What does ISIS want? A well laid out article on the subject

A very good explanation by Graeme Wood about the Outlook and thinking of the ISIS. It's a bit long for this generation, but well worth the read. Sobering to think my family would be sold in slavery by these people and my wife and I put to death.

In October, Dabiq, the magazine of the Islamic State, published “The Revival of Slavery Before the Hour,” an article that took up the question of whether Yazidis (the members of an ancient Kurdish sect that borrows elements of Islam, and had come under attack from Islamic State forces in northern Iraq) are lapsed Muslims, and therefore marked for death, or merely pagans and therefore fair game for enslavement. A study group of Islamic State scholars had convened, on government orders, to resolve this issue. If they are pagans, the article’s anonymous author wrote,


Yazidi women and children [are to be] divided according to the Shariah amongst the fighters of the Islamic State who participated in the Sinjar operations [in northern Iraq] … Enslaving the families of the kuffar [infidels] and taking their women as concubines is a firmly established aspect of the Shariah that if one were to deny or mock, he would be denying or mocking the verses of the Koran and the narrations of the Prophet … and thereby apostatizing from Islam.

Atlantic article


Of course Michael Totten is always a recommanded read as well  http://www.worldaffairsjournal.org/blog/michael-j-totten/too-little-too-late-syria

He's Dead, deal with it.

Gaddafi is confirmed dead, now the western "chattering class" is demanding an inquiry in how he died. Sheesh it was a civil war with people who have fought long and hard, there was 40 years of pent up anger at this nutbar.what exactly do you expect?
Libya faces to many challenges to count, a divided population, diverse political & religious groups. what little government they have is stepping down. I can't say I blame the NTC, better to be remembered as a hero of the revolution than the people who failed in making a proper transition to a stable government.

The west needs to offer aid (with a set timeline) and political advice. Telling the Libyans that the aid runs out at X time means they need to get their house in order quickly, so we don't have a long drawn out bickering session like Iraq that paralysed their government for months.

Some of the strength that the Libyans have is a high literacy rate,  a fairly intact oil system and civil infrastructure. what they need is to call back the bureaucrats to get things running and then weed out the hardcore and forgive the low ranking regime supporters who don't have blood on their hands.

The cons facing them are many well armed and experienced armed groups, some of them with fundamental Islamic religious views who will not be keen to allow a secular state to form. Also the various tribes will be jostling for positions. Not so much an issue in the cites, but they will play a big role in the rural areas.

What happens next set the stage for the next generation of Libyans, they have the opportunity to succeed or fail utterly like the Iranian revolution. the West has won a fair bit of goodwill on the street with our support of the rebels, while we want to support a secular government there, we have to avoid meddling to much with their internal politics. what comes next is not likely to be clean and pretty, the next 6 months bears watching. I really hope they can achieve a better place, but I have my fears.

Raheel Raza confronts Tariq Ramadan, Pakistan - United Nations

Via SDA and 5 feet of fury

A little more on Tariq Ramadan's

and
Raheel Raza

I remember discussing freedom of religion with my devout brother inlaw, he said Malaysia was accepting of all Muslims, I asked why their was no Shiite mosques, seems it’s illegal to preach Shiite teaching there. When he did Eid here in Vancouver he was amazed to see many different types of Muslims under the same roof. Something that would not happen in most Muslim countries.