Here in the US, many are concerned about the threat of ISIS. We have called for stronger borders, harsher immigration policy and vetting, and supported Trump’s so-called “Muslim ban”, the temporary moratorium on travel from countries who have been known to fund and abed terrorists. And despite the cries of “islamophobia” “xenophobia” and “racism” from the left, millions of Americans voted in Donald Trump in large part for his harsh stand against Islam and his pledge to fight ISIS, at home and abroad.
And we are right to fear ISIS here at home. We have had our fair share of incidents in the US of terrorists that have been inspired by, and sworn allegiance to, ISIS. The Orlando nightclub shooter called 911 during his tragic rampage in which 49 people were killed and 58 injured. As the 911 operator tried to understand what was going on, 29-year-old Omar Mateen identified himself as a “Mujahideen”, “Islamic Soldier”, and “Soldier of God”, and pledged his allegiance to ISIS multiple times.
However, while our fear here at home for ISIS attacks might be valid, it is easy to forget just how much more real the threat of the violent militant islamic group is abroad. As is always the case with Islamic terrorism, the much larger threat exists in the countries they are dominating and terrorizing each day. And not only that, but the individual victims they coerce or enslave to satisfy their sick desires.
I’m talking about the women of ISIS, the often neglected victims of their terror quest across the Middle East. As we shall see, ISIS is not only planning and orchestrating terrorist attacks and brutal domination of several unstable regions in the Middle East, but they also deal in the trade of human flesh: women and girls who are tortured daily by these godless men, and all in the name of Allah.
You often hear it argued that the biggest victims of Islamic terrorism are other Muslims, and it is true that the victims of terror attacks often include those in different sects as the perpetrators. It is certainly true that many of their violence is aimed at other Muslims, but they also aim a great deal of their violence on the women they take into their group as well.
You will hear over and over again that ISIS and terrorism have nothing to do with Islam. That Islam means “peace”, and that the “real” muslims condemn the acts of ISIS. However, despite what moderate Muslims and their leftist defenders try to tell us, ISIS is in fact fundamentally inspired by the Quran and the Islamic sources. They are often referred to as “radical” or “extremist” but in reality, the term “fundamentalist” is far more apt for the brand of Islam that ISIS adheres to.
Islamic apologists and their allies often defend the Quranic views of women, claiming that Muhammad was a champion of women’s rights, and that true Islam and Sharia law treat women very well. Many Muslim women claim that the violent subjugation of women that exists in Islamic majority countries is simply the result of bad interpretations of the Islamic texts, and that Islam is really a religion that regards women as equal.
While it is true that there are moderate Muslims the world over who do not rape, pillage, and kill in the name of Allah, beat their wives, marry children, or punish rape victims, the reality is that the reason Muslims are often the target of Islamic terror attacks is that they are not properly adhering to the teachings of the Prophet of Islam, according to the terrorists. They believe it is their duty to wage war against the “unbelievers and the hypocrites”, meaning, those who do not practice Islam, and those who claim to, but are too liberal in their interpretation of the Islamic teachings.
So just how authentic are the beliefs of ISIS and their treatment of women to the Quranic teachings?
David Wood, an expert on Islam and passionate apologist against its teachings, shares in his video, “Top Ten Quran Verses for Understanding ISIS”, how very much in line with the teachings of Islam the conquest of ISIS is.
Among the ten verses that explain how very fundamental ISIS’ actions are to the Muslim faith, is the verse Sura 4:24, which sets the stage for ISIS’ treatment of women:
“Also (forbidden are) women already married, except those (captives and slaves) whom your right hands possess. Thus has Allah ordained for you.”
While there are certain codes of conduct that would protect the sanctity of marriage in Islam, it is not actually considered adultery to sleep with or take as a wife any woman who you have captured or taken as a slave, regardless of whether or not she is already married. This not only excuses a man from regarding any woman he has captured as another man’s wife, but also directly condones sex slavery.
Radical Muslim feminist Linda Sarsour might spend a suspicious amount of time praising the treatment of women under Sharia law, but a simple examination of some of the key verses pertaining to women in the Quran and Muslim sources depict and attitude toward women that is anything but feminist. Women are clearly seen as property, and ISIS is quite obviously inspired by this.
Speaking of Linda Sarsour, she also gained quite a bit of criticism for her attack of a woman who is a survivor of female genital mutilation, a common practice in Muslim majority countries. Her now famous angry tweet read:
Brigitte Gabriel is an outspoken critic of Islam, and Ayaan Hirsi Ali is a survivor of female genital mutilation, which she experienced in Somalia as a young girl.
Female genital mutilation is a cultural norm in Muslim-majority North African countries, but it has recently been revealed that it is far closer to home than one might think.
One of the biggest reasons Americans oppose mass Muslim immigration, is not Islamophobia or racism, but a fear that these migrants might be unable, and unwilling, to assimilate to our culture as other immigrants have done in the past. And this concern has become a reality in recent months, as we are discovering just how many Muslim girls are being subject to this barbaric practice of genital mutilation here in the US.
