This document purportedly was discovered by American forces who infiltrated Syria on a mission to gather information on ISIS. I don't doubt ISIS is capable of such depravity but I still can't say for sure if this document is legit. The fatwa was among a huge trove of documents captured by U.S. Special Operations Forces during a raid targeting a top Islamic State official in Syria in May. Reuters has reviewed some of the documents, which have not been previously published.
What is clear, such barbarity by ISIS leaves no choice than to make sure they are eliminated for good. More importantly, it must be done by other Muslims from that region. As bad and insane as ISIS is, this conflict remains a religious war between factions of the same faith. Granted, other minority groups - including Christians - are caught in the middle of this trip back to the 7th century. ISIS is a Muslim problem. Our involvement should be to protect Christians in that region and their best interest. That includes creating a safe haven for them. That also includes training and support. Let the Shia and Sunni fight it out because it is not our fight. Our involvement to aid Sunni's against Shia's is insane. Why do we care about King of Saudi Arabia or Jordan or the Emirs in the Gulf States? Nothing good will come out of our involvement if we take sides in what is essentially a struggle between two bad actors: Sunni fundamentalism versus Shia fundamentalism.
Desperate Gaza Escape Attempt Leads to Death, and Recriminations
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Ishaq Khalil Hassan's mother, Amna Hassan, showed photographs of her son and some of his education certificates.CreditWissam Nassar for The New York Times
GAZA — Something drove Ishaq Khalil Hassan, 28, into the Mediterranean last week, to walk naked in the shallow surf, to attempt what has become all but impossible forPalestinians: an escape from theGaza Strip.
Palestinianofficials insisted that Mr. Hassan, who tried to wade across the border intoEgypton Thursday, was mentally ill. His family said he was sane, but desperate — he had been trying all year, unsuccessfully, to enter Egypt legally for medical treatment for an old injury.
“Ishaq thought that Egyptians will be like Europeans, who deal with Syrians and welcome them,” said his brother, Ibrahim Hassan.
But as soon as Mr. Hassan crossed the frontier, Egyptian border guards opened fire, spraying the sea with bullets while ignoring a Palestinian guard who whistled and frantically gestured with his hands that Mr. Hassan had mental problems.A video that captured the shootingmade at least one thing clear: Mr. Hassan appeared to pose no immediate threat to anyone.
When the firing stopped, Egyptian soldiers pulled Mr. Hassan’s apparently lifeless body from the water, as the camera kept rolling: an image that evoked the perilous journeys of migrants across the Mediterranean but also laid bare the hemmed-in lives of Palestinians inGaza, unable to wander even a few steps from their own borders.
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On Sunday, Palestinians gathered to protest Mr. Hassan's death.CreditMohammed Salem/Reuters
Over the past two years, Egypt’s border with Gaza has become an increasingly impenetrable front, fueling desperation among Palestinians trapped between Egypt and Israel, which also severely restricts crossings.
Egypt’s government, under President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, has kept the border closed for 339 days this year, according to the Interior Ministry in Gaza. More than 25,000 people are waiting to cross, including Palestinians seeking medical treatment, or trying to study abroad, ministry officials said.
As they grapple with an Islamist insurgency in the Sinai Peninsula, Egyptian officials have justified the border crackdown as a necessary measure to deter the flow of militants and weapons. At the same time, the border guards appear increasingly willing to use deadly force against anyone trying to cross. In the past six weeks, Egyptian border guards have fatally shot at least 20 Sudanese migrants trying to cross into Israel.
An Egyptian military spokesman declined to comment on the shooting on Sunday. But some hoped Mr. Hassan’s death might put more pressure on Egypt to ease its blockade.
“Perhaps Hassan broke the siege in his own way, and permanently got peace,” said Mohammed Lubbad, who organized a demonstration outside Egypt’s embassy in Gaza on Sunday.
The video of Mr. Hassan’s killing was first aired on Al Jazeera satellite channel, which said he had been mentally ill. Officials with Hamas, the militant group that governs Gaza, repeated the assertion. Iyad al-Bozum, a spokesman for the Interior Ministry, said that Palestinian border guards had tried to detain Mr. Hassan but that he escaped.
