“This will be the last time I see you.” For the children of Mosul, life took a darker turn when the Islamic State took over

 March 3, 2017 — The Sydney Morning Herald reports: “On the last day of his short life, 10-year-old Sami had something important to say to his friend.

‘This will be the last time I see you,’ the boy said. ‘I have a feeling that I will die.’

His friend, Hussein Hatem, loyally told his mate that he wished he could take his place, and die instead.

That afternoon, a group of IS fighters came to the boys’ primary school in a suburb on the outskirts of the city of Mosul. They knocked on the door of every classroom.

‘Let them come out. We’ll teach them a lesson,’ the fighters told the teachers.

Outside in the cement schoolyard, the men held Sami as the rest of the school gathered to watch.

‘Then my friend got really sad. He was all alone,’ Hussein remembers.

One of the men raised his sword and hacked off Sami’s head…”  (The Islamic State is full of savage barbarians that continue to sink lower and lower into depravity.  What human being could behead a ten year old child to teach others a lesson?   Our Lord showed great compassion towards children: “Then were there brought unto him little children, that he should put his hands on them, and pray and the disciples rebuked them.  But Jesus said, Suffer little children, and forbid them not, to come unto me; for of such is the kingdom of heaven.  And he laid his hands on them, and departed thence” – Matthew 19:13-15.)

The brutalization of the Yazidi is the crime of our age, and shows ISIL for what it truly is

March 20, 2017 — The National Post reports: “Of all the oppressed and terrorized minorities fated to live through this grim era, the Yazidis of northern Iraq are clearly among the most wretched.

Through no fault of their own they are enemies of the most venomous faction on the planet, the Islamic State, or ISIL. A newsletter from ISIL described Yazidis as a pagan minority and claimed that their continued existence ‘is a matter that Muslims should question as they will be asked about it on Judgment Day.’

In other words, the Islamic State must obliterate the Yazidis out of religious duty or face divine punishment. Their existence as heretics after nine or 10 centuries is, by a perverse form of theology, an offence to a jealous god who demands total belief, the version of god that ISIL worships. Several countries are trying to help the Yazidis; Canada will accept 1,200 of them as refugees this year. But it will be generations before time can heal their wounds.

The most terrible event in their recent history took place in August, 2014, when ISIL militants attacked Sinjar, the northern Iraq home of tens of thousands of Yazidis. About 5,000 were killed and 7,000 taken away. Males were shot. Women and girls were turned over to markets where they were sold into sexual slavery. A UN report speculates that about 3,200 women and children are still held by ISIL or the slave owners who were the customers of ISIL…”  (On March 4, 2016, the United States House of Representatives voted unanimously that ISIL was guilty of acts of genocide against the Yazidis, Christians, and other groups including Shia Muslims.  Also, in March of 2016 a German doctor who was treating Yazidi victims of ISIL of an 8-year-old girl who set herself on fire hoping it would make her so ugly that they would not rape her again.  Romans 3:13 – 18 states: “Their throat is an open sepulchre; with their tongues they have used deceit; the poison of asps is under their lips: Whose mouth is full of cursing and bitterness: Their feet are swift to shed blood: Destruction and misery are in their ways: And the way of peace have they not known: There is no fear of God before their eyes.”  See the next two reports.)

 Report: Beheadings and and Islamist Stabbings Up 11-Fold in Five Years

March 5, 2017 — Breitbart.com reports: “The rate of beheadings and Islamist-inspired stabbings has risen 11-fold in the last five years according to a major new report. Terror attacks in the UK also tripled during this period.

The 1000-page report by the Henry Jackson Society examines all terror convictions and suicide attacks inspired by Islamism in the UK between 1998 and 2015. It warns ‘Islamism-inspired terrorism remains the principal terrorism threat’.

The report recorded 269 convictions during the period, involving 253 individuals. 72 per cent of those who committed Islamism-related offences (IROs) were British nationals. 16 per cent were converts to Islam.

The report states: ‘The 269 Islamism-related offences (IROs) comprise 135 distinct terrorism cases.

‘The rate of offending increased in the five-year period between 2011 and 2015 compared to the 13-year period between 1998 and 2010.

‘IROs doubled in five years (increasing from an average of 12 to 23 per year) while distinct terrorism cases almost tripled (from five per year to 14 per year).’

The most common place of arrest for IROs were ethnically diverse areas, with London accounting for 42 per cent of the total, and Birmingham 14 per cent…”

Islamic State Accused of Using ‘Blistering Chemical Agent’ Near Mosul

March 7, 2017 — Breitbart.com reports: “The medical treatment of women and children, including a two-month-old baby, for exposure to chemical agents near Iraq’s second-largest city Mosul has prompted suspicion that the Islamic State (ISIS/ISIL) may have used chemical weapons.

Tens of thousands of U.S.-backed Iraqi forces and their allies are fighting to push ISIS out of Mosul, considered to be the terrorist group’s last major stronghold in Iraq.

When the operation to retake the city began in mid-October 2016, U.S. officials expressed concern that ISIS would use crudely-designed chemical weapons, primarily packed with a sulfur mustard gas agent, to defend Mosul.

On Friday, the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) announced that their doctors were treating five children and two women for exposure to chemical agents, adding that it ‘condemns in the strongest possible terms the use of chemical weapons during fighting around the Iraqi city of Mosul.’…”