Preach Magazine Issue 3 - Preaching and the Holy Spirit | Page 55

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What’s the story?
The brutal Islamic fundamentalist
group Islamic State of Iraq and the
Levant (variously known as IS, ISIL
or ISIS) has continued a campaign of
almost unparalleled evil against the
people of Iraq, Syria and now Libya –
as a watching world struggles to know
how to intervene or respond.

What’s happening?
Jihadist group ISIS aims to create
a ‘caliphate’ – an Islamic State in
the Middle East, centring in Iraq. Its
horri fically violent methods, a mix of
widespread slaughter and abuse, and
the provocative murder of high-profile
hostages on camera, have met with
global disdain and outrage.
ISIS has existed for more than 15
years, but in the last year, its activities
have widened and accelerated quickly.
At first, reports suggesting the
group were barbarically executing
women and children were largely
dismissed as exaggeration, even when
they came from ‘Vicar of Baghdad’
Canon Andrew White. However,
when ISIS began posting videos of
their atrocities online, the watching
world realised it was facing an
unprecedented evil.
Many of these videos have involved
the unveiling, and subsequent
execution, of Western hostages; many
of them journalists and aid workers.
The brutality of these videos have
been matched by the stories and
images of whole villages destroyed by
the militants; the inhabitants killed in
the most inhumane ways, including
crucifixion.
The global community has begun
military action, but of course, ISIS is
a difficult enemy to fight, spread out
across the Middle East and hard to
track. Opinion is divided over the best
strategy to use, especially in the tense
context of the region, and countries
such as the US are wary of becoming
heavily embroiled in another ground
conflict so soon after withdrawing
troops from Afghanistan.
Meanwhile, ISIS seems to be turning
its focus increasingly on the Church.
As I write this, footage has just
emerged of the execution of 21

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Egyptian Christians – beheaded on
video with the caption ‘The People of
the Cross’. Like the rest of the world,
Christians watching in the West
feel powerless to respond, except in
prayer.

What have others been
saying?
ISIS expert Hassan Hassan tries to
explain why the atrocities committed
have been so extreme, writing in
the Guardian that there is a ‘brutal
logic’ behind the group’s unthinkable
barbarism. www.theguardian.com/
world/2015/feb/08/isis-islamic-stateideology-sharia-syria-iraq-jordanpilot
William Saletan, writing on Slate.com,
believes ISIS’ brutality is actua