Islamic State forcing the West to provide means for Kurdistan

Time passes very quickly. For I wanted to publish an article yesterday on my other site “Our World“, but was occupied with a lot of other things. for the parents of many who are in the East time may have gone also to fast to have had enough time to spend with their children. Thinking about the courageous men and women who want to show the world its face, I also present my article on my personal blog.

 

List of wars involving the United States (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

The day before Yesterday the National Flemish Television (VRT) did not want to show the video of Islamic State (IS) [formerly the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria or ISIS] with the terrible beheading of the American journalist James Foley. The commercial television programs showed some parts of it, but not the beheading itself.

Hearing the voice of the hangman we could notice his English accent which would not be found by a real Arabic. This could give us the impression that the American white man was killed by an European (white) man.

For a second time James Folley had been abducted in 2012, this time by the extremist group ISIS, which calls itself the Islamic State. We can imagine which torture he had to endure and may wonder why he agreed to tell the world it is all the fault of the Americans, when he did, not the IS terrorist were going to kill him anyway.

The executioner stayed standing straight and wanted to prove it is serious business with IS going for America and its allies. By threatening to do the same to another American journalist in Syria, identified as Steven Sotloff, the 50,000-strong Islamic militant group wants the Obama administration to meet its demands.

The Iran-Iraq border runs through the Tigris watershed (above), leaving the river in Iraqi hands. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

The extremists want to intimidate the Obama administration into halting U.S. airstrikes on ISIS strongholds in Iraq. These airstrikes seem to be impeding ISIS’ultimate objective: to maintain and expand its self-declared caliphate.
The extremists have already seized large parts of Iraq and Syria, taking control of several of the towns’ main resources, like wheat and oil fields. Having those bases or strongholds of water and fuel provision in their  hands will give them enough power to prove to the world they are a real state to be taken serious.

Previously having seized the largest dam in Iraq, controlling the water supplies over a very big area, made them a feared competitor for the regional politicians. Already some governments gave already in and did not mid buying water and fuel supplies from IS. But by having the U.S. and Iraqi forces successfully regaining control of the Mosul dam, IS felt weakened again.

Kurdish forces claim they have recaptured the Mosul Dam on Monday.  – Reuters

Iraq’s largest dam (fourth-largest dam in the Middle East), built in the 1980s not being  any more in the hands of IS they can not use it as a weapon to hold back electricity or water, or can not destroy it to flood lots of land and wreaking havoc. According to the BBC the United States recently spent $27 million to shore up the dam.

If ISIS breached the dam, or if it somehow failed, it could send a
65-foot wave of water crashing into Mosul and floodwaters could reach as far as Baghdad. “A catastrophic failure of the Mosul Dam would result in flooding along the Tigris River all the way to Baghdad,” a 2006 report from the Office of the Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction warns. A failure of the Mosul Dam could kill 500,000 people.  {International Business Times: Mosul Dam: Why The US Aided Kurdish Forces To Recapture Strategic Structure From ISIS}

I did not see the video, because I did not watch television companies which do not take notice of ‘decency’. There has to be a certain decorum for bringing news. Respectability and ‘dignity’ should be on the agenda. I also have no urge to be presented with images of grotesque violence on a daily basis. Since the wars in Syria and Gaza this seems to be daily food.

Do the newspapers and television-stations remember that when they bring a portrait in view, the death person or the broken body of a child was someone’s son, someone’s brother, someone’s friend? Are they aware that in this world of modern technology, were so many people can be easily connected, there can be a high chance some family member may be confronted with a family member, even before he or she got the news from official sources?

Also Foley’s parents saw the latest awful images of their loved one. They were courageous to tell the world about their children, having had more worries about their two sons fighting as a soldier, than fearing for the one who was trying to bring news from both sites so that the world could get to know what really happened. In a way IS cuts down the possibility to have her voice in the free world, because they themselves cut down the strings of free speech and make it that other journalists would not be eager to come to tell ISIS their story. IS also makes it that more and more they, but also the Islam, comes in a bad footlights.

At last in the UK some imams and the spokesman of the Islamic Woman Rights spoke out yesterday on the Breakfast show, telling the world that IS does everything against Islam and misuses the name of Allah. In many more countries Muslims should come to defend their faith. The imam also asked faithful Muslims to be aware that they could do much more for their faith in their own democratic counties where they also could vote for the right persons and have their voice heard much more than by going to fight in Syria.

