The Threat of ISIS

" As for yourselves, beware; for they will hand you over to councils; and you will be beaten in synagogues; and you will stand before governors and kings because of me. . . Brother will betray brother to death, and a father his child, and children will rise against parents and have them put to death; and they will be hated by all because of my name." --[Mark 13:13].


Every Christian knows, or should know, the account of the persecution of Christians. The persecution of Christians essentially began with the Crucifixion of Jesus.

In c. 64 A.D. , the first Christian martyr, St. Stephen, a deacon in the Early Church, was stoned to death for blasphemy, for following Christ.

During the time of the Roman Emperor, Nero, beginning around 64 A.D.,  there was a Great Fire in Rome that destroyed a large part of the city. Without any clear evidence, Nero blamed the Christians for the conflagration. Thus, systematic persecution began. Historical reports state that the Roman Emperor ran out of crosses, and so, Christians were nailed to the walls of Rome.

The Catholic Transcript, September, 2014, contained an Editorial titled, "Nero Redux". This strongly worded piece states: "All through history, Christianity has been the target of intense hatred and violence by those who claim superiority and lordship. Of the Emperor Nero's reign, historian Henri Daniel-Rops wrote, 'It is not enough merely to torture, behead or crucify the victims in Nero's Circus . . ' but, . . 'Christians were sewn into animal skins and then torn to pieces by the emperor's mastiffs.' And along the avenues, where Nero was promenading, 'torches coated with pitch ands resin' were raised aloft, the 'torches' being living human beings.' " This description rivals oral histories of the Nazis fashioning lampshades out of the skins of murdered Jews.

If this does not bring you to tears, it should. . .

Pope Emeritus has called Christians, "the most persecuted people in the modern world. We are everywhere lost and foreign." -[Rome, Feb. 9, 2013.]

Persecution of Christians continues today, in many countries. In North Korea recently, a family was found to be hoarding a Bible in a tree outside their home. Pursuant to statute, four generations of the family were executed.

Look around the world, and you will see the threat of violent overthrow of Christians, and violent imposition of radical Islamists in many countries.

The United States military entered Iraq in 2003, for the second time in modern times, to overthrow Saddam Hussein. We found NO weapons of mass destruction. But what we did find was shocking -- an extensive secret police, torture chambers.

The U.S. exited in 2011, tired of the war and the casualties. Only the most hardened of men from Al Qaeda survived, some 50 men.

I recently attended a talk by Dexter Filkins, Pulitzer Prize winning journalist, and former correspondent for the The York Times. He was in Afghanistan for much of the military operations there. This year, he was in Iraq three times.

According to Mr. Filkins, what is left of Al Qaeda, some fifty men, became 30,000 men strong--- as ISIS. The Al Qaeda men fled into Syria. Al Qaeda became ISIS.  Mr. Filkins calls ISIS "a franchise, like McDonalds".

And ISIS is spreading. Filkins calls it a "cancer". ISIS now controls swathes of territory on the East of Syria, and on the West of  Iraq. They call this territory "The Islamic State of Iraq and Syria" (ISIS). Everyone knows the reports of Christian children being beheaded in front of  their parents, by ISIS.

ISIS is reportedly entering India. And is in Turkey, where the ISIS "franchise" is called Jabhat-al-Nusra and aurar al-Sham.

How are these instances of brutal persecution any different from the violent kidnapping of almost 300 Nigerian girls by Boko Haram, who have forcibly married these girls off to Muslims, and converted these girls to Islam?

How is it any different than what has been happening in Sudan? In 1883, the British were colonizers in Sudan, bringing Christianity to its people. But, in 1881, Muhammad Ahmad proclaimed that he was the Mahdi, the "messianic redeemer of Islam"; and he sought to violently impose Shari'a -- radical Islamic beliefs. In 1883, the British were in Khartoum, North Sudan trying to exit Sudan, and evacuate foreigners, when they were attacked by the Mahdi's. In 1884, British General Gordon was beheaded, and his head displayed in a tree for people to mock and throw stones at.

For many years, al Qaeda has been in Sudan! Osama bin Laden, (recognized as the founder of Al Qaeda), was born in Saudi Arabi, and was banished from that country in 1992. He set up his first base in Sudan, in that year, before moving to Afghanistan in 1996!

Almost everyone knows the story of how the National Islamic Front, allied with the Sudanese tribe of Maram, have persecuted and killed Christians, particularly in South Sudan. (See the compelling post on the story of "The Lost Boys of Sudan", Nov. 13, 2013.)

The "Lost Boys", whom I profiled and met for that story, are still fighting to help the village that they left behind. There has been a drought in the area, and food is in short supply. Water is contaminated. There is no school for the children. Basic medical supplies are lacking. There is a very real cost to Christianity in these countries, which lack the sanitation, the infrastructure, the education that we take for granted in the West.

Where is the will and the resolve to help Christians in all these countries? President Obama has authorized aerial bombings of ISIS in Iraq and Syria. But without ground forces to conduct intelligence and point out verified ISIS targets, how effective will that effort be?

In the last day or so, Obama has authorized 1,500 U.S. ground troops to return to Iraq, in order to train forces to deal with ISIS. That is a start, but it seems that our strategy is to merely contain ISIS. And even that is not going very effectively, as ISIS spreads to other countries.

We need to, first, pray for our fellow Christians all over the world who are persecuted.

We also need to become more aware of the modern-day persecution of Christians. We need to educate ourselves! By our Christian Baptism, we are all one family. By our communion as one family, when one of us is hurt, we all suffer.

The Catholic Transcript, September 2014, reports that, in an urgent letter to the United Nations, "Pope Francis has pleaded on behalf of all Christians and Yazidis (religious of the Iraqi Kurds), as well as Shia Muslims, who have been violently driven out of their homes in Northern Iraq. Their fate awakens the soul of all men and women of good will to concrete acts of solidarity."

What can you or your parish do? My parish has donated a well to these Lost Boys' village. The children who were dying because of unclean water, can now live! More donations of over- the- counter medicines, and school supplies and curriculum, are being donated to that village.

Pope Francis says, "Extremists around the world are perverting religion to justify violence." -(Sept.21, 2014).

"We must all be alert, prepared and courageous. Our struggle, after all, is not with the powers of this world, but with the principalities and dominions of eternal darkness." - The Catholic Transcript, Sept. 2014.

[Related Postings: "The Lost Boys",  November 13, 2013.]

(c) Spiritual Devotional 2014. All Rights Reserved.