Religion, Rape and Slavery

 Libraries are filled with books on religion, rape and slavery, so this week’s post is just another tiny drop of commentary in the ocean of man’s inhumanity to man (or in this case, woman).  Normally, I wouldn’t even attempt to express my reaction to the horrors of history, but last week’s New York Times article “Enslaving Young Girls, The Islamic State Builds a Vast System of Rape,” 8/14/15 caused me to gag (and nearly choke) on my morning coffee. All weekend long, I couldn’t forget the 12-year-old girl who endured a culturally sanctioned rape by an Islamic State fighter—simply because she practiced a religion other than Islam.
   

     This is the story that I couldn’t stop thinking about: After binding and gagging the preteen girl, an ISIS fighter explained to her that the Quran not only gave him permission to rape her, but also stated that this rape was an act of “religious devotion,” no less sacred than kneeling in prayer to Allah, which he did after his sexual assault. (!!!)

     REALLY?  If I were a law-abiding Muslim, I would consider that interpretation of the Quran to be not only false, but also an extreme obscenity, far worse than any cartoons about Allah which led to the murders of journalists at Charlie Hebdo.

     HELLO!? Is anybody listening? Or have people all over the world become so jaded and cynical that we just keep on turning the page? First, for my generation was the deep remembrance of 60 million people who died in WWII and the Holocaust, (http://www.nationalww2museum.org/learn/education/for-students/ww2-history/ww2-by-the-numbers/world-wide-deaths.html). Next we saw the Tutsis in Rwanda and their version of mayhem and genocide; then the Kurdish women in Iraq, followed by the Christian girls kidnapped by Boko Haram in Nigeria (See "Missing on Mother's Day,"5/16/14). Now I’m reading about (and gagging over) the Yazidi religious minority, but honestly, this is just a taste of the myriad atrocities being committed all over the globe.

     Did I forget to mention that while the Yazidi women were being kidnapped, enslaved and raped by ISIS, the Yazidi men were being executed?  Yes, that’s genocide.  Everyone exclaims in horror: “Never again!”  But like Edgar Allen Poe’s raven, the refrain repeats as long as the poem continues. “Never more” is a vow we do not keep. Over and over again, men are executed, women are raped and enslaved, losing not only their identities, but their minds, bodies and souls, as they are consumed and subsumed by the (insane) majority in power. Meantime, here in America, we allow the tribal gang bang and genocide to continue. (They’re not OUR women after all.)

        

     According to The Times, “the systematic rape of women and girls from the Yazidi religious minority has become deeply enmeshed in the organization and radical theology of the Islamic state in the year since the group announced it was reviving slavery as an institution.” And we’re OK with this? Could there be a more dry and detached description? The explanation of ISIS’ modus operandi went under the subtitle “A Bureaucracy of Cruelty.”(!!!) Where is the sense of outrage? Why aren’t moral, law-abiding people of all religions taking up arms to destroy this rapidly spreading terrorist group who are attempting to legalize slavery of women?  I used to think the main purpose of the United Nations was to intervene in worldwide human suffering.  But it’s been clear for quite some time that international corporate interests have taken priority over terror, rape, slavery and everything we once held dear. What we are seeing now is a collusion between the most impoverished and uneducated third world tribal governments and the very smart, but amoral international billionaires who profit from the resources available in these downtrodden and chaotic tribal regions. Let the Hunger Games begin!

   
     Last year a total of 5,270 Yazidis were abducted, and at least 3,144 are still being held captive, community leaders say. In fact, the "trade" in Yazidi females has created a thriving business with a network of warehouses where women are held, viewing rooms where they are "inspected and marketed," along with a dedicated fleet of buses to transport them.The "bureaucracy of cruelty" developed by ISIS has even included sales contracts on sex slaves, all notarized by ISIS-controlled courts. The practice of raping and enslaving young girls has also yielded a bonus in secondary gains: a fantastically effective marketing tool to "recruit men from deeply conservative Muslim societies where casual sex and dating are forbidden," The Times reported.  Do any of these crimes against humanity remind you of other criminals in history that were eventually--and belatedly--crushed? (Hint: Hitler, Saddam Hussein, Osama Bin Laden and Attila the Hun.) 
        

   
  How many times must history repeat itself before conscious humans will commit to eradicating religious extremists with their megalomaniacal desire to impose insane belief systems on the rest of the world? Until 9/11 Americans blithely imagined we could enjoy our democracy and freedom from the safety of our shores.  Atrocities happened in other parts of the world. We might read horrifying headlines, but we could throw out the newspaper.  We could view blood and carnage on the evening news on our living room TVs and go blissfully to sleep afterward, feeling safe in our American homes. We told ourselves that our lives were unchanged and unassailable here on this continent. 

               

     Those delusionary days are long over now.  Rape and sexual enslavement have recently been re-codified into an insidious and sophisticated “religion” by ISIS.  Yes, we are allowing ISIS to get away with claiming that genocide and rape are religious activities, commanded by Allah! Worse than that, young and disaffected people on the fringes of society here in the USA and Europe are being seduced into trading their freedom (and civil rights!) for the chance to be “heroes” and/ or martyrs.  How much longer is the civilized world going to sit on the side-lines and allow ISIS to spread its evil? Our children’s future may depend on the answer.