ISIS’ Clearly Definable Genocide in Iraq
How long are we expected to delude ourselves before we acknowledge the truth of what ISIS is doing?
“There
had been public meetings in England, protests, petitions, letters – the
whole machinery of democratic expression had been set in motion to
impress upon the British government the need for action – and not a
thing was done. Everyone was sympathetic – but no one was sympathetic
enough. The British had let some few Jews in, and then closed their
doors. America hadn’t cared enough, either. No one had cared enough.
The world closed its doors and six million Jews were slaughtered.” – Chaim Potok, The Chosen
This haunting passage from Potok’s masterful work is eerily similar
to a situation unfolding today: the systematic murder and enslavement of
Christians, Muslims, and Yazidis by the Islamic State of Iraq and
al-Sham (ISIS), and the apathetic, often anemic Western response to this
genocide – for it truly is a genocide.
What Constitutes A Genocide
A genocide “means any of the following acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group” including “killing members of the group.” ISIS systematically targets Christians, Yazidis, and other Muslims. There have been many reports of Christians, including children, being executed for refusing to convert to Islam. Yazidis have been systematically killed and buried (some buried alive) in mass graves. As of April 2015, ISIS’ bloody conquests have led to almost 15,000 civilian deaths – and, a significant number of these deaths appear to be motivated be ISIS’ desire to eliminate other religious groups.
The exact number of women and children who have been exploited is unknown, but the number appears to be in the thousands.
In addition, the insurgency’s kidnapping and subsequent brainwashing
of children clearly fits the 1948 Genocide Convention’s “child
transference” clause. ISIS repeatedly and systematically kidnaps
children from Yazidi and Christian families and subjects them to
intimidation, brainwashing, and forced conversions in order to
radicalize and train the next generation of insurgent fighters. Recent
reports from Iraq have shown abducted Yazidi children forced to behead dolls as part of their “re-education.”
Section C of Article II also stipulates “deliberately inflicting upon
the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical
destruction in whole or in part” is an act of genocide. How could the
order to “convert, pay, leave, or die” not fit this description? ISIS
has precipitated the worst multinational refugee crisis since the Second
World War.
There are an estimated 4 million internally displaced
persons wandering Iraq and living in refugee camps – many with nowhere
to go due to ongoing warfare.
Finally, one of the largest determinants in international law regarding a declaration or ruling of genocide is proof of the intent to commit genocide. This was the hinge-point in International Criminal Court rulings on recent cases such as Bosnia,
Sudan and Rwanda. Simply put, the group accused of genocide must have
shown clear intent to destroy the afflicted group(s) in order for their
crimes against humanity or war crimes to be recognized as genocide.
The Apocalyptic Ideology Fueling ISIS
The intent to destroy other groups who do not conform to its view of “pure” Islam is clear from the group’s official documents and publications, as well as the public statements of “caliph” Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi. Baghdadi is heavily influenced by the “intellectual godfather” of radical Islam, Sayyid Qutb. Qutb asserts that it is the imperative of Muslims everywhere to topple every government that is not based on a strict, medieval form of Sharia Law. This is part of an apocalyptic ideology meant to impose a cosmological order, in which the culmination of Allah’s view for the world is fully realized.
Put simply: every execution, every raid, every mass grave is born out of a pre-modern, non-secular desire to bring about the apocalypse.
How long are we expected to delude ourselves before we acknowledge the truth of what ISIS is doing?
Furthermore, while previous perpetrators of genocide often tried to
cover up their actions, ISIS has proudly advertised its atrocities. A
quick scan of the group’s social media campaign clearly illustrates
this. No one today can claim that they are ignorant of the systematic
destruction of human life and religious freedom occurring in the Middle
East at the hands of ISIS. Yet the United States and United Nations have
both fallen short of officially declaring genocide in the region.
How dare anyone say that the death of “only” a few thousand people
(and the displacement of millions more) does not merit international
indignation and action? Just how many would it take? Thirty-thousand?
Fifty-thousand? Three million?
How long are we expected to delude ourselves before we acknowledge the truth of what ISIS is doing?
Why The International Community Should Intervene
When genocide was taking place in Darfur, the United States took a firm moral stand on behalf of those who needed the protection of the international community. Secretary of State Colin Powell realized the necessity of not only an official declaration of genocide, but immediate action and assistance. In testimony before the Senate Relations Committee, he said, “These people [in Darfur] are in desperate need and we must help them. Call it civil war, call it ethnic cleansing; call it genocide; call it ‘none of the above.’ The reality is the same. There are people in Darfur who desperately need the help of the international community.”
How can an ongoing genocide not warrant the assistance of the international community?
Now, as then, there are people who need the international community to take quick and decisive action.
Yet we are repeating the callous indifference of our forebears by
failing to recognize this slaughter of innocent lives for what it is.
Put simply, it is genocide. How can an ongoing genocide not warrant the
assistance of the international community? Are we afraid that it might
be too difficult or complicated to intervene? Will we acknowledge the
nature of ISIS, and the true end of their ideology? Will the world
continue to stand idly by until “enough” people have been killed? Must
we submit the dictates of our conscience to some unspoken and unknown
quota?
Just as in Darfur, the international community must realize that
these people are in dire need of help. It is imperative that the
international community declare the atrocities of ISIS are a genocide,
and immediately act to stop them before vulnerable people living on the
edge of extinction are completely eradicated.
Photo shutterstock
Virginia Davison is a graduate student in clinical mental health counseling.
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