Jihadist group imposes rules of submission on Raqqa Christians

[Sally]

This is what happens when you get the radical Muslims in charge.

» 02/27/2014 10:58

SYRIA
Jihadist group imposes rules of submission on Raqqa Christians
by Paul Dakiki

Payment of "protection” fee, ban on Christian signs and restoration of churches and monasteries. The group "Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant" accused by other Damascus opponents of playing into the hands of Assad. An ultimatum of five days.

Beirut ( AsiaNews) - A jihadist group linked to al -Qaeda has released a set of rules of submission for Christians of Raqqa. These include a protection fee, the order to practice their faith in the privacy of their homes and a ban on wearing any obvious sign of Christianity.

The rules (termed "Agreement") were drawn up and are being imposed by members of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), a group linked to al- Qaeda in Iraq and which aims to create a single caliphate that spans the Middle East, North Africa, Andalusia and southern Italy, the ancient Arab and Islamic lands.

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SYRIA Jihadist group imposes rules of submission on Raqqa Christians - Asia News

 

[aris2chat]

more attacks on christians
add to the long list of religious genocide, purification

 

[waltky]

`Do sumpin', even if it's wrong' policy may not work...

How The US Is Setting Itself Up To Botch The Battle For Raqqa
US officials are beginning to talk about the push to seize ISIS's capital in Syria, but Turkey and the Syrian Kurds they consider rivals have the potential to complicate matters.

Turkey and the Syrian Kurds they consider rivals are pursuing dueling efforts to take back the ISIS capital of Raqqa, potentially complicating an urgent US push to deny safe haven to fighters escaping from Iraq. What’s more, the US appears to be backing both its NATO partner Turkey and the Kurds as they gather potentially clashing forces to dislodge ISIS from the headquarters of its self-declared caliphate. US Secretary of Defense Ash Carter on Wednesday described an urgent need to take back Raqqa to stave off shelter for retreating fighters and sabotage plans for jihadi operations abroad as the group loses territory to Iraqi forces around Mosul.

The need to take on ISIS in Raqqa once again finds the US struggling to accommodate deep rivalries within the coalition of forces fighting ISIS. Despite the Syrian Kurds’ partnership with the US, Turkey is hostile to the group, which is led and dominated by offshoots of the Kurdistan Workers Party, or PKK, the Kurdish militant group listed as a terrorist organization by Ankara, the US and EU. The Syrian Kurds, operating under an amalgam of Kurdish and Arab militias called the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), are eager to move on the city. Backed by US air power, they have repeatedly beaten ISIS on the battlefield, including in the northern Syrian cities of Kobane and Manbij. The SDF currently holds positions just 16 miles from Raqqa. Over the last few weeks, Syrian Kurds have sent envoys to Western capitals to muster up support for their plans to take control of Raqqa. “In recent months, there have been great mobilization efforts and you’ve seen much more rallying around the point of taking back Raqqa,” said Hatev Rojan, a Denmark-based researcher with close contacts among Syria’s Kurds.

The major component of the SDF is the People’s Protection Units, or YPG, which is considered a terrorist organization by Turkey. But the US has said the SDF is key to denying the jihadi group any sanctuary in Raqqa. “The only force that is capable on any near frame — near-term timeline is — are the Syrian Democratic Forces, of which the YPG are a significant portion,” Lt. Gen. Stephen Townsend, commander of US-led operations against ISIS in Iraq and Syria, told reporters Wednesday. Turkey this month began a discrete US-backed effort to recruit and train Syrian Arabs to take on ISIS in Raqqa. A source close to the Syrian rebels told BuzzFeed News that Turkish armed forces are assembling and training a group of Syrian fighters near the southeastern Turkish city of Sanliurfa.

Two Syrian rebel commanders said they have begun creating special units devoted to the Raqqa operation — one of them is called “Peninsula Shield,” meant to fight ISIS in Raqqa as well as the the oil-rich area of Syria’s northwest. Syrian rebels have repeatedly fought and defeated ISIS since it broke from the rest of the armed uprising against Bashar al-Assad in early 2014, including most recently in the town of Dabiq. “We started training Free Syrian Army fighters in Turkey three weeks ago,” said Haytham Ofaisi, commander of Brigade 51, a Syrian rebel unit. “We developed action plans with coalition forces and the Turkish army.” Townsend appeared to confirm US participation in those ongoing efforts as well as the partnership with the Kurds. “Most of the recruiting will be done not by us, but it will be done by our local partners,” he told reporters Wednesday. “[Local partners] run what we would call basic training. We actually only assist with specialty courses, weapons, leadership courses, those kind of things.”

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[montelatici]

That's what happens when you hire a bunch of Islamist thugs to try to overthrow a secular Arab government like the one in Syria.