The IS militants and all Muslims should wonder what good it would do by threatening people with murder and rape to get them converting to the Muslim faith. Are they not aware that doing conversions under threat, like happened already in the past with Catholicism and Islam, got those religions infected with false teachings and pagan actions or heathen rites. In case they would like to have a pure faith they better would live according to their Holy Scriptures and try to convince others by their good example. violence is and always has been the wrong way to get somewhere and had always turn the ball against themselves like the boomerang always returns.

By its actions IS also pushes the west in providing the Kurds with food and water-supplies but also with weapons. These weapons later can be used to make the Kurds stronger in getting their rights and invading Turkey and Syria to get their own state Kurdistan which they already should have had.
At the moment the moment the Kurds are one of those people who are still not recognised in their own rights. They still are the largest ethnic group without a country of their own. When IS tries to put them in such corner that they shall have no other way to come out fighting their way to freedom, they shall see in that the opportunity to make an end to them having to live across the borders of Iraq, Iran, Syria, Turkey and parts of the former Soviet Union.

Their culture and identity have been oppressed by the regimes of the nations within which they live. Religion, language, culture and perhaps, most importantly, a common history of persecution tie together the more than 20 million Kurds worldwide.

Prime Minister Nechirvan Barzani of the Kurdistan Regional Government says:

“I offer my condolences to Mr Foley’s family and the American people. They have lost a brave son who wanted to document the horrible aspects of war and conflict and shed light on their human costs.”

The Prime Minister Barzani told yesterday (21 August 2014) the Christian leaders that international coalition is needed to defeat ISIS and made a plight of internally displaced people.

Italy’s Prime Minister Matteo Renzi arrived in the Kurdistan Region to express his country’s support for the KRG and its fight against the terrorists.

The Kurdistan Regional Government would like to express its gratitude, appreciation, and indebtedness to President Barack Obama for taking the timely decision to provide airstrikes against the forces of the Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham (ISIS) terrorist group that was killing, hunting, and terrifying innocent people in Kurdistan as well as Iraq’s ancient minorities

Prime Minister Nechirvan Barzani yesterday welcomed Sweden’s Foreign Minister Carl Bildt, the European Union’s Commissioner for Humanitarian Aid Kristalina Georgieva, and a number of European Union officials to Kurdistan to review the current crisis.

On Monday, President Barack Obama said the American operation has helped drive ISIS from strategic cities and infrastructure in northern Iraq, which apparently angered the Muslim militants.

Today we see journalists trying to cover conflicts, having to face they being silenced by the ones who create the conflicts. The man in black, wielding a knife, on the video, asked God to cross the “cosmic reach of the universe” and soothe his family.

The ISIS militant said:

“Any attempt by you, Obama, to deny Muslims liberty and safety under the Islamic caliphate will result in the bloodshed of your people.”

Lots of Islam fundamentalists do not seem to see that in many Western countries lots of freedom is given to Muslims and other religious people, but that in those countries where there is worked on democracy, they try to have all people getting the free choice to have whatever religion they want to keep unto, or if they want to be an atheist to give them that freedom not to worship any god.

In the war which is going on around the borders of Syria and Iraq it is clearly not about religion, because even brothers and sisters who have faith in Allah and use the Koran, are often not considered to be of the right faith. Like Obama points out:

“Their victims are overwhelmingly Muslim, and no faith teaches people to massacre innocents. No just God would stand for what they did yesterday, and for what they do every single day.”

At last we can hear some more Muslim voices condemning what IS does. Muslims were among the first to lament Foley’s killing and have repeatedly condemned ISIS’ reign of terror in Iraq and Syria. They are victims, too, of the crimes committed in the name of Islam. Many have worked tirelessly to combat them.

Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, the leader of ISIS, said in a video released in June:

“Do jihad in the cause of God, incite the believers and be patient in the face of this hardship.”