جنود مصريون يقتلون شابا فلسطينيا يعاني اضطرابات نفسيةVideo by Al Jazeera Arabic
The Egyptians, he said, “killed him in cold blood.”
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Mr. Hassan's mother showed photographs of her son, as well as his education certificates.CreditWissam Nassar for The New York Times
“This is a crime in daylight and a clear violation of international law,” he said, “because the man was completely unarmed and also mentally sick.”
But his family strongly denied that Mr. Hassan suffered from any mental illness, saying that he was preparing a new apartment and searching for a wife. They also said he had been studying English at an American nonprofit organization that provides education in the Middle East.
But he was frantic to leave Gaza, they said. He was still suffering from gunshot wounds to the leg he sustained in 2007, when he was struck while shopping during clashes between Palestinian factions, relatives said.
“He could not sleep at night due to the pain,” said his brother Ibrahim Hassan. He said Mr. Hassan had been able to travel to Egypt once, shortly after he was shot, for medical treatment. He tried to return three times this year, but the border was closed, his brother said.
So sometime Thursday, Mr. Hassan took off his clothes and laid them on a rock on the beach, near the border. He undressed, his family said, so that the border guards would know that he was a civilian and unarmed.
Palestinian officials failed Mr. Hassan, including by not preventing him from crossing, his family said. And the Egyptian government is proving itself as repressive, if not more so, than the Israeli government, they said.
“My pain is deep,” said Mr. Hassan’s father, Khalil Hassan. “They published the video on Al Jazeera, and I wonder why they did not stop him? Why did the camera keep filming?”
Mr. Bozum said the Egyptians had promised to return Mr. Hassan’s body in a few days. But his family said it had yet to receive any confirmation of his death.
Family members did not participate in the protest outside the embassy, which was organized by Hamas, but they appreciated the show of solidarity, said Mr. Hassan’s sister, Neama.
“This story is not just about Ishaq,” she said. “It became about everyone. Now people feel that their sons could be Ishaq at any moment.”
What is needed is a commitment by the West to arm and train Christians to setup their own Arab Christian State. This video shows how some are taking matters in their own hands. They see the desperate plight of the Arab Christians. It is truly an amazing display of bravery and courage on their part by coming to their rescue.
WASHINGTON — With Christmas just a day away, 30 U.S. Representatives, led by House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Ed Royce (R-CA), have called on the Obama Administration to condemn the ongoing Islamic State (ISIS/ISIL) attacks against Christians and other Middle East minorities as ‘genocide,’ reported the Armenian National Committee of America (ANCA).
The December 23rd letter, addressed to Secretary of State John Kerry comes in response to reports that the Obama Administration is set to characterize the ISIS attacks on Yezidis as genocide, but will stop short of similarly referencing the murder and destruction of Christians and other minority groups. “While it is hardly possible to overstate the brutality of ISIL’s attempts to destroy the Yezidis, an overly narrow finding would wrongly discount similar violence directed against other minorities in the region, with likely dire consequences for those minorities,” noted the letter. The Congressional letter cited the recent U.S. Commission on Religious Freedom (USCIRF) report which, “call[ed] on the US government to designate the Christian, Yazidi, Shi’a, Turkmen and Shabak communities of Iraq and Syria as victims of Genocide by ISIL.”
The effort is part of a broad outcry of concern by Congressional leaders, genocide experts and rights groups, including the ANCA, to secure a clear U.S. genocide determination regarding the anti-Christian atrocities, including calls for passage of various U.S. House and Senate genocide measures and Obama Administration’s determination. Hovsepian: “It’s Deja Vu All Over Again”
ANCA Western Region Chairwoman Nora Hovsepian outlined why the ANCA and the Armenian Americans are working hard with Assyrian-Chaldean, Greek and an array of human rights groups on securing the proper characterization of the ISIS genocide against Christians in this recent interview with the LA Daily News. “With respect to what’s happening in the Middle East now, it’s deja vu all over again. It’s like chapter two,” Hovsepian said. “Unfortunately, the United States’ policy at this point is baffling to us. Of course it’s a genocide against (Christians) as well. One of the reasons why it’s happening now is because it happened 100 years ago. (Turkey) got away with it then, with zero accountability.”
