2016 & CRUCIAL CANADIAN DECISIONS

Canada is fortunate. I am a grateful Canadian. We have government by the people. Regardless of which political party is in power, we are governed by democratic principles. I am persuaded that within the Liberal caucus are responsible and honorable people. Government by the people is respected by them and applied in my best interests. As 2015 closes out I am concerned. I'm not alarmist.  Noticeably, in Canada as in the USA the shift has been to the Left when articulating ideals and morality. It is from the Left that heavyweight decisions are being made and will be made as 2016 dawns.

BE READY FOR ANOTHER FRIGHTENING VIDEO

The Hassekeh province from which the hostages were taken on Monday, is inhabited predominantly by Assyrians, an indigenous Christian people who trace their roots to ancient Mesopotamians. Everyone in Syria knows this. These people have lived here for centuries. Up to150 Assyrian Christians were captured and abducted on Monday. Today is Wednesday here, and the expectation is that IS (ISIS) will release a video threatening the lives of these hostages, unless the U.S. led coalition halts airstrikes and withdraws combatants.

At least 3,000 Assyrians escaped to cities of refuge, but they lack necessities of life. In fact, 600 families are staying in St. Mary's Cathedral in al-Hasakah, Syria. The call has now come from activist groups to people all over the world to protect these Assyrians in Syria.

There is always more to a story than news stories in the West relate in a few paragraphs. Kurdish militias have controlled the northeastern region of Syria and the villages had for a long time been left alone. Lately however, the Islamic State fighters began to exert power. In early February, Islamic State fighters had demanded that crosses be removed from churches. Some Christians, not wanting to be victimized like northern Iraq’s Christians and other minority sects like the Yazidis who were singled out by the Islamic State, decided to take a more assertive role by fighting alongside Kurdish and other militias. For that reason in recent weeks, many villages changed hands as the Kurdish groups, some Arab Muslim factions and a Christian group called the Syriac Military Council joined forces against the Islamic State. When jihadists raided the village of Tel Hermez, driving out a local group called the Guardians of Khabur, who were protecting churches, Kurdish militias together with fighters from the Syriac Military Council entered the town, filming themselves retaking the area and leading away bound men they said were Islamic State members. This seizure of hostages appears to be retaliation by IS, yet it has a distinctly religious motivation.

BBC NEWS STORY - FEAR GROWS FOR CHRISTIAN HOSTAGES

NATIONAL POST STORY

NEW YORK TIMES

VANCOUVER SUN STORY

THE LATEST HORROR & FURTHER BAD PR

This is today's BBC Middle East News for  24 February 2015, "'Islamic State 'abducts dozens of Christians in Syria'"

At least 90 Assyrian Christians, men, women and children have been abducted by ISIS fighters who swept through a strong of villages along south bank of the Khabur River in north-eastern Syria during dawn raids on Monday. This is in Hassakeh province in Syria, where 40,000 Assyrian Nestorian Christians live, speaking Syriac, a form of Aramaic, the language of Christ.  Many Assyrians have fled Syria to escape extremist pressure to convert to Islam, to pay a religious levy or to face death.

Now tell me again that the conflict is not in any sense religiously motivated.

Furthermore, The group's aim is to establish a "caliphate", that is, a state ruled by a single political and religious leader according to Islamic law, or Sharia. As it seeks to move beyond its present confining borders of Iraq and Syria into Jordan, Lebanon and Palestine, it demands that all swear allegiance to its leader - Ibrahim Awad Ibrahim Ali al-Badri al-Samarrai, better known as Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi.

ISIS is now commonly known as IS, and IS members are jihadists who adhere to an extreme interpretation of Sunni Islam, considering themselves to be the only true believers. For them, the rest of the world is comprised of unbelievers who are seeking to destroy Islam, and that justifies IS attacks against other Muslims and non-Muslims alike. Beheadings, crucifixions and mass shootings have been used to terrorise their enemies. IS members have justified such atrocities by citing the Koranic verses that talk of "striking off the heads" of unbelievers, but Muslims have denounced them. Even al-Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahiri, who disavowed IS in February over its actions in Syria, warned Zarqawi in 2005 that such brutality loses "Muslim hearts and minds".

NOT EVERYONE AGREES WITH ME

My friend has written in response to my previous article on ISIS, now called IS. He takes exception to my piece, and I think that he misread me, and fails to understand what’s going on. He supports the inane comment by President Obama that dismisses IS atrocities as merely what bad people do. He wrote ...

