ISIS – Islamic State of Iraq and Syria

Opinion

Opinion by Ken Herron:

Last week this group beheaded American freelance newsman James Foley who was taken by armed men in Syria in November 2012. Foley went to Syria to report on the revolt against the regime of Bashar Assad. They announced that his death was in retaliation for the USA bombing them in Iraq. The founders of ISIS (They are also known as ISIL) were former leaders of Al-Quida in Iraq. They are Sunni Muslims who have been brutal to Shite Muslims, Christians and Kurds. Hezbollah is a Shite Terrorist group and they are enemies of ISIS. In February of 2014 the Al-Quida organization cut its ties with the ISIS organization because of the brutality of ISIS. When they were formed they had the backing of a number of the Islamic nations because they were standing against King Assad in Syria. They did not start the fight but they soon joined in and became a major force. Today they control the Sunni part of Syria and much of the Sunni section of Iraq. The Kurds are also Sunnis but they are not in line with ISIS.

They are basically a new group formed officially in 2013 and declared a Caliphate with Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi as its leader in June of 2014. He has now changed his name to Amir al-Mu’minin Caliph Ibrahim. Amir is a title equal to President and Caliph designates him to be a religious leader just under the prophet level. He will probably be referred to as Caliph Ibrahim most of the time. He is a brutal terroristic leader. Mohammed was the only prophet. All leaders of the Islamic faith since that time have been referred to as the Caliph.

When the uprising began in Syria, it was a small group of local Syrians who wanted relief from the brutality of King Bashar Assad. This came about after the civil wars in Libya and Egypt. The USA decided not to take sides and aid either party. The ISIS group jumped into the fight and brought in soldiers from all over the Islamic world. Even though the USA did not publicly support either side, it was reported that the arms that we had surplus in Libya after the fighting stopped was smuggled to Syria to be used by the rebels. They fell right into the hands of ISIS. They are now being used against our friends the Kurds and the Yazidis in Iraq. As they swept across Iraq they also captured the surplus weapons that the USA had given to the Iraqis. When they overran the airport at Mosul they captured a number of American Blackhawk Helicopters. They have armored cars and Humvees. They have tanks, anti-aircraft guns and anti-tank weapons. There have been car bombs and terrorist attacks inside of Turkey that have been credited to ISIS.

One of the goal of ISIS is to establish Sharia Law around the world. The people in the areas that they control will follow Sharia Law very strictly and according to the ISIS interpretation of the Quran. There will be no Constitution and the only “Laws” will be expansions on what they believe the Quran means. They follow closely the beliefs of Al-Quida and the Muslim Brotherhood. Women are not to be educated and are the property of the man who marries them or their father if they are not married. Men can have four legal wives and maintain and use as many ex-wives as they choose. The ISIS wish to remove all of the borders between Islamic states and have all of them come under the rule of their caliph.

The Yazidis are a Christian group in Iraq and in August ISIS massacred 80 of them after they refused to convert to Islam. The members of this Christian group escaped to a high mountain in Iraq and they are being supplied food by air drops and helicopters from the USA and Great Britain. When the Prophet Mohammed was attempting to establish Islam, he killed 600 Jews in Medina, Saudi Arabia, because they would not convert to Islam. On his first trip to Makkah the cry to the residents was “Allah is God and Mohammed is his prophet. If you don’t accept this we will kill you.” Mohammed was a cruel man and a big Jihadist. The Terrorists are closer to the nature of the prophet than regular Islamists.

Our President has said that we are supplying weapons and ammunition to the Kurds but according to the Kurdish Foreign Minister no help has arrived at this time. The USA supplied weapons to Iraq for the Kurds but the Iraq government did not send the weapons to the Kurds.

The President does not want boots on the ground by American troops but we should do everything else that we can do to defeat this group. The Kurds are prepared to do the ground fighting but we need to supply the weapons and ammunition.

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