Christian Today report– US president Barack Obama on Wednesday sent Congress his long-awaited formal request to authorise military force against Islamic State, meeting swift resistance from Republicans as well as his fellow Democrats wary of another war in the Middle East.

Republicans, who control Congress and say Obama’s foreign policy is too passive, want stronger measures against the militants than outlined in the plan, which bars any large-scale invasion by US ground troops and covers the next three years.

Obama acknowledged that the military campaign is difficult and will remain so. “But our coalition is on the offensive. ISIL is on the defensive, and ISIL is going to lose,” he said in a televised statement from the White House.

With many of Obama’s fellow Democrats insisting the plan is too broad because it includes no blanket ban on ground troops, it could be difficult for the authorisation to pass, even though six months have passed since the campaign began.

Obama consulted with Republicans and Democrats in writing the resolution, and said he would continue to do so. He said the time frame was intended to let Congress revisit the issue when the next president takes office in 2017.

The proposal says Islamic State “has committed despicable acts of violence and mass execution.” Its militants have killed thousands of civilians while seizing territory in Iraq and Syria in an attempt to establish a hub of jihadism in the heart of the Arab world.

They have also generated international outrage by beheading western aid workers and journalists and burning to death a Jordanian pilot.

Obama sent his request to Congress a day after his administration confirmed the death of Kayla Mueller, a 26-year-old aid worker who was the last known American hostage held by the group.

Both the Senate and House of Representatives must approve Obama’s plan. Lawmakers said they would begin hearings quickly as Republicans made clear they thought the plan fell short.

The Republican Speaker of the House of Representatives, John Boehner, told reporters he was sure the plan would change as it moved though Congress. “I’m not sure the strategy that has been outlined will accomplish the mission the president says he wants to accomplish,” he added.

Obama has defended his authority to lead an international coalition against Islamic State since August 8 when US fighter jets began attacks in Iraq. The formal request eased criticism of Obama’s failure to seek the backing of Congress, where some accused him of breaching his constitutional authority.

SEEKING A UNITED FRONT

With Republicans in control of Congress after routing Obama’s Democrats in November elections, the president also wants lawmakers to share responsibility for the campaign against Islamic State and present a united front.

The plan does not authorise “long-term, large-scale ground combat operations” such as those in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Obama said those operations would be left to local forces, but lawmakers worried they would not step up. “What is the role, really, that regional partners are playing in this battle against ISIL?” asked Democratic Senator Tim Kaine.

The draft allows for certain ground combat operations including hostage rescues and the use of special forces. It permits the use of US forces for intelligence collection, targeting operations for drone strikes and planning and giving other assistance to local forces.

Many Democrats, especially liberals in the House, said Obama’s proposal was too broad. They want any authorisation to place stricter limits on the use of ground troops and expressed concerns Obama set no geographic limits on the campaign.

“The language … is very broad, very ambiguous,” said Democratic Representative Adam Schiff. “None of us really know what ‘enduring offensive combat operations’ means.”

It was the first formal request for authority to conduct a military operation of Obama’s six years in office. If passed, it would be Congress’ first war authorisation since then-President George W. Bush’s 2002 authority to wage the Iraq War.

Obama’s objection as a US senator to that authority helped fuel his successful 2008 campaign for the White House.

Obama’s text includes a repeal of the 2002 Authorization for the Use of Military Force. But it leaves in place an open-ended authorisation, passed days after the September 11, 2001, attacks, for a campaign against al Qaeda and its affiliates.

Rights groups and many lawmakers said they want the new AUMF to set an end date for the 2001 authorisation, which the White House has invoked to carry out drone and missile strikes against suspected al Qaeda militants in Yemen and Somalia.

Obama said he remained committed to working with Congress to “refine, and ultimately repeal” it.

Source: Christian Today

Christian Post report– The Islamic State policing unit in Mosul severely disfigured the faces of 15 Iraqi women by pouring acid on them as a form of punishment after the women were caught without their faces being veiled appropriately, by ISIS standards, last weekend.

ISIS’ all-female policing unit, the Al Khansa brigade, which polices the streets of the group’s Syrian stronghold of Raqqa and Iraqi stronghold of Mosul, reportedly carried out the punishments after the women were detained on Sunday in the Mosul neighborhood of Salamiya, a kurdish official told BasNews.

The official from the Kurdistan Democratic Party in Mosul, Saed Mamuzini, told the news site that the women were subject to the cruel, face-deforming punishment simply because they were caught in public without wearing a Niqab, the cloth like veil that fully covers the face except for slit for the eyes.

“They have implemented this punishment so that other women in the city will never consider removing or not wearing the niqab,” Mamuzini said.

ISIS issued a clear warning in July that women in the city of Mosul caught without wearing a full face veil would be severely punished, The Jerusalem Post reported. The group reasoned that such a restriction would protect women and religion from debauchery.

“This is not a restriction on freedom but to prevent her from falling into humiliation and vulgarity or to be a theater for the eyes of those who are looking,” The Islamic State said in its warning statement. “Anyone who is not committed to this duty and is motivated by glamour will be subject to the accountability and severe punishment to protect society from harm and to maintain the necessities or religion and protect it from debauchery.”

Al Khansa Brigade has previously punished women caught without the appropriate attire with other forms of cruel torture. Last December, Al Khansa officers in Raqqa arrested a woman after she was found breastfeeding in public and claimed she had to be punished because her naqib didn’t meet ISIS standards. To punish her, the militants took her to the group’s Raqqa headquarters and placed her breast in a medieval-like spike-clamp torture device, called a “biter.”

“I felt then that my femininity has been destroyed completely, we no longer afford to live this way,” the woman named Batol told the monitoring group Raqqa is Being Slaughtered Silently. “I was not the only one that was tortured with this instrument. There were a lot of women in the headquarters and their situation was tragic.”

Although pouring acid on women and permanently disfiguring their faces might seem like the type of brutality that is exclusive to ISIS, acid attacks are quite common occurrences in nations with strict Muslim societies like Pakistan.

“The Qur’an directs men to beat women from whom they ‘fear disobedience.’ We have seen women who don’t abide by Sharia restrictions disfigured with acid in Pakistan and elsewhere,” writes renowned critic of Islam Robert Spencer, the founder of the Jihad Watch website. “This is just one more manifestation of the empire of fear that Sharia creates: virtue is enforced by terror, which means that it isn’t really virtue at all.”

Although it is quite common for women in Pakistan to be tortured for allegedly breaking Sharia law, women have also been subjected to acid attacks just because they are in disagreement with their husband or other males.

One example occurred in November when a man in Lahore, with the help of his father, beat his wife and then proceeded to pour acid down her throat over trivial domestic issues.

In September, a 16-year-old girl was attacked with acid after her family rejected a man’s request to marry her. Doctors said she lost 95 percent of her vision.

Source: Christian Post