Home
/
RELIGION & LIBERTY ONLINE
/
What You Need To Know About ISIL In Iraq
What You Need To Know About ISIL In Iraq
Sep 19, 2024 5:21 PM

has an excellent piece on Iraq’s ISIL and the political crisis there. Here are some of the most salient points.

ISIL is Al Qaeda’s arm in Syria and Iraq.ISIL began as ISI or “Islamic State in Iraq” and was seeking to regain power for Sunni Muslims. “…“…after U.S. forces left in 2011 the Iraqi government failed to follow U.S. advice to take good care of the Sunni tribes, if only to keep the tribes from again supporting the Islamic terrorist groups. Instead the Shia led government turned against the Sunni population and stopped providing government jobs and regular pay for many of the Sunni tribal militias. Naturally many Sunni Arabs went back to supporting terror groups, especially very violent ones like ISI.”

ISIL was created in 2013, uniting with terrorists from other nations, especially Syria.ISIL is known for its particularly harsh treatment of civilians. This creates tensions between ISIL and other groups, especially Al Qaeda, who know from experience that such treatment had a way of making these groups unpopular (for lack of a better word) amongst Muslims.With Saudi Arabia in the mix, things have gotten quite messy:

It is a problem for Saudi Arabia because the Saudis finance al Nusra and some of the other Islamic terrorist rebels in Syria that are now at war with ISIL. To the Saudis such support is the lesser of two evils as ISIL is crippling rebel efforts to overthrow the Assad government. This is also part of the ideological war the Saudis (and most other Sunni Moslems) are fighting with Shia Iran (and its Shia allies the Assads and the Hezbollah militia in Lebanon). Meanwhile the Saudis continue crushing the Sunni Islamic terrorists that try to attack them at home. This includes local members of ISIL. All this sounds somewhat bizarre, with Saudi Arabia funding missionaries that create Islamic terrorists who e uncontrollable and seem to overthrow the rulers of Saudi Arabia. Absurd it may be, but it is a familiar pattern in this part of the world where religion and politics have long been intertwined in absurd and tragic ways.

ISIL’s power in Iraq is currently wide but shallow, concentrating on striking out at security forces, which increased ISIL’s power with Iraqi officials.This year, ISIL has managed to gain control of several northern Iraqi cities, then moved south and took control of Tikrit, the home of Saddam Hussein. ISIL now has control of Mosul, Iraq’s second largest city.ISIL took control of the Turkish consulate, holding 49 people there prisoner. This situation is on-going, with some Turks calling for military intervention but the Turkish government has stalled. It has been several weeks, and there is no resolution.

Read “Iraq: Everyone hates ISIL” at Security Page.

Comments
Welcome to mreligion comments! Please keep conversations courteous and on-topic. To fosterproductive and respectful conversations, you may see comments from our Community Managers.
Sign up to post
Sort by
Show More Comments
RELIGION & LIBERTY ONLINE
U.S. Conference Of Catholic Bishops Weighs In On Budget, Shutdown
Acting on behalf of the US Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB), Bishop Stephen E. Blaire of Stockton, Archbishop José H. Gomez of Los Angeles and Bishop Richard E. Pates of Des Moines have issued a letter to the US House of Representatives. The bishops state that they wish to “address the moral and human dimensions of the ongoing federal budget debate,’ saying that the choices facing American politicians have a moral dimension, as well as political and economic ones. The...
Curing What Ails Us: Obamacare
Sally C. Pipes, president of the Pacific Research Institute, is interviewed at National Review regarding her new book, The Cure For Obamacare. NRO’s Kathryn Jean Lopez interviews Pipes about what Obamacare means for the US, and whether or not there is a better way. KATHRYN JEAN LOPEZ: What’s the best answer to the question of what Obamacare means for the life of America? SALLY C. PIPES: Obamacare has just celebrated its three-and-a-half-year anniversary. This is the federal government’s largest entitlement...
Letter from Rome: What Kind of Liberal is Pope Francis?
Kishore Jayabalan, Director of Istituto Acton in Rome, has issued his October letter. In it, he discusses the idea of Pope Francis as a “liberal,” especially in light of the pope’s recent interview inAmerica magazine: Much of the controversy over the Pope’s interview reminds me of several Gospel passages, where Jesus is criticized by the Pharisees for healing people on the Sabbath, dining with sinners, not condemning the adulteress, and so on, and especially of the parable of the prodigal...
Higher Education and Upward Mobility
Today at Public Discourse, I explore the dubious connection between educational attainment and upward e mobility, arguing instead that a focus on cultivating social capital would be far more effective than the conventional wisdom: “Stay out of trouble and stay in school.” Staying out of trouble is still a good idea, but staying in school — when es to higher education — is ing less and less effective on its own at predicting economic improvement. In addition, while I believe...
Property Rights, Rule of Law, and the Spark of the ‘Arab Spring’
Conversations about economic development often gravitate toward such topics as monetary policy, trade regulation, tax structures, infrastructure, etc. These are critical pieces of the puzzle indeed, but there exist even more ponents of prosperity that are often skipped over. In our interview with Samuel Gregg, director of research at the Acton Institute, he lists a few of the foundational elements of growth: Rule of law is essential if you want to have a functioning economy. You cannot have a functioning...
Little Sisters Join Big Fight for Religious Liberty
The Little Sisters of the Poor are an international congregation of Catholic women religious who serve the elderly poor in over 30 countries around the world. Because they provide health insurance for workers who help them in their cause, the Obama administration is forcing them to help provide their employees with free access to abortion-inducing drugs, sterilizations, and contraceptives. If they refuse, the government is threatening them with multi-million dollar fines. The Becket Fund for Religious Liberty has filed a...
Jim Wallis on the Shutdown: ‘It’s Unbiblical’
Christians are frequently accused of conflating politics and religion. And not surprisingly, Christians like me are often frustrated by such claims. Whenever I hear such slurs my first inclination is to push back by asking who exactly can rightfully be accused of such confusion. Can they name even one person who does that? And then I remember, “Oh yeah, there’s Jim Wallis.” In the 2004 presidential election season, Wallis’ group, Sojourners, put out a bumper sticker with these words: “God...
Millennials in the New Meritocracy: What About Those Left Behind?
This is a guest post by Michael Hendrix, following up on his previous post on the economic challenges of millennials, and my own post on the deeper vocational questions that persist for Christians. Michael serves as the director for emerging issues and research at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce in Washington, D.C. He is a graduate of the University of St. Andrews and a Texas native. By Michael Hendrix Twenty years from now, we will see an America where merit...
Limiting Religious Freedom to Limit Religion’s Influence
Challenges to religious freedom are not only ing increasingly mon but are being based on a broader range of social, legal, and political arguments. The one unifying feature of these attacks, claims R.R. Reno, is the desire to limit the influence of religion over public life: In the world envisioned by Obama administration lawyers, churches will have freedom as “houses of worship,” but unless they accept the secular consensus they can’t inspire their adherents to form institutions to educate and...
Who Are You Calling A Tea Party Catholic?
Catholic Vote interviewed Samuel Gregg, Director of Research at the Acton Institute and author of Tea Party Catholic: The Catholic Case for Limited Government, a Free Economy and Human Flourishing. The five question interview covers the historical Tea Party that the book discusses, Catholic social teaching, and virtuous citizenship, among other topics. Here is an excerpt: Among the Founders, you place a great deal of emphasis upon Charles Carroll of Carrollton. Who was he, and why does he figure so...
Related Classification
Copyright 2023-2024 - www.mreligion.com All Rights Reserved