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Two weeks ago, the Islamic State in Iraq and Sham (“ISIS”) issued a decree. They said the Christian population of eastern Syria and northern Iraq must convert to Islam or pay the jizya –a special penalty. If they did not comply, “there is nothing to give them but the sword,” they said. This led to a large exodus of Christians from those regions; the entire Christian community of Mosul heading off towards Kirkuk and the Kurdish zone. This type of aggression dates back to 624 A.D.
Christians aren’t the only group in danger. Thirty thousand Yazidi families fled the northern Iraqi town of Sinjar to the northern mountains in order to escape genocide at the hands of the radical jihadist who took over Iraq. Incidentally, the area where these families now hide is on the top of Sinjar mountains which is believed to be the final resting place of Noah’s Ark. The radical jihadists are storming the mountains; they are raping and selling the women, beheading the children whose heads litter the mountain plains on sticks, and they have hanged over 500 or so men. “The assault on the community is part of a pattern by extremists of stamping out non-Islamic religious observation,” the Wall Street Journal reported. Over 300,000 Christians from this region seek asylum abroad.
The Yazidi are known to be one of the oldest religious communities in the world. They are of Kurdish descent and their religion draws from Nestorian Christianity, Judaism, Manichaean, Islam and Zoroastrianism. They believe they were created separately from the rest of humankind and segregate themselves from the rest of society. In Yazidi belief, seven angels, subordinate to a supreme but uninvolved God, rule the universe. The belief that God restored the Devil to his position as chief of the angels upon the Devil’s repentance has earned the Yazidi a reputation as devil worshipers, Merriam-Webster states. They have long suffered persecution by Muslims.
Their faith notwithstanding, no nation should stand by and accept the genocide of any people. Accordingly, President Obama ordered targeted airstrikes yesterday against ISIS along with air drops of food and water to the families. That’s good, but ISIS’s goal is to exterminate the Yazidi and then hang its flag on America. Abu Mosa, spokesman for ISIS, sent a message to America. He said, “We will humiliate [American] everywhere, God willing, and we will raise the flag of Allah in the White House.” This radical sect cannot be thwarted without military engagement. We are simply not doing enough to eradicate this threat.
ISIS aims to create an Islamic state across borders of neighboring Middle East nations; the state would be the first of its kind. ISIS already seized parts of northern and eastern Syria and nearly all of Iraq. They have nearly purged all of northwestern Iraq of its Christian population and all non-Islamic faiths are in jeopardy.
While the U.S. drops food and water on the Sinjar mountains, a critical nation in the Middle East is reverting to our enemy. We ignore the larger threat by not standing against this emboldened evil. If we believe that after ISIS wraps up Iraq and completes the purge of all non-Muslims it will stop and be happy, we are living a fairytale. We must take them at their word. They are coming to America! They will make their way to Israel and then to the White House as they promised. No one is safe while this cancer grows.
The world can be a safer place again when the U.S. has a leader who hates the intolerance of radical Islam and isn’t afraid to look that evil in the face, say “No More,” and pull it up by its root. Instead, we are focused on amnesty and forcing gay rights on the world. Wake up America.
Marc Little is the author of The Prodigal Republican: Faith and Politics. His web site is The Prodigal Republican.