Feminists and other \u201cprogressives\u201d in America cry oppression at the mere suggestion that taxpayers shouldn\u2019t be made to subsidize abortion services.<\/p>\n
Black (and non-black) American activists scream that \u201cBlack Lives Matter\u201d whenever a black criminal suspect dies in an altercation with police.<\/p>\n
In the meantime, there is scarcely a peep from either of these sectors when it comes to the unrelenting brutality suffered by women and black Africans<\/em> in places under the thumb of the Islamic State.<\/p>\n When I noted this selective outrage to a left-leaning colleague of mine, he responded that the one issue didn\u2019t have anything to do with the other. But this response misses the point for two reasons.<\/p>\n First, if <\/em>it really is women\u2019s<\/em> rights and black<\/em> lives, and not politics, that are the objects of concern, then the \u201cpro-women\u201d and \u201cpro-black\u201d forces should be screaming from the rooftops over the systematic degradation of women\u2019s rights and black lives occurring in places like the Middle East and Africa.<\/p>\n In short, ultimately, we are<\/em> dealing with one <\/em>problem: the problem of women\u2019s rights and black lives.<\/p>\n Second, the notion that, in the year 2015, women and blacks in America suffer some sort of systemic oppression courtesy of white men is manifestly absurd. Still, even assuming that it is true, even the most vocal supporters of a mother\u2019s right to kill her offspring on the taxpayer\u2019s dime and the Michael Browns of the world couldn\u2019t conceivably think that the plight of blacks and women in America can be spoken of in the same breath as that of women and blacks in hot spots like Africa and the Middle East.<\/p>\n This being so, the left\u2019s silence on the topic of the latter is that much more deafening given its incessant wailing over the former.<\/p>\n To say the least, this is a curious <\/em>kind of phenomenon. It raises reasonable questions as to the rationality, values, and motivations of those who, in Jesus\u2019 words, prefer to \u201cstrain out the gnat\u201d while \u201cletting in the camel.\u201d<\/p>\n Actually, it is a Republican <\/em>politician from California, Congressman Ed Royce, who is calling attention to the dehumanization of women and \u201cblack lives\u201d occurring under Islamic militants of the ISIS and Boko Haram varieties.<\/p>\n Royce is the Chairman of the House Committee on Foreign Affairs. According to Open Doors, an organization that exists for the sake of serving persecuted Christians around the world, Royce explained that \u201cviolence against women is in fact a sinister and calculated strategy that goes to the heart of ISIS\u2019s survival<\/em>\u201d (emphasis original).<\/p>\n In \u201cforcing local women to marry into ISIS,\u201d Royce continued, \u201cthe group expands its demographic base while reducing the population of those diverse communities it seeks to eradicate and replace<\/em>\u201d (emphasis original).<\/p>\n Open Doors refers to an article published by the Hudson Institute\u2019s <\/em>Nina Shea. Shea writes that while the crucifixions and beheadings of Christian men have garnered much media attention, the return of \u201csex slavery\u201d has disappeared from the public\u2019s eye.<\/p>\n A United Nations report released on August 5, 2014, claimed that \u201csome 1,500 Yazidi and Christian persons [in Iraq] may have been forced into sexual slavery.\u201d There may be as many as 4,000 enslaved Yazidis.<\/p>\n Shea informs us of \u201can entire convent of Syrian Orthodox nuns\u201d that were abducted in 2013 and held for ransom. Just this past March, 135 Christian women and children were abducted from 35 Christian villages in Syria and sold into sex slavery.<\/p>\n \u201c\u2018Their families,\u201d Shea writes, \u201c\u2018unable to afford the $23 million ransom demanded, were told by ISIS, \u2018They belong to us now.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n One particularly ominous, heart wrenching account of the kind of brutality that Koranic literalists routinely inflict upon their victims comes from \u201ca young Yazidi woman\u201d who managed to speak by phone with activists from Compassion4Kurdistan: \u201cI\u2019ve been raped thirty times and it\u2019s not even lunchtime. I can\u2019t go to the toilet. Please bomb us.\u201d<\/p>\n Seventeen year-old girls have relayed accounts of how they, along with dozens of other kidnapped females as young as at least 12, were daily beaten, raped, and tormented by their captors\u2014grown men as old as 50\u2014who would refer to them as \u201cwar booty\u201d and liken them to \u201cgoats bought at a market.\u201d<\/p>\n Others, Shea writes, relay how \u201cgirls were separated by eye color\u201d and according to whether they were \u201cpretty\u201d or \u201cugly.\u201d The \u201cpretty\u201d girls were then given to \u201chigh ranking ISIS members.\u201d<\/p>\n Black lives in Africa are hardly doing any better. In Nigeria, the Islamic fundamentalists in Boko Haram are giving ISIS a run for its money in terms of ruthlessness and cruelty.<\/p>\n Open Doors shares \u201cMercy\u2019s\u201d experience. Mercy is a 24 year-old Christian and single mother whose town was taken over by Boko Haram. Mercy, her baby, and some others ran to the mountains to hide. Still, Mercy would sneak back to her home for food during the cover of darkness. Tragically, her luck ran out one morning and she was captured.<\/p>\n The building into which she was lead contained several other young women and girls who had been there for some time. Regularly, their captors would drag men from the town before the females and \u201cslaughter\u201d them in order to \u201cintimidate\u201d the latter.<\/p>\n Mercy, thankfully, climbed over a barbwire fence one evening while her Muslim tormenters and their captives were in prayer and escaped.<\/p>\n Ladi Apagu, a 16 year-old, escaped with Mercy. Ladi had been held captive for four months. She had been given an Islamic name, but she often resisted saying Islamic prayer. Ladi had been kicked by an Imam when she told him that she couldn\u2019t perform Muslim prayer rituals because she was menstruating.<\/p>\n Today she is has scars on her legs from the regular beatings that were visited upon her. Yet, even worse, Ladi is psychologically<\/em> scarred. Particularly difficult for her to escape is the experience of having watched many decent men brutally murdered before her eyes for refusing to join Boko Haram.<\/p>\n The next time we hear the by now predictable lamentations over a lack of \u201cwomen\u2019s rights\u201d in America, or chants to the effect that \u201cblack lives matter,\u201d perhaps knowing all of this will help us to keep perspective.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Feminists and other \u201cprogressives\u201d in America cry oppression at the mere suggestion that taxpayers shouldn\u2019t be made to subsidize abortion services. Black (and non-black) American activists scream that \u201cBlack Lives Matter\u201d whenever a black criminal suspect dies in an altercation with police. In the meantime, there is scarcely a peep from either of these sectors…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":399,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1356","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\n