantial move from a military that, according to experts, is squeezed for resources, under-trained and possibly compromised.

"You hear they've got fighter jets but clearly [they are] not the right tools to help find young women in an area like this," Kendhammer said. "The sense is that the tool kit that is available here is not particularly apt given what needs to happen."

Darren Kew, a professor of conflict resolution at the University of Massachusetts Boston, and executive director of the schools' Center for Peace, Democracy, and Development, said the Nigerian military is clearly overstretched, noting that troops are deployed in most of the country’s states and involved in overseas peacekeeping operations. 

The military also lacks the capacity of counter insurgency or a counter terrorist strategy or the surgical strike capacity of a more advanced military, said Lew, who was in Nigeria in March.

There has also been speculation that the military has been compromised by members of Boko Haram, with reports that some members of units engaged in firefights with the extremist group have either refused to fight, left the fight, or joined the insurgent organization.

Meanwhile, the military's attempts to secure the release of hostages in past kidnappings have often been fatal.

“[There's] been rampant speculation that the military has hesitated to go where at least some of the girls might be held because previously when they’ve done that in kidnapped situations, the kidnappers have promptly murdered the victims," said John Campbell a senior fellow for Africa policy studies at the Council for Foreign Relations and author of Nigeria: Dancing on the Brink.

On April 14, about 300 girls from various institutions had gathered at the Government Girls' Secondary School in Chibok, Borno to take their final exams after all schools in the state had been shut because of attacks by Islamic extremists. Around midnight, men dressed in military clothing burst into the school, claiming they had evidence that the Islamic extremist group Boko Haram was about to strike and that they were there to move the girls to a safe place.

The girls were loaded into trucks and buses and shipped out. Some of the girls got suspicious and escaped while en route, while others managed to flee the camps of their captors. Those interviewed have said their captors identified themselves as fighters in the Boko Haram network. About 50 girls escaped, while 276 remain missing. The numbers change every day but seem to almost always increase.

“Boko Haram has been doing a wide range of things that are horrific and this is just the latest one,” Kew said.

The militant organization believes Western influences have corrupted their society and only an Islamic state can restore purity to Africa's most populous nation of about 170 million people, divided almost equally between Muslims and Christians.

“From their twisted perspective, they see this as improving the lives of these women, bringing them to the proper faith and putting them under the supervision of men who are living the righteous life,” Kew said. Murderers, kidnappers, rapists, thieves - strange what qualifies for righteous in Islam.

The motivation may also be more base – to force the girls to become slave wives of their fighters. 

“The central goal of Boko Haram was not to take these girls. Their central goal is the establishment of a utopian Islamic state — in their eyes very much like the Taliban-style governance — that returns at least northern Nigeria if not all of Nigeria to the way things should be in their eyes.

“The taking of the girls just a sideshow from their perspective.”

As to where the girls are, reports say they have been divided into groups, some sent to Cameroon or Chad, while others sent to various Boko Haram camps.

“But we have to underline the fact that we don’t know, which is part of the massive frustration you see coming from Nigeria," Campbell said.

Muslim Clerics Call for Caning of Police Officer for Child Sex Abuse

Banda Aceh. Police in Aceh have named one of their own members a suspect in the alleged sexual abuse of at least two young girls, as clerics in the staunchly conservative province demand a stiff punishment for the alleged perpetrator.

Aceh is the province in Indonesia so badly hit by the devastating tsunami of December 2004. Banda Aceh is the capitol city of the province and is located on the northwest tip of the island of Sumatra. It has a population of over 200,000, and is largely very conservative Muslim.

The officer, identified only as M., a brigadier with the Aceh provincial police, was arrested on Tuesday in Banda Aceh and accused of the sexual abuse of two girls, aged 6 and 9 years.

Sr. Comr. Moffan Mudji Kafanti, the Banda Aceh Police chief, told the Jakarta Globe that his office was questioning the suspect and would charge him under the 2002 Child Protection Law, for which he could face up to 15 years in prison and Rp 300 million ($26,100) in fines if convicted.

Banda Aceh

 The case came to light last week after children’s rights activists alleged that the officer had sexually assaulted at least five children and attempted to assault several more.

Moffan said that the parents of four of the alleged victims had allowed their children to undergo medical tests, and that two of the children appeared to show signs of having been sexually abused.

He confirmed the families’ claims that the abuses had taken place in Banda Aceh’s Meuraksa subdistrict between late March and early April. The families had filed a report with the police on April 14.

Police have already questioned seven people as witnesses in the case.

Islamic clerics have denounced the alleged abuses, calling on the police not to show any favorable treatment in their processing of the suspect. Awesome!

Grand Mosque of Banda Aceh

Teungku Faisal Ali, the head of the provincial chapter of Nahdlatul Ulama, Indonesia’s biggest Islamic organization, said the police needed to be transparent in their handling of the case, particularly in light of threats reportedly made against the victims’ families by unknown groups after they went public with the allegations.

“The investigation into this shameful case should not be covered up,” said Faisal, who is also a deputy chairman of the Aceh Ulema Consultative Assembly, or MPU Aceh.

He said the perpetrator should be punished to the fullest extent of the law, and recommended the use of Shariah charges in addition to the criminal charges that the suspect now faces.

“What this person did was savage, especially considering he’s a police officer. He should have been protecting the people,” Faisal said. “He should be caned in public, according to Shariah law, to serve as an example to others that children should be protected and not abused.”

