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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsIS abducts 150 Christians, rapes and kills women
Initial "reports mentioned 90 people abducted but for others the actual number is greater, perhaps 150. A church was destroyed, at least three Assyrian villages have been occupied and people have had to flee. We do not have accurate information, but the initial evidence points to a tragic situation," said Mgr Georges Abou Khazen, Latin apostolic vicar to Aleppo.
The prelate spoke to AsiaNews about Monday's attack by the Islamic State group against Assyrian villages like Tel Tamar, Tel Shamiran, Tel Hermuz, Goran Tel and Tel Khareta, in north-eastern Syria. Jihadists reportedly raped a woman and then murdered her, but the information could not be confirmed.
Whilst everyone is suffering, "Christians feel they have been abandoned," said Mgr Mario Zenari, apostolic nuncio to Damascus.
Bassam Ishak, president of the Syriac National Council, reports that latest figure for abducted Christians is at least 150, more than the early figure of 90. They were taken in Al-Hasakah Governorate, north-east of the country, where Assyrian Christian communities have lived for centuries.
Some reports indicate that Islamic State militants killed some hostages. "Jihadists have taken a lot of people, including women, the elderly and children," said a local source, who requested anonymity for security reasons. "They burnt their houses, and torched a church." And "At least six" people were killed. The terrorists "also raped a woman before killing her."
http://www.asianews.it/news-en/IS-abducts-150-Christians,-rapes-and-kills-women,-a-tragic-situation-for-vicar-to-Aleppo-33561.html
Rhinodawg
(2,219 posts)Are we so PC-whipped that the world has no conscience ?
GGJohn
(9,951 posts)I'm opposed to US boots on the ground, but sometimes it's hard to be opposed when you read heart wrenching stories like this.
Rhinodawg
(2,219 posts)all of them are evil.
And those poor women.... heartbreaking.
GGJohn
(9,951 posts)ISIS needs to be exterminated, but I'm so reluctant to use US troops. Massive air power? Hell yes, but troops, I'm torn on this at this point.
Hell, if I was still active duty, I would probably be in theater flying missions against them.
Rhinodawg
(2,219 posts)glasshouses
(484 posts)in the civilian population using non combatants as human shields .
It's a no win
GGJohn
(9,951 posts)This vermin is going to have to be taken care of by the ME nations, it's their back yard, but I come back to this, if it weren't for Boosh invading Iraq, ISIS wouldn't exist today, so we need to help those nations with material supplies.
Rhinodawg
(2,219 posts)Brigid
(17,621 posts)If we put boots on the ground. We're in a no-win situation. If we do nothing, we get condemned for that. If we put boots on the ground, we get slammed for that and end up in yet another endless war we can't afford. The countries of the Middle East are just going to have to band together and take this bunch of psychos out themselves.
Response to Rhinodawg (Original post)
Post removed
LanternWaste
(37,748 posts)It becomes critically important (for objective observation) to remove all irrelevant justifications and rationalizations being used in any conflict, find the root cause, and proceed with a premise from that root cause.
French and Brits both said the Hundred Years War was a religious war too... but in fact, it was simply another conflict of the European nation states to prevent any one country from becoming the sole super-power. We are aware of this because historians took the time to peel away the justifications and rationalization being used, and replaced them with the actual causes.
No doubt, the Historical Method does tend to get in the way of many people's biases.
whatthehey
(3,660 posts)They were the same religion at the time, the Avignon Papacy and the multipopes were in the future and they were both Catholic countries..
Thirty Years war maybe?
We also have to separate systemic and proximal causes. Eliminating poverty, trribalism and colonial remnants in the ME may eventually make the region more peaceful, by making the ground less fertile for sectarian conflicts but these people in these conflicts right now are indisputably squeezing triggers over religion, at targets chosen for religious reasons, and recruited by religious mesaging. They are not shooting people over disagreements about footnotes in scholarly tomes on the Abassid Caliphates.
LanternWaste
(37,748 posts)Try The Hundred Years War:Trial by Battle by Jonathan Sumption.
Catholicism, especially during the low and middle medieval years, could be starkly contrasted from one nation to another (much as all religions: being shaped by acculturation)-- indeed, from one region to another; e.g. the differences in European vs. British Heresies were used in 1337 by the British crown, as were the religious differences between the Scots and the crown that France attempted to use to their own advantage. Merely two examples of religion being used as a rationalization to give better color to secular purposes.
TBF
(32,090 posts)The Christians out and then have a discussion about what to do with that area?
eissa
(4,238 posts)If they don't want us here, just airlift us out of here. Better to live in a foreign land than go extinct in our own homeland. They are willing to go anywhere that will have them, as long as it's not a Muslim-dominated country. Yes, I realize how awful that sounds, but given what they are witnessing and living through right now, I can't blame them.
el_bryanto
(11,804 posts)time.
Bryant
TBF
(32,090 posts)I know that my tax dollars gave paid for a heck of a lot of equipment over the years. Let's go get them. Humanitarian mission. I'd hate to see this escalate like Hitler ... these maniacs aren't likely to stop.
GGJohn
(9,951 posts)Send in the MAC transports escorted by fighters and attack choppers to airlift these people out and relocate them to the country of their choice.
Brigid
(17,621 posts)If we could find a way to do it.
leftynyc
(26,060 posts)around 1-1/2 years ago on a Greek island and got an earfull about what this civil war has done (this was before isis started taking territory). It seems nobody particularly liked al assad but she insisted that he protected minorities and kept the country from falling into the hands of the extremists. She and her entire family had fled Syria and were split between Lebanon and California. I'm sure seeing this story will break her heart as she had many friends who were unable to leave.
hrmjustin
(71,265 posts)They are trying to kill the last of the Christians out of the area. Heartbreaking.
CJCRANE
(18,184 posts)Some would say it's strange that we remove secular regimes that protect these minorities.
GGJohn
(9,951 posts)Rhinodawg
(2,219 posts)In spite of everything I still believe that people are really good at heart. I simply cant build up my hopes on a foundation consisting of confusion, misery, and death. I see the world gradually being turned into a wilderness, I hear the ever approaching thunder, which will destroy us too, I can feel the sufferings of millions and yet, if I look up into the heavens, I think that it will all come right, that this cruelty too will end, and that peace and tranquility will return again.