Yazidi in Iraq. Telegraph/AP.
ISIS has executed at least 300 Yazidi hostages in Iraq. Telegraph/AFP. The captives were shot and killed just outside of the city of Mosul. The victims included women, children and the elderly. ISIS still has control of 3000 Yazidi captives. Many of those captives are women who have been enslaved and sexually assaulted. Tens of thousands of Yazidis fled from ISIS last year during their offensive at Sinjar, a major Yazidi city. Though ISIS has been pushed back, many Yazidi have not returned. In the past ISIS has released some groups of elderly and sick Yazidi in the past so it is unclear why they killed this group. ISIS considers the Yazidis to be apostates deserving of death.
My Comment:
Yet another atrocity by ISIS. Oddly, this one doesn't seem to be getting much coverage in the states. I sometimes choose to use British sources for my blog posts but this time I pretty much had too. I guess the American media are too busy paying attention to Baltimore and, perversely, covering the birth of Prince William's daughter. There is something very wrong with the worlds priorities.
As for ISIS, I'm not sure why they are doing this. In the past ISIS has released the elderly and sick and enslaved the women. The reason they let the elderly go is because they were too much trouble to take care off. Back then I asked, why didn't they just shoot them? I mean they hate the Yazidi and want them to die. So it made no sense for me that they would just let them go. This new action is much closer to what I expected.
The fate of the Yazidi have largely left the public consciousness. Last year the treatment of the Yazidi was a major factor for why the United States began airstrikes in Iraq and Syria. The plight of thousands of people, trapped on a mountain and in danger of being wiped out captivated the world. Sinjar was liberated awhile ago and the people trapped in the mountains were rescued, but there are still thousands of Yazidis held by ISIS.
You would think that their plight would inspire more outrage. Especially the treatment of women. I've often said that ISIS is an actual rape culture. Given how rape is routinely covered and complained about in the United States, which isn't anywhere near a culture where rape is accepted, you would think that there would be more widespread condemnation of ISIS. After all they literally condone rape for people they consider apostates. Nobody, except the most dedicated of trolls, in the United States argue in favor of rape.
There is a very interesting dynamic in play here that has a lot more to do with ingroup and outgroup dynamics then anything else. Normally people on the left, especially feminists and other social justice advocates, condemn rape and support woman's rights. They also bend over backwards for Muslims and consider them to be as an approved member of the oppressed. Since ISIS are members of an oppressed group, their actions will either be ignored or downplayed because to criticize them would be further oppressing them. Even though they are targeting another oppressed group.
After all, criticizing Islam, even radical Islam like ISIS, is a strong marker of being conservative. Not that this behavior is limited to leftists, but in this case it is especially confusing. After all, ISIS is pretty much what the left considers the right to be anyways. After all, the main liberal strawman argument on conservatives is that they want to get rid of woman's rights, are intolerant of people that practice other religions and want to murder gay people. ISIS is the conservative strawman come to life yet they receive very little condemnation from leftists.
Ingroup/outgroup dynamics are incredibly powerful. And they can lead to strange results like this...
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