As Kurdish forces, called Peshmerga, were succeeding in halting ISIL’s advance through Kurdistan as well as in the Diyala province to the south, the ISIL commander Abu Bakr Al Baghdadi, from the al-Bu Badri tribe, left his headquarters in the northern Iraqi city of Mosul around Aug. 10 and fled from Iraq to neighbouring Syria as Iraq and the United States intensified air strikes on IS positions. This leader indoctrinates the people telling them he is the wali (leader) who presides over them and who will bring the best of things to their life. “Caliph Ibrahim,” the name Baghdadi took when the group declared on June 29 a “caliphate,” a pan-Islamic state last seen in Ottoman times in which the leader is both political and religious, asks the people to let him know when he is doing wrong. But nobody would dare to being afraid to be killed. According to the Guardian, of all the prominent jihadi leaders, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, head of the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (Isis), is among the most mysterious and described by some as “the new Osama bin Laden”. And his mystique – for now at least – has only been burnished by his group’s capture of the city of Mosul.

His words:

“If you see that I am wrong, advise me and put me on the right track, and obey me as long as I obey God.”

are just hollow phrases, because I would think he should have heard already enough from real honest Muslims who tried to show the world the truth of Islam.

There is at least no mystery about what Baghdadi wants concerning an Islamic State. the way he wants to get those believes reality  are going totally against Koran believes. It may be a good idea for many Muslims to be able to live in one state where they are free to do all that their belief demands. He therefore wants to bring the world’s Muslims living under one Islamic state ruled by sharia law, the first step of which is establishing a caliphate spanning Syria and Iraq.

After Al-Qaeda the western world may see again an Islamic warrior threatening free democratic principles.

After the French military delivered heavy weapons, Kurdish Security Ministry spokesman Brig. Gen. Halgurd Hikmat said:

“We are still waiting for more weapons from our allies.”

As the west shall feel the need to provide such weapons to halt IS, they shall have to be aware they also give the opportunity of the Kurds to go on to fight for getting recognition and having their own state.

A danger looming.

For sure the West certainly has to take care that Islamic youngsters may come to see and understand that in the West they also shall find enough chances to liberally fulfil their duties like Allah asks from them. A democratic system may give more equal rights to all sorts of people and all sorts of religions. In case their religion is the right one and other religious people would not be able to live under Allah, they should not fear if they keep to the Laws of Allah, because than they would be able to be safe. But when they are going to do things which endanger their acceptance for Allah they should be more careful, because they could be worse off than the irreligious.

The religious leaders of the Islamic world should come out and let the world see their true face. If their will is to follow Allah the world should have nothing to fear and they will recognise the faithful by their words and deeds. But the unfaithful to God shall be unmasked. The imposters hall soon be imposed.

In the meantime the European Union is very clear:
In the Statement by the Spokesperson on the murder of US journalist James Foley is said:

“We strongly condemn the outrageous murder of the US journalist James Foley by the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant.
We express our sincere condolences to the family of this distinguished journalist, to his friends and colleagues.
This brutal act, like the many other human rights violations which are perpetrated by the Islamic State, denies universally recognized values and rights, including the freedom of press for which Mr Foley had risked his life on several occasions. The EU will continue to promote the safety of journalists in the  Middle-East and worldwide.
Such forms of terrorism constitute one of the most serious threats to international peace and security. The EU is more committed than ever to support international efforts to fight terrorism, to combat human rights violations and to restore the unity, sovereignty and territorial integrity of Iraq and Syria.
The EU will use all means at its disposal to contribute to this endeavour.”

Is makes the West even more cautious about Muslims and make them more vigilant and relentless, looking for all means to have it that “justice will be done” to those that captured and killed Foley and many other innocent people.

All who think they can make a state by killing and capturing as much people as they can should look at previous persons who tried to do the same, making one nation of their own sort.

Obama said:

“People like this ultimately fail because the future is won by those who build and not destroy,”

***

The Kurdistan regional government emblems

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Note:

The Islamic State of Iraq (ISI)—also known as Al-Qaeda in Iraq or AQI—was the Iraqi division of the international Islamist militant organization al-Qaeda. Al-Baghdadi was announced as leader of the ISI on 16 May 2010, following the death of his predecessor Abu Omar al-Baghdadi in a raid the month before.