The Daily Wire wrote recently that the CDC reports shockingly that as many as 513,000 girls and women, primarily in New York, Washington D.C. and Minneapolis are at risk of being subjected to the practice of genital mutilation or cutting. They report that this is “wholly a result of rapid growth in the number of immigrants from FGM/C-practicing countries living in the United States.” And virtually all of the countries they referred to were Muslim-majority countries.
You might have already heard of the case of the Michigan doctor who is being tried for performing genital mutilation on several girls as young as six years old. Fortunately, despite maniacs like Linda Sarsour physically threatening those who speak out against this disgusting practice, this doctor has been caught and will hopefully be sentenced.
But overseas, ISIS is getting away with much worse.
It is no secret that ISIS has targeted Christian communities for their campaign of violence and terror, and they take women and girls as their booty after killing the men and boys.
In August of 2014, thousands of Yadizi women and girls were taken captive by ISIS in the Sinjar region of Iraq. Survivors recount the brutal murder of their male family members. According to a UN report, ISIS “”gathered all the males older than 10 years of age at the local school, took them outside the village by pick-up trucks, and shot them.” The women and girls met a different fate.
They were loaded up onto trucks like cattle, kept in small holding cells, forced to convert to Islam, violently and repeatedly raped, and sold and traded as slaves. Some were even adorned with price tags and sold in open-air markets, and taken as personal slaves by ISIS fighters.
ISIS, bolstered by their ideological support of this brutal practice, proudly boasted of their acts in this region on their various web outlets including the English website Dabiq. They shamelessly justified the violence as “established aspects of Sharia, because they view Yazidis as heretics who should face conversion or die.” While many moderate Muslims reject this practice of slavery as abhorrent to Islam, ISIS sternly warns them, “”One should remember that enslaving the families of the kuffar — the infidels — and taking their women as concubines is a firmly established aspect of the Shariah, or Islamic law,” They even now use this terrifying human bounty to lure young men in to join their ranks, promising them “wives” and money.
And they are correct to use Islam to justify this brutal practice, as we have seen; the Quran clearly condones it. Last year, Newsweek reports, they even went as far as to publish a pamphlet on the treatment of female slaves, reassuring their soldiers that it is “it is “permissible” to have sexual intercourse with, beat and trade non-Muslim slaves, including young girls.”
Despite the constant denial from Muslim apologists, Islam does not regard women as equal to men, and in several different ways, blatantly condones this kind of treatment towards them. And not only for sex slaves, but even legitimate wives.
David Wood has an extensive amount of material on this topic as well, including his video “Three Quran Verses Every Woman Should Know”. Perhaps one of the most striking is the verse Quran 2:223, which explains that “Your wives are a tilth for you; so go to your tilth when and how you please”, as well as Quran 4:34, which permits a husband to beat a rebellious wife until she is obedient.
Women, particularly wives and sex slaves, are also not considered to be in charge of their own bodies. Sura 23:5-6 says:
[Most certainly true believers] . . . guard their private parts scrupulously, except with regard to their wives and those who are legally in their possession, for in that case they shall not be blameworthy.
To be clear, these verses add up to a clearly condoned view towards rape, of both wives and sex slaves. It is permissible to engage in intercourse with your wife whenever you like, and Muhammad was also sure to instruct women that they must submit to their husband’s desires regardless of what else they were doing, as well, according to one of the Hadiths.
So one can only imagine what life is like for these poor girls who are treated as sex slaves or forced to wed the violent ISIS soldiers.
Some join up by their own will, however, as is the sad case of two Austrian teenagers who ran away from home to “fight for Allah”, according to the note they left for their parents.
The two girls, Sabina Selimovic and Samra Kesinovic, attracted media attention in 2014 when they left the comfort and safety of their native Austria to join ISIS’ efforts in Syria. They were both the children of Bosnian immigrants who had fled the Bosnian War in the 90’s. Bosnians are predominantly Muslim, and it is speculated that the girls became radicalized after reading about jihad on the internet, and through the preaching at the mosque they attended in Vienna.
The two managed to get from Vienna to Raqqa, Syria, and joined up with the jihadis they idolized. At first, they became poster girls for ISIS. They donned full burkas and rifles in photos on social media, bragging of their commitment to Allah.
Over time, though, reality hit. The girls eventually feared imprisonment if they returned to Austria, but eventually, they wanted to come home regardless. They had been married to Chechen fighters, but ended up being sex slaves to new recruits. A Tunisian women who was kept in the same house as the girls, recounted how they would be passed around “like presents”.
In September of 2014, Selimovic was killed in combat, and for several months, Kesinovic was “lost”. However, it eventually came out that she had been beaten to death with a hammer for trying to escape ISIS’ grip.
This sad story stands as a sobering analogy for the way Western liberals defend Islam and try to separate it from ISIS. ISIS is the fundamental teachings of Islam fully embodied, and the fate these Austrian teenagers met simply goes to show how futile it is to try to explain away the verses that clearly outline a violent and oppressive attitude towards women.
From the captured Christian sex slaves to these idealistic young girls who met such a tragic fate, it is clear that the life of an ISIS bride is a brutal one, and the terror ISIS is committing against girls and women everywhere simply must be stopped.
