The Birth of a New Islamic State and Slavery

By Musa Aziz

Who would have thought that in 2014 there are women being sold for as little as $10? If you haven’t been too busy with the news on Gaza you might have heard that it actually happens every day in the Middle-east. Yazidi Kurd, Assyrian and Christian girls are being captured, enslaved, raped and sold openly in Mosul, now the de facto capital of the Islamic State.

The dramatic rise of the Islamic State and the declaration of the Caliphate might not seem as shocking to people who have no idea what it really intends to do than to the people who are facing them in Iraq, Syria and Kurdistan. Christians are being labelled and then coerced to pay taxes, accept Islam or die in cold blood. The same is happening to the Yazidi Kurds, who follow an offshoot of Zoroastrianism (or an independent religion linked to Zoroastrianism). Hundreds of Yazidi men were captured and massacred in one day and their women and girls raped and enslaved. Many of them spent weeks on the mountain of Sinjar without water and food till they were rescued by the Pishmarga Kurdish forces. Twelve-year old girls had to take arms and fight for their honour, for their freedom and for humanity.

What is frustrating and most bothering is that there is no voice of condemnation from the so-called Muslim world; all one hears is the statements released which acknowledges IS (Islamic State) as a non-Islamic group and that religion has no role to play in the conflict. Why is it very important to clear the image of Islam than to condemn the atrocities? Why doesn’t the murder of Non-Muslims by Muslims cause an outrage in the Muslim world? Why is it that they believe IS is created by Israel (though they fail to provide any evidence/fact)?

There are more questions; Does not the Islamic State call itself the saviour of Muslims? Did not it establish an Islamic Caliphate? Aren’t their members and fighters Muslims? Aren’t they fighting under the banner of Islam? Aren’t they asking for an Islamic law? So what makes you think that you are more of a Muslim than they are? What makes you think that what they are doing is any different than the founders of Islam did?

I wonder if I could find answers to these questions…but I only wonder.

P.S. I condemn slavery from the bottom of my heart and I despise anybody who condones it or even tries to debate the legitimacy of its existence.

Author Biography

Musa Aziz, is a DAAD (German Academic Exchange Service) fellow and holds a Master from University of Erfurt – Willy Brandt School of Public Policy in Germany. Before starting his MPP degree at the Willy Brandt School, Musa completed an accredited certification in Good Governance Afghanistan from the same institution.

He has worked with different governmental and non-governmental organizations for over three years. Throughout his academic and professional career, Musa particularly focused on poverty reduction, economic development, human rights, education, peace-building and conflict resolution.  His research interests are contemporary political issues and political discourses in South Asia and Middle East.

You can find him on his Website

*Cover image ‘Freedom go to hell ‘ by SS&SS