– Original posted by me on Our World under the title: ISIS, Mosul Dam and threatening lives of those who want to live in freedom

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Please find also to read:

1. Religions and Mainliners
2. Patriarch Abraham, Muslims, Christians and the son of God
3. Built on or Belonging to Jewish tradition #3 Of the earth or of God
4. Built on or Belonging to Jewish tradition #4 Mozaic and Noachide laws
5. Mocking, Agitation and Religious Persecution
6. Christian fundamentalism as dangerous as Muslim fundamentalism
7. Turkey a wolf in the sheep house of the European Union
8. Migrants to the West #1
9. Migrants to the West #2
10. Migrants to the West #3
11. Migrants to the West #4
12. Migrants to the West #5
13. Migrants to the West #6
14. Catherine Ashton on the EU annual report on human rights
15. Palestine, Israel, God’s people and democracy
16. Gaza in Bible Prophecy
17. Syrian capital facing total destruction in the coming months
18. Brunei introducing a raft of tough sharia punishments
19. Female Imams Blaze Trail Amid China’s Muslims
20. Religion, fundamentalism and murder
21. Will Islam conquer europe
22. Consequences of Breivik’s mass murder
23. Falling figures for identifying Christians
24. American atheists most religiously literate Americans
25. Muslim Grooming (Rape) Gangs and Sharia
26. Forced marriage and Islam
27. Abu Hamza is gone, but Britain is still a hotbed of radical hatred
28. Zionism occupierAn Ex-Muslim’s Open Letter
29. Facing disaster fatigue
30. Fear of God reason to return to Holy Scriptures

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Other websites to look at:

1. Akakurdistan
2. Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi: Islamic State’s driving force
3. Tag Archives: Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi
4. ISIS Leader Calls For War
5. ISIS Leader Abu Bakr Al Baghdadi Trained by Israeli Mossad, NSA Documents Reveal
6. The Biography Of Sheikh Abu Bakr Al Baghdadi
7. Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi: The Isis chief with the ambition to overtake al-Qaida
8. James Foley ‘beheaded’: Isis video shows militant with British accent ‘execute US journalist’ – as hunt begins for killer
9. James Foley and the daily horrors of the internet: think hard before clicking

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Related articles

• Time to Annihilate ISIS; Here’s How (commentarymagazine.com)
  The videotaped beheading of American journalist James Foley reveals both the barbarism and the weakness of ISIS (Islamic State of Iraq and Syria).The barbarism is obvious: how else would one describe the carefully choreographed and televised murder of this innocent reporter who had been kidnapped in Syria? This merely confirms what Army Colonel Joel Rayburn, one of the most astute observers of Iraq around, has previously said: that ISIS is a Middle East version of the Khmer Rouge. It is, in short, a death cult that will commit unimaginable crimes against humanity unless it is stopped.
• Journalist James Wright Foley reportedly beheaded by ISIS (salon.com)
  The video features text saying “Obama authorizes military operations against the Islamic State effectively placing America upon a slippery slope towards a new war front against Muslims.” It then cuts to a clip of Obama announcing airstrikes against ISIS and then to Foley kneeling in orange, next to a man wearing black with his face covered. In it, Foley is forced to read a letter urging Americans to rise up against his “real killer,” the “U.S. government.” I call on my friends, family and loved ones to rise up against my real killer, the U.S. government. What will happen to me is only a result of their complacency and criminality.”
• Update: Pres. Obama Says U.S. will Continue to Confront ISIS (newsplex.com)
  President Barack Obama says the United States will continue to confront Islamic State extremists despite the brutal murder of journalist James Foley.Pres. Obama says the entire world is “appalled” by Foley’s killing. The president says he spoke Wednesday with Foley’s family and offered condolences.

  Obama says the Islamic State abducts women and children, and tortures, rapes, enslaves and kills people. He said the Islamic State targets Christians and other minorities and aims to commit genocide.

• Hairdresser from Croydon fighting ‘inhuman’ Isis militants on frontline in Iraq (independent.co.uk)

  A 26-year-old British hairdresser from Croydon who is fighting against the Islamist extremist forces of Isis in Iraq has told how he has faced “inhuman” enemies who want to be killed.

  Kurdish-born Mama Kurda is fighting with the Peshmerga forces who have been pushing back Isis, also known as Islamic State, in northern Iraq with the help of US airstrikes.

