This summer, in his hometown of Raqqa, 13-year-old Mohammad was forced to attend a children's training camp established by the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS). When his father opposed his son's conscription, ISIS fighters threatened to kill him. Mohammad left for camp, which his father describes as a form of “brainwashing the children.” After his return, his mother says she was surprised to find in his bag a blond, blue-eyed doll – along with a large knife given to her son by his ISIS supervisors.When she confronted Mohammad, he told her that the camp manager had distributed the dolls and asked that the children decapitate them using the knife, and that they were asked to cover the dolls' faces when they performed the decapitation. It was his homework: practice beheading a toy likeness of a blond, white Westerner.Love your enemies. Even these, who teach children to murder. Just why, though? Because they serve to justify the wielding of the sword, and the sword properly used is glorious.
The Day After Tomorrow
...we will be killing these children.
Thank you Grim. The idea of loving one's enemies is something I appreciate as some of the highest nobility, and one I've struggled with my entire life.
ReplyDeleteYou're welcome. Keep the faith.
ReplyDeleteIt was rather recently I finally realized how to square loving one's enemy and my feelings about people like this- First, it's important to not get wrapped up in the word 'love' as we use it in English- meaning many different things. In Matthew 5:43, it's agape in the Greek- love as brotherly love, charity- not philia, affection, friendship- and so it occurred to me that as a parent, sometimes the most loving thing I can do to my children is to be harsh, to administer punishment or justice- and were I to descend to the levels of wickedness of these members of daesh, I should hope someone would stop me by whatever means available so as to disallow me committing more heinous evils and further propelling my soul into the darkness, away from God.
ReplyDeleteKilling these guys might be the most loving thing anyone has ever done for them. That it might be glorious is a fortunate aside.
By the way Grim- have you heard about these fellows? It seems like a rather creative solution to a problem discussed here a time ago. I'd love to know if you have any news that they are worthy of support.
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