Under Aceh’s newly passed Shariah criminal code procedures, child abuse is punishable with up to 400 lashes of the cane and up to 33 years’ imprisonment. Even more awesome!

Illiza Sa’aduddin Djamal, the interim mayor of Banda Aceh, also called for the perpetrator to face the harshest punishment possible.

She said she believed that he may have abused many more children than the five who had already come forward.

“It’s very possible that the other victims are outside Banda Aceh, and I’m sure that he abused others elsewhere. That’s why I’m calling on any members of the public who haven’t done so to come forward and report any suspicions of child abuse,” Illiza said.

The case comes at a sensitive time for the country, which is gripped by the drama unfolding over the alleged rape of a 6-year-old boy at the Jakarta International School. (See post immediately below). That case has already resulted in the closure of the school’s kindergarten campus and threats of lawsuits by the victim’s family. Two janitorial staff have been arrested and charged in the case, while dozens more are being investigated.

85 Nigerian Girls Still Missing, 44 Managed to Escape Boko Haram

The headmistress of a school in Nigeria has appealed to the government to do more to save teenage girls abducted by suspected Islamist militants on Monday.

Asabe Kwambula also called on the kidnappers - thought to be members of the Boko Haram group - to "have mercy on the students".

Officials said some 85 girls were still missing while 44 managed to escape.

Martial Law in northern Nigeria didn't protect girls

Separately, Boko Haram has said it was behind Monday's bombing in the capital, Abuja, which killed at least 75 people.

The group's leader, Abubakar Shekau, made the statement in a video message sent to news agencies.

He also threatened further attacks, but made no mention of the schoolgirls' abductions, which took place just hours after the blast in Abuja.

Ms Kwambula said she had so far "registered" 32 students as having escaped from the kidnappers, adding they appeared to be unharmed.

Boko Haram leader Abubakar Shekau - afraid of educated girls

"I am pleading with the government to secure the release of the children, to save the lives of these innocents," she told the BBC's Will Ross.

"I am with the parents, praying continuously for the teenagers' safe return." Please, let us join them in their prayers.

Her plea came after the military admitted that most of the girls had not been freed as it earlier stated.

Correspondents say the raid on the boarding school in Borno state is a great source of embarrassment for the Nigerian authorities, who have been saying that their military campaign against the militants is succeeding.

Gunmen reportedly stormed the remote school in Chibok late on Monday, stealing food supplies and ordering the students on to lorries.

It is thought that the militants took the girls to forested areas near the Cameroonian border.

Some of the abducted later managed to jump off the trucks, while others ran from captivity during prayer time or while they were cooking.

The security forces have been working with vigilante groups and local hunters to find the schoolgirls.

The well-armed Boko Haram fighters have killed hundreds of civilians this year, slitting the throats of many of their victims, our reporter says.

Borno, Yobe and Adamawa states in north-east Nigeria have been under emergency rule since last May.

Militants from Boko Haram - which means "Western education is forbidden" in the local Hausa language - frequently target educational institutions. In English, Boko Haram means, "I'm afraid of little girls with books."

Child Bride Murders Groom and 3 of his Friends

Out of Nigeria, Africa, comes the very tragic story of a 14 year old girl who was forced to marry a 35 year old man. Days later, she bought some rat poison at a market and used it to prepare a meal for her husband and several of his friends.

The groom, Umaru Sani, and one friend died that day. Two others died in hospital later.

They were from a village, Ungwar Yansoro, which is about 100 km from the city of Kano in northern Yuganda. 

Wasila Umaru confessed to poisoning the men because she was forced to marry someone she did not love.

Child marriage is common sub-Saharan Africa and especially in the mainly Muslim and impoverished north of Nigeria. In times of drought, the number of child brides increase because the parents of the bride are paid by the groom and she is one less mouth to feed.

Half of all girls living in rural Nigeria are married before they turn 18. There are more than 20 million girls under 18 in Nigeria. I do not know the ratio of city-dwellers to urban people.

There are so many tragedies for child brides it is difficult for many of us to grasp. In some countries girls can be married before the age of 8, although, legally, the marriage cannot be consummated until the girl is at least 8 years old. An 8 year old girl is not ready for sex, especially with a physically mature man.

And, teenage girls are often not ready to have children, especially in rural areas of 3rd world countries. Consequently, complications in pregnancy is the leading cause of death for girls between 15 and 19 years of age, globally!

Yarima and one of his brides

Child brides have a much higher risk of contracting AIDS, and are much more likely to suffer from physical abuse at the hands of her husband and his family.

In Nigeria, you cannot legally marry a girl under the age of 18. However, in the mainly Muslim north, there is little respect for Nigerian law. They are far more likely to follow Shariah, and the government is largely incapable of enforcing their laws in the north, so, no-one has ever been prosecuted for marrying a child bride.

Another of Yarima's brides
She was 13 when married

Sen Yarima

 Shariah allows a man to have 4 wives. One rather infamous person to take advantage of Shariah is Senator Sani Ahmed Yerima. The senator, and former Governor of Zamfara State, wanted to marry a 14 year old girl, but already had 4 wives, so he divorced a wife who was just 17 years old. Yarima was 49 years old at the time.

Divorced child brides and many of those who suffer complications from pregnancy or other medical issues, are simply just tossed out onto the streets. Used, abused, and then thrown away - that's what Shariah law means to girls.

Please pray for this horrific practice to end along with the absurdly misogynistic attitude that allows it.