ISLAMIC GROUP ENSLAVED YAZIDI WOMEN AND GIRLS

ISLAMIC STATE SEEKS TO JUSTIFY 
ENSLAVING YAZIDI WOMEN AND GIRLS

Arbil, Iraq (Reuters) - The Islamic State group said it enslaved families from the minority Yazidi sect after overrunning their villages in northwestern Iraq, in what it praised as the revival of an ancient custom of using women and children as spoils of war. In an article in its English-language online magazine Dabiq, the group provides what it says is religious justification for the enslavement of defeated “idolators”. 
The ancient custom of enslavement had fallen out of use because of deviation from true Islam, but was revived when fighters overran Yazidi villages in Iraq's Sinjar region. “After capture, the Yazidi women and children were then divided according to the Shariah amongst the fighters of the Islamic State who participated in the Sinjar operations, after one fifth of the slaves were transferred to the Islamic State's authority to be divided as khums,” it said.

Khums is a traditional tax on the spoils of war. “This large-scale enslavement of mushrik (idolator) families is probably the first since the abandonment of Shariah law,” it said. Islamic State practices a harsh form of Sunni Islam and has declared its leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi the ruler of the entire Muslim world. Mainstream Sunni scholars around the world have denounced the group and its interpretation of Islam. 
“One should remember that enslaving the families of the (non-believers) and taking their women as concubines is a firmly established aspect of the Shariah,” the article said. The group has hounded ethnic and religious minorities in northern Iraq since seizing the city of Mosul in June, killing and displacing thousands of Christians, Shi'ite Shabaks and Turkmen who lived for centuries in one of the most diverse parts of the Middle East. 

This news released by Reuters news agency, is about a Dabiq article on slavery that unfortunately confirms practices documented by Human Rights Watch, which says Yazidi women and girls were forced to marry Islamic State fighters and shipped out in busloads from Iraq to Syria to be sold off as prizes. Last week, Human Rights Watch said Islamic State was holding hundreds of Yazidis captive in both Iraq and Syria and that the group had systematically separated young women and teenage girls from their families, forcing some into marriage with fighters. The Dabiq article said fighters were reviving a practice of the companions of the Prophet Mohammad by enslaving enemies. “Enslaving women and forcing them to become wives reduces sin by protecting men from being tempted into adultery,” it said. Yazidis, who follow an ancient religion derived from Zoroastrianism, have faced some of the harshest penalties from Islamic State, which regards them as devil-worshippers. Many of the captives had “willingly” accepted Islam, the group said, “and now race to practice it with evident sincerity after their exit from the darkness of idolatry”. How terrible! A lot of cruelty in the name of religion. Cruelty acts toward women and innocent creatures causes great disturbances in the world. What is worse, when irresponsible men, under the guise of defending a religion, satisfy their uncontrolled desires by raping women and girls. A bonafide religion must teach that we are all spiritually related and, therefore, it should be very easy for believers to find similarities among the essential principles of all religions and ignore their differences. (Editor's note).

WHAT DO THE VEDIC TEACHINGS TELL US? 

Regardless of which religious system you choose, they all have the same purpose, and they all give the same principles. In this way, they are all united in their essential goals, the most important of which is to bring the living beings to the stage of cooperation in love of God. Obviously, our love for God will be shown by how much we cooperate with one another. Unfortunately, before we reach this advanced stage we are in the lower levels of understanding. This immature level of love can take on the characteristics of a blind and fanatical allegiance to a particular process of religious expression rather than attachment to real love for God. In this situation, one may proudly and unnecessarily feel that he is on the highest path, and then will denounce every other process and culture without the proper spiritual understanding of himself or others. This is nothing more than sentimentality and fanaticism. Real love of God, which also displays love for all other living beings, will not develop within a person if he or she harbors such a divisive mentality.

Dr Stephen Knapp (Śrīpad Nandanandana dasa) :
“Toward World Peace: Seeing the Unity Between Us All”
http://www.stephen-knapp.com/toward_world_peace_ebook.htm
http://www.stephen-knapp.com  -  http://www.stephenknapp.info/

Published by dasavatara das - “Vedic Views on World News”
http://www.vedicviews-worldnews.blogspot.com.ar/

MORE RACISM CLAIMS OVER PUPIL’S RED STRING

CHILDREN SUFFER RACIAL DISCRIMINATION
VERBAL ABUSE DUE TO WEARING RED STRINGS

Johannesburg (iol news) - Parents of several pupils at Parkdene Primary School in Boksburg assert their children have suffered racial discrimination and verbal abuse because they wore red strings around their wrists, as part of their Hindu religion. For years parents had been afraid to speak out, from fears of retaliation against their children. 
One third-grade boy's parents overcame that fear and objected to the principal, claiming his music teacher had shouted racial and derogatory slurs at him because he was wearing a red string around his wrist which is used by Hindus before the beginning of religious ceremonies and is part of their culture. They claim their son was ordered to take off the string and called a “coolie” several times in front of his classmates by his teacher - a racism hell that this student has endured since Grade 1, when that teacher first noticed the string and ordered him to remove it. But despite several such complaints, nothing had been done. The parents were told their son should wear a jersey to hide the red string. 

Desperate to get help for their son, who has been refusing to go to school, the couple took the matter to Gauteng Education MEC Barbara Creecy. The department is now investigating the matter. Other parents have since come forward, saying the problem has persisted for over two years, and other children are being threatened and verbally abused by the same teacher - the only teacher in the school that has a problem with the red string. The principal apologized to the parents, saying the matter had been sorted out and the pupil could wear his red string; he would not have to cover it with a jersey. 
But this response, coming only after intervention by authorities, does not satisfy the angry parents, who say he is not fit to be a principal, nobody using abusive language and name-calling should be allowed to teach, and no child should be made to hide his cultural or traditional beliefs.

Authorities from South African Department of Education are investigating alleged racial and religious discrimination at a Primary School in Boksburg, near Johannesburg. This follows complaints against a teacher who has been accused of harassing a Grade 3 pupil for wearing the sacred Hindu red string (Mauli or Kavlava) around his wrist. Only after the authorities' intervention the principal apologised for the discrimination the child has had to endure. One of parent wrote in an e-mail, “I know full well that this issue has been ongoing for over two years and many parents at this school did not come forward because they are scared of their children being victimised. Why must a child be made to hide his cultural or traditional beliefs? This teacher has no traditional values.” Social Sectarianism should have no place in modern societies.

WHAT DO THE VEDIC TEACHINGS TELL US? 

It is fashionable in modern secular societies to regard sacred literature as the mythological musings of undeveloped people. Schools teach that with our current understanding of physics, medicine, psychology, democracy, and so on, we have little use for such writings except as literary art. Those who take scripture literally are pegged with pejorative terms such as “fundamentalists.” ... Certainly it is true that many stories in sacred writings seem fantastic to our scientific world. But many current technological wonders seemed fictional and implausible only a few decades ago. It is not, therefore, implausible that former societies could have had abilities and expertise unavailable today. ... Also, if a “religious” system claims that other genuine methods and scriptures are sinful, it should be abandoned as small-minded sectarianism.

Śrīmati Urmila devi dasi :
“Esteem for Sacred Writings”
http://urmila.me.uk/
http://www.krishna.com/esteem-sacred-writings

Published by dasavatara das - "Vedic Views on World News"
http://www.vedicviews-worldnews.blogspot.com.ar/