  He told the Daily Mirror newspaper that he had taken part in gunbattles in the towns of Makhmur and Gwer. He was also one of the first Peshmerga fighters on the Mosul Dam when it was recaptured from Isis this week.
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  “They are raping Kurdish women and killing Kurdish kids. But they are not only a threat to the Kurdish people. Once they control here they could attack Europe and the UK.”

• ISIS ‘beyond anything we have seen’ (cnn.com)
  America’s top defense officials left open the possibility of targeting ISIS fighters in Syria, saying during a news briefing Thursday that it was not enough to just hit the extremist group in Iraq.

  Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel and Gen. Martin Dempsey, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, stopped short of calling for U.S. military action in eastern Syria, an ISIS stronghold.
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  “This is beyond anything we have seen, and we must prepare for everything. And the only way you do that is that you take a cold, steely hard look at it and get ready.”

  Speaking at a town hall meeting in Arizona, Republican Sen. John McCain, who has advocated for strikes against ISIS in Syria, said the extremists were “an enemy that must be defeated. Not stopped, but defeated.”

  “It is a cancer which has spread throughout that region and can spread into Europe and into the United States of America,” McCain said. His phrase echoed the term President Barack Obama used Wednesday to describe the terrorist group.

• Obama’s ‘long-term mission’ against ISIS (dailystar.com.lb)
  Obama repeated his support for new Iraqi premier Haidar al-Abadi’s attempts to form a more inclusive government, but warned he must act quickly to undermine support for the radicals.“I was impressed in my conversation with him [Abadi] about his vision for an inclusive government but they’ve got to get this done because the wolf’s at the door,” he told reporters.

  “In order for them to be credible with the Iraqi people, they’re going to have to put behind them some of the old practices and actually create a credible united government.

  “Our goal is to have effective partners on the ground. And if we have effective partners on the ground, mission creep is much less likely,” promising a joint “counter-terrorism” strategy with Iraq and U.S. allies.

• U.S. hits ISIS; Foley captors asked millions (wdsu.com)
  Foley’s captors demanded 100 million euros ($132.5 million) in exchange for his release, according to an official with GlobalPost, the U.S.-based online publication the freelance journalist was working for at the time of his abduction in Syria in 2012.GlobalPost “never took the 100 million seriously” because ransoms paid for other hostages being held by ISIS, which refers to itself as the Islamic State, were “dramatically less,” Philip Balboni, president and chief executive of the news agency, told CNN.

  Balboni said the amounts paid previously for hostages released was between 2 and 4 million euros. “So we thought that something in the range of $5 million was probably the right amount to pay for the ransom,” he said.

  There was an effort to raise money. But there was never any true negotiation between the news outlet and Foley’s captors, Balboni stressed, saying that ISIS simply made demands.
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  It is not clear where ISIS moved Foley and the hostages. But several French journalists freed by ISIS this spring have stepped forward to say they had been held in captivity with Foley.
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  Henin, who has never before spoken about Foley because he didn’t want to jeopardize his safety, said he was held for seven months with the American journalist.

  “It’s a lot of stress, a lot of pressure all the time, a lot of starvation as well,” said Henin, clearly emotional. “We were always lacking everything and James, in these specific harsh circumstances, (was) a very good friend and great support. He was always (there) when one of us was not feeling well… to always have some nice words.”

• Everything has changed after the execution of James Foley by ISIS (hotair.com)
  “I think what ISIS is trying to do here,” he began, “is intimidate the United States into backing off of the attacks that we’ve done in the last several weeks.”“And I think our response should be, and our response will be, to not do that,” Morell continued. “In fact, we should pick up the pace here.”
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  In public opinion polls, bipartisan majorities have expressed support for airstrikes against the medieval ISIS threat. Today, in the wake of this barbarism against an American journalist with threats of more of the same to come, the American people are likely willing to go even further to neutralize this new enemy.
• Free American journalist Steven Sotloff (jbaynews.com)
  James Foley’s family confirmed his death in a statement posted on a facebook page saying they “have never been prouder of him.”“He gave his life trying to expose the world to the suffering of the Syrian people,” said the statement, which was attributed to Foley’s mother, Diane Foley.

  “We implore the kidnappers to spare the lives of the remaining hostages.

  Like Jim, they are innocents. They have no control over American government policy in Iraq, Syria or anywhere in the world,” the statement continued.