Convert or get out

The rapid advance of the Islamic State (IS), formerly known as the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levent (ISIL), in the lands of Iraq and Syria have left us all wondering over the reasons, the nature and the purpose that such an extreme Islamic movement serves in the reshuffling of the cards currently taking place in Turkey’s neighborhood. ISIL itself, however, have left us in no doubt over their rules and understanding of life.

Their regular use of social media and their gruesome videos of the mass assassinations of those who refuse to adopt to sharia, as well as the impressive speech of the leader Bagdati from the upper gallery of Mosul’s great mosque, all made us think, that we are probably witnessing the turning of a new page in the politics of the region. ISIL seems to be here to stay. There will probably be a Part Two of an al-Qaeda type phenomenon providing the West enough justification for furthering its interventional policy towards a new “Islamic terror.”

In a world that looks increasingly more unstable, the dramatic exodus of the last remaining members of one of the oldest Christian communities in the world, would seem like a minor affair. After all we are talking about a handful of frightened people, some elderly and disabled, walking out of Mosul last Saturday under the scorching Iraqi sun. Their belongings had been robbed by ISIL fighters who took their cars and cash before sending them off.

They had to leave. The new regime of Mosul gave them no choice. The stark warning read out in the mosques last Friday and heard through loudspeakers in the city, was clear: “We offer [Christians] three choices: Islam; the dhimma contract... or if they refuse this they will have nothing but the sword,” They chose...