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The Islamic State is committing genocide
The Islamic State is committing genocide
Dr. Gregory H. Stanton, Washington Examiner
14 September 2015
Image: In this file photo take Thursday, June 19, 2014, Islamic State group militants stand with a captured Iraqi army Humvee at a checkpoint outside Beiji refinery, some 155 miles north of Baghdad, Iraq. (AP Photo, File)
Members of the International Association of Genocide Scholars, representing the world’s largest organization of experts on genocide, have called upon the U.S. Congress to declare that the crimes committed by the Islamic State, also known as Daesh, constitute genocide in violation of the International Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide.
Genocide is the intentional destruction, in whole or in part, of a national, ethnical, racial or religious group, as such. The Islamic State is committing genocide against religious groups that do not conform to the Islamic State’s totalitarian definition of “true Islam.” The Islamic State’s mass murders of Chaldean, Assyrian, Melkite Greek, and Coptic Christians, Yazidis, Shia Muslims, Sunni Kurds and other religious groups meet even the strictest definition of genocide.
The Islamic State’s policy of mass rape is also genocidal. The gendered pattern of persecution pursued by the Islamic State against groups it considers to be infidels conforms to historical patterns of genocide, particularly the mass killing of men and teenage boys accompanied by the rape and enslavement of women and teenage girls and the kidnapping of children.
Islamic State government in areas it has occupied includes beheadings of captives and people considered apostates, destruction of religious centers, such as churches and monasteries, and pillaging of ancient cultural sites that do not conform to the regime’s religious orthodoxy — acts typical of genocidal regimes.
Islamic State rules by totalitarian terror. Islamic State leaders, many of them from Saddam Hussein’s sadistic regime, have read Stalin’s writings on how to use terror to rule populations through fear. That is why the Islamic State beheads its captives and then posts videos of the beheadings on the internet.
Islamic State must be defeated militarily to destroy the illusion of invincibility its terrorism has created. It is incredible that American airstrikes have left Raqqa and dozens of Islamic State training camps standing. Are American and NATO Air Forces incompetent?
The Islamic State must also be defeated ideologically. This is a spiritual war, very similar to the Cold War against Communism. Muslim nations must reclaim Islam from the satanic preaching of the Islamic State. The imaginary Islamic State caliphate is like the Khmer Rouge’s attempt to recreate the imaginary 11th century Angkor Empire.
What difference would it make to call the crimes of the Islamic State “genocide?” Studies by genocide scholars have shown that calling genocide by its proper name, rather than using euphemisms like “ethnic cleansing” or weaker terms like “crimes against humanity,” increases the probability of forceful action to end the crimes by over four times.
The most relevant case was Kosovo, where U.S. War Crimes Ambassador Scheffer’s determination that the crimes were genocidal massacres led nearly directly to the bombing of Belgrade and a rapid end of the conflict.
One way to undermine the ideological attraction of the Islamic State is indictment of Islamic State leaders by the International Criminal Court. Because Syria and Iraq are not state-parties to the ICC, only the U.N. Security Council can refer the Islamic State to the ICC. Russia and China might not block such a referral since they have radical Muslims of their own to deal with.
The U.N. Security Council should refer the Islamic State to the ICC for investigation and prosecution. The Arab League, Turkey, NATO and national police forces should act swiftly and firmly to arrest Islamic State leaders. The Islamic State must be stopped and brought to justice.
Dr. Gregory H. Stanton is president of Genocide Watch and a research professor in Genocide Studies and Prevention at the School for Conflict Analysis and Resolution at George Mason University.
Copyright: Washington Examiner 2015
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