"Obama is quite right to say that ISIS has nothing to do with true Islamic beliefs. Although there are different branches of Islam, they all promote a moral and ethical code. He is quite right that you cannot tar all Muslims with the same brush, anymore than you can tar all Christians, or where would it end. Shall I blame you Ron for the tortures of the Spanish Inquisition, or the denial of truth imposed on Galileo by the Pope. That good born-again evangelical Christian George W. Bush eagerly bombed and killed well over sixty thousand innocent Iraqi men women and children. He was supported by thousands and possibly millions of other bible belt zealots in the U.S.A. Has that got anything to do with true Christian belief. I too am sorry that Obama said that so many Egyptians were killed. He should simply have said so many people were killed. It was a terrible thing to do whether they were Christian, Islamic, Jewish, Egyptian, German or Inuit. Most religious believers tend to pick and choose the bits of their holy books that suit them at the moment. I seem to remember reading about some guy, who who advised people to take the beam out of their own eyes before pointing out the mote in their neighbour's eye. I think he was not a Christian, but an very orthodox Jew."

1. 
   with a few edits I replied the following … RonFebruary 24, 2015 at 2:12 PM

   That is a mistaken read of both Obama's remarks and my reason for finding them unacceptable. I would not have objected or wasted my time with the issue if Obama had simply said that ISIS does not accurately represent Islam nor is it true Islam. That's not what he said. He completely disassociated ISIS and its horror show from Islam and religion. That is not being truthful. Even if the ISIS interpretation of the Quran is grotesque, it is nevertheless for those distorted religious reasons that ISIS did what it, by beheading 21 Coptic Christians and by shooting and burning to death, 60 men, women and children at worship in a church. No one is saying that these atrocities should be laid to the accounts of moral, highly principled, spiritually minded Muslims. You do not, however, make that point by ignoring the religious intention of the perpetrators who base their actions on their sourcebook. And of course, such madness done to anyone, of any nationality or faith is wickedly appalling, but you purposely steer from ISIS's point. They did it to these 21 Egyptians because they were Christian and because after torturing them for days, they did not recant, repent and turn to Islam.
   
   On the other hand, I will disassociate George Bush's military assaults from anything to do with Christianity or my faith. The US military is not a Christian organization, nor is aligned with my Statement of Faith. No military action in our lifetimes by USA or Canada or a Coalition is conducted for Christian/religious reasons. 

OBAMA & UNDERSTANDING THE ISLAMIC STATE

That ISIS has nothing to do with Islam, is a reckless conception. Yet that is what President Obama has said. Nearly all Muslims reject the Islamic State. That's true. ISIS does not represent true Islam. That's true. But ISIS zealots are driven by a reasoned interpretation of Islam. Enough 'Wingnuts' reside in every state of the Union that the White House seeks to avert a horrid Islamophobic response at home. We are not in a holy war, so Obama said, "No religion is responsible for terrorism. People are responsible for violence and terrorism." Further, he terms the atrocities 'violent extremism,' when he should call it 'Islamist extremism.' That's what it is. ISIS doesn't deny this.

President Obama (Alex Wong/Getty)

It was disingenuous and disgusting when Obama deliberately described the 21 beheaded victims as "Egyptians", rather than 'Coptic Christians.' They were targeted precisely because of their association with the cross of Christ. Religion is very much at the heart of what is going on in the ISIS world. Americans should be able to count on their President having a clear view and honest acknowledgement that ISIS's Islam is a combination of a revived ancient puritanical Islam and some modern politicized Islam.  The President's disavowal does not serve inter-faith dialogue well, nor mutual tolerance. The Islamic State is unquestionably Islamic, even as it has attracted adventurists and psychopaths.

Graeme Wood has written an intelligent, meticulously researched article for The Atlantic Monthly March 2015 issue, entitled, 'What ISIS Really Wants'. I encourage you to read it.

TERROR AND TINNITUS

What did you hear?

It's a chronic disturbing noise that we can no longer endure. Isis, Jihadists pound at our sensibilities.

1 in 5 people have the annoying condition of ringing noise in their ears associated with ageing, hearing loss, injury or circulatory disorder. I am one of the five. Tinnitus may be ringing, squealing, hissing, clicking, buzzing and roaring that impedes hearing and cheats one of the blessing of silence.

Journalists break news daily that is so unsettling, one can hardly carry on normal life; the Jordanian pilot is incinerated by ISIS; Jihadists conduct a campaign of killings, kidnappings, enslavement and rapes against Yazidis in Iraq. Gone is the blessing of peace.

There is very little that the medical community can do for sufferers of tinnitus. Is there anything that can be done about terrorists? ISIS atrocities have enraged the world. Most Muslims deem these acts to be reprehensible. What do pacifists recommend to be done about the Islamic State (ISIS)? Should the rest of the world retaliate with all the firepower it has? Many readers may think so. Do you think there is another solution?