In Defense of Christians, A Demand for Action and ANCA leaders at the White House making the case for a US designation of ISIS anti-Christian attacks as ‘genocide’
Last week ANCA Legislative Affairs Director Raffi Karakashian joined In Defense of Christians (IDC) Executive Director Kirsten Evans, A Demand For Action Executive Director Steve Oshana, and renowned genocide expert Greg Stanton for a meeting with White House officials to make the case for the proper genocide designation. On the same day, ANCA Executive Director Aram Hamparian participated in a White House briefing on Syrian refugees, urging the US to close gaps in aid to Armenian and other Christian victims of ISIS and other Islamic extremist groups. In Defense of Christians Press Conference Spotlights Need for Immediate Action
The December 16th Capitol Hill press conference, organized by In Defense of Christians (IDC), a nonpartisan organization dedicated to the protection and preservation of Christians and Christian culture in the Middle East, brought the issue of the ongoing ISIS genocide front and center.
“When genocide has been committed or is looming the President and Congress should publicly say so and take robust actions to end it and ensure accountability,” explained Helsinki Commission Chairman Chris Smith (R-NJ), speaking at the press conference. “Any failure by President Obama to recognize the ongoing genocide against Christians would be irresponsible, indefensible, and unconscionable.”
Armenian and Assyrian American Congresswoman Anna Eshoo, who, along with Rep. Jeff Fortenberry (R-NE) serves as Co-Chair of the House Caucus for Religious Minorities in the Middle East said, “This is history for my family that is repeating itself all over again. […] Future generations will look at us and ask ‘did they do anything?'
“We cannot underestimate the moral authority the United States has when we simply utter what is true,” stated Rep. Fortenberry, holding a photo of Christians shackled by ISIS abductors prior to their murder.
Congressman Dana Rohrabacher (R-CA) refuted arguments that labeling the slaughter of Christians ‘genocide’ is a form of religious bias. “It is not about a test of religion. It is about special protection for victims of targeted and systematic persecution.”
Internationally reknowned Genocide and human rights expert, Dr. Greg Stanton outlined how the ISIS actions against Christians meets the internationally agreed UN definition of ‘genocide’ and went on to explain why that designation is important.
“‘Genocide’ is a much more powerful word that ‘crimes against humanity,’ war crimes, ‘ethnic cleansing,’ or ‘atrocity crimes,'” noted Stanton, citing a 2007 study he and colleagues had conducted on the words used in The New York Times to describe the Bosnia, Rwanda, Kosovo and Darfur genocides. “We discovered that as long as ‘ethnic cleansing’ was used, there was no forceful action to stop it. As soon as the situations were called ‘genocide,’ forceful action resulted and ended the killing, except in Darfur where a UN Commission of Inquiry rejected the ‘genocide’ word.”
Stanton went on to identify the two most important reasons for the ‘genocide’ designation, explaining first that the word “more strongly justifies our broad coalition military support for Kurdish and Iraqi forces to defeat ISIS;” and second, “members of such groups are much more likely to receive preferential treatment as bona fide refugees under the UN Convention and Protocols on the Status of Refugees.”
Nina Shea, Director of the Hudson Institute Center for Religious Freedom, cited the importance of political advocacy by Christians and all Americans of good conscience in support of passage Congressional legislation characterizing the ISIS attacks as Genocide, and finished her remarks with a simple question: “To Secretary Kerry, Samantha Power, and President Obama I ask, ‘Where are you?'”
“In August of 2014 the Iraqi parliament decried the atrocities and crimes against humanity targeting religious minorities under ISIS as a genocide. Many others have done the same, including Pope Francis, the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom, and the world’s leading international association of genocide scholars. In Defense of Christians has been working hard to ensure that the United States government, both Congress and the State Department, do the same,” stated IDC Executive Director Kirsten Evans when opening the conference.
