Every generation has agents that conspire against God and His kingdom. These conspirators go by various names. God has however remained the unbeatable champion. His Word cannot be broken. The kingdom of this world certainly will become the kingdom of His dear Son (Jesus). His words are quite reassuring: After this I looked, and there before me was a great multitude that no one could count, from every nation, tribe, people and language, standing before the throne and before the Lamb. They were wearing white robes and were holding palm branches in their hands. (Revelations 7:9)
'He will build His church and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it'. (Matthew 16:18)
Our focus in this edition of God's Heartbeat is the Islamic States (IS), which is also known as Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS). History tells us that it began far back as 2004 as Al Qaeda in Iraq, before rebranding to ISIS two years later. It was an ally of and had similarities with Osama bin Laden's al Qaeda. Both were radical anti-Western militant groups devoted to establishing an independent Islamic state in the region.
ISIS unlike Al Qaeda has proven to be more