ISIS Rising
If you take the goal of the Caliphate out of Islam, there is no more point to it. It's like taking Jesus’ death and resurrection out of Christianity.
You can listen to me read this essay here:
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In Syrian detention camps, an army of ISIS jihadists wait to rise again. What Trump decides to do about US troops in Syria could determine whether or not that happens.
ISIS was never vanquished. It has been somewhat contained. For any true Muslim, ISIS is simply obeying the command of Allah to build the Caliphate. Yes, I say Muslim, not Islamist, radical, extremist, it’s time to stop sugarcoating the truth. To be a Muslim means to fully support the Caliphate. Not every Muslim needs to be a Caliphate fighter, but every Muslim needs to support the Caliphate. Anyone who denies this or tries to say, “Oh come on, you can be a moderate Muslim, there’s lots of them around the world,” is fooling themselves.
Islam is NOT a religion of peace. It is a death cult that demands the death of every Jew and Christian and every other infidel on the planet in order to establish the worldwide Caliphate. Any Muslim who denies this might as well start calling themselves something else because they are not a true Muslim.
One of the biggest problems in the West is that we keep making excuses for Islam. We say, Islam just needs to catch up with the 21st century, it needs to be “modernized” like Christianity has been.
If Islam were to be modernized, it would cease to be Islam. If you were to take the goal of the Caliphate out of Islam, there would be no more point to it. Islam would cease to exist. It would be like taking Jesus’ death and resurrection out of Christianity. The entire reason for being a Christian would disappear.
Islam cannot be modernized. And being a Christian has nothing to do with modernizing Christianity. If anything, Christians need to RETURN to the essence of their faith. We need to go back to Jesus’ simple teachings of love, peace, self-sacrifice, as was shown perfectly in the film of the 21 Coptic Christians, murdered by ISIS because they refused to deny their faith. (And no, this doesn’t mean you are a push over and you cannot fight for your homeland and such, I always have to add that).
But when it comes to faith, there is no clearer example of the difference between Islam and Christianity than those ISIS demons standing above the kneeling Christians. Who was courageous and strong—those on the ground or those above? We all know the answer and we can all see it is a spiritual strength and is profound and beyond our understanding.
But in our modern world, this is not how we view success. We now look to billionaires and almost worship them as if they will somehow save us. They will not.
Here is an excerpt from a very good article explaining the dangers we face in Syria with the resurgence of ISIS.
ISIS has an army in waiting — and Trump's next move could decide whether it rises again
By Richard Engel, Marc Smith and Ammar Cheikh Omar
HASAKAH, Syria — In a network of prisons and detention camps across northeastern Syria, the Islamic State militant group has an army in waiting, and fanatical support for its brutal regime lives on.
For now, the prisons and camps are guarded by the American-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), a Kurdish-led fighting force that battled alongside the U.S. military to destroy ISIS’ so-called caliphate.
The Islamist group’s radical ideology was never fully defeated, and after the ouster of longtime Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad late last year, as well as the arrival of a new administration in Washington, some are fearful that ISIS could be unleashed on the world once again.
Even more dangerous than the men’s prisons, is the sprawling Al Hol Camp — home to around 40,000 people, 93% of whom are women and children.
Many of them are the families of ISIS fighters and SDF officials said the camp was considered a breeding ground for the next generation of militants.
“A mindset of radicalism is instilled in the residents,” said Jihan Hanan, Al Hol’s director. “They are only becoming more extreme.”
Inside the camp, in a section dubbed The Annex, the wives of foreign ISIS fighters and their children are held, around 6,000 people from 51 countries. Many of their governments have shown little or no interest in repatriating them in the six or so years they have languished in the camp.
Considered by the SDF to hold the most extreme residents in the whole camp, The Annex is fenced off from the rest of the facility, with guard posts standing at the exit.
Inside, wild dogs pick through piles of garbage, near trash-strewn muddy pathways and open sewers.
Women gather together, all fully covered in the Islamic niqab, as hundreds of young children from strikingly diverse ethnic backgrounds wander through the squalor. There is little electricity or running water, and their patchwork plastic tents offer meager protection against Syria’s winter chill.
In another part of The Annex kids chant “Allahu Akbar,” Arabic for “God is great,” while raising a single finger in the air, a trademark of ISIS. After hurling vulgar insults and threatening violence, they start to throw stones.
Once these children get old enough, they are taken from their mothers and transferred to the men’s prisons. All they have known is suffering and indoctrination in hate.
They are the next generation of ISIS fighters, and their resolve will be even stronger than their predecessors.
Trump has indicated that he wants to withdraw the 2,000 U.S. troops that remain in Syria. These are elite units with vast experience fighting ISIS.
Hanan, Al Hol’s director, has said this would be a disaster and would leave room for resurgence of ISIS.
“On our own, we could manage the camp for a month or maybe two,” Hanan said. “But then, who knows what would happen.”
Please watch the 15-minute film below, about the camps in Syria. In the beginning, one of the top ISIS leaders tells the journalist Hind Hassan that ISIS will never stop. He then explains the woman’s role as the teacher of the children.
It hits you hard how committed they are to their cause. How they live and breathe it on every level. They are as committed to evil as the 21 Christian martyrs were to good. How many of us are that committed?
At the end of the video, Hassan asks some children what the flag is that she sees.
The children say, whose flag do you think it is?
Hassan: The ISIS flag
Children yell at her: It’s not ISIS, it’s called the Islamic State. You call it ISIS.
Hassan: Where are you from originally? What is your origin, Syrian, Iraqi?
Children: We are not Syrian or Iraqi. We are from the Islamic State.
Hassan: Do you think the Islamic State will be back?
Children: Yes, we will be back. Yes, God willing.
Hassan: And who will bring it back?
Children: We will bring it back on our own. The Islamic State kills people who don’t pray, and go out without veils.
Hassan: But I’m not wearing a veil.
Children: The Islamic State. That’s just God’s law.
Hassan asks a child: Would you accept if someone kills me?
Children: Yes, I accept it.
Hassan: That breaks my heart. I’m a person, you’re a person. How can that be?
Child: If you don’t cover, I won’t accept.
Hassan: When you get out of this camp, what will you do? What do you want to do?
Children: God willing, the Islamic State will be, and only God knows.
Hassan: The Islamic State?
Children: Yes, and the sons of Islam.
Hassan: What are you going to do? Fight people?
Children: Kill.
Hassan: You’re going to kill?
Children: Yes. The Islamic State will remain until Judgment Day.
At the end, they hold up their index finger which means One God.
That gave me chills because I remember back in the 1970s during the Jesus Movement, Christians would do the same, raising an index finger to the heavens, meaning One Way. The only way to heaven is through Jesus.
It’s easy for people to say, see, there’s no difference, all religion is evil! But once again, I must reiterate that this has nothing to do with religion. Islam is an evil cult of Satan. This is spiritual warfare. It has nothing to do with a building, it isn’t even just about ISIS, it goes way beyond that. ISIS is just one manifestation of the evil that rules this world.
Christianity is not a church or a denomination. The 21 martyrs who died at the hands of ISIS were Coptic, but they could just as well have been Protestant, Catholic. When all the trappings are stripped away, you are left with Jesus and his love for you and your faith in his promises. Christians do not curse their tormentors. They do not try to take as many innocent lives with them when they die. They give up their lives rather than deny their faith. On the cross, Jesus forgave the sins of the man dying next to him and promised that “this day you will see me in paradise.” He didn’t say anything about 72 virgins.
At the end, when their throats were about to be cut, the 21 martyrs said, “I forgive you.”
Muslim martyrs cry “Allah is Great” as they kill as many people as possible.
What happens when the prison walls can no longer contain the hate that is growing inside. The United States is the most powerful country in the world, now more than ever under President Trump, and whether we like it or not, we are involved in the fate of the rest of the world. What we do or don’t do affects everyone. The decision Trump makes could well determine whether ISIS is unleashed upon humanity once again.
We can tell them, and convince them. When we try, some ways will be more effective than others. We are in a vast spiritual war, and until the judgments in Revelation are fulfilled, we can and are commanded to win as many spiritual battles as we can. As Christians we are trying to bring life even to those whose mission is death. We have truth and love available as our weapons, and must not yield to despair.
The U.S. should get out of Syria, and most (perhaps all) of the Middle East. Will that lead to an increase in the numbers and power of ISIS? Maybe, maybe not...either way it's too late. Whatever damage the U.S. has done with all these wars, both overt and covert, Muslims hate us and will pursue revenge all the days of their lives...as this article clearly illustrates. Staying longer will not change that. It's a spiritual war, not a physical one. Let them fight among themselves, as they always have. They want to "convert" the entire world to Islam (allegedly) via the Caliphate, but prefer killing all non-Muslims, Jew first, then Christians (Gentiles) probably in that order. We need to defend ourselves yes, from a position of strength and prepare for that. Because it's not slowing down -- just look at much of Western Europe. It will be majority Muslim, and in some parts already is.