A new report from the United Nations human rights division claims the Islamic State (ISIS/ISIL) may have committed genocide and war crimes as they attempt to establish a caliphate through the Middle East.
The UN sent investigators to Syria and Iraq last year after the terrorist group started to pummel through Syria. The evidence they found since last June led them to believe the abuses “may amount to war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide.”
Oerwhelmingly, evidence surfacing throughout the past year proves the Islamic State is guilty of war crimes and genocide. The press release from the United Nations listed the numerous crimes, only reaching the conclusion that there is a possibility that the Islamic State’s overt attempts to render Yazidis, Christians, Shiite Muslims, and anyone opposing the caliphate extinct amount to genocide. Here are only a few examples of war crimes and genocide committed by the radical Islamic group:
- In Syria and Iraq, militants targeted the Yazidis, a minority religious group. The Islamic State considers them “devil worshippers.” They slaughtered men and boys who refused to convert to Islam. In one area, the militants buried over 500 people alive and kidnapped the females. These girls, as young as elementary school age, are forced to be sex slaves. One young Yazidi girl even told the West to bomb the brothel she lived at because the women are raped and brutalized incessantly.
- The Islamic State also released videos of mass executions. In the fall, videos showed the executioner known as “Jihadi John” beheading numerous journalists and aid workers. In February, the group released a video of militants beheading 21 Egyptian Coptic Christians on a beach where the speaker proclaimed the group will conquer Rome. A week later, the terrorist group abducted over 90 Assyrian Christians in Tal Tamr.
- In November, Human Rights Watch released a report of numerous abuses and crimes against humanity towards the Kurds in Syria and Iraq. In one incident, the terrorists kidnapped over 153 boys in May in Kobane. In another attack, witnesses claimed the militants beheaded young children.
- One of the worst crimes committed by the Islamic State is the execution of Jordanian pilot Mu’ath al-Kaseasbeh in February. The terrorists placed him in a cage, doused him with gasoline, and burned him alive.
The Islamic State implements strict Sharia Law within their caliphate. Women must be covered head to toe, clothes must not hug the body, and they cannot wear perfume. A woman must be accompanied with a male guardian at all times. Militants stoned a woman to death in Syria for adultery. The terrorists also murdered 150 women simply because they refused to marry or perform sexual acts with the men. An Islamic State “court” ruled girls as young as 9-years-old are allowed to marry.
Militants captured Mosul, Iraq’s second largest city, in June. Christians and Muslims lived together in peace for over 2,000 years there until the radical Islamists took over. The terrorists told Christians to pay a protection tax (jizya), convert to Islam, or leave. The majority chose to flee the city. The letter “N” for Nasrani (“Nazarene”) was painted on Christian buildings and homes.
The Islamic State is also destroying shrines, tombs, and libraries, some of these even dear to Muslims. After they took Mosul, they destroyed Jonah’s shrine and all the Christian institutions. Militants recently destroyed UNESCO Heritage Sites Hatra and Nimrud along with Khorsabad. UNESCO Head Irina Bokova said the destruction of these places are war crimes.
What more does the terrorist group have to do in order for the United Nations to remove the “may” and fully declare the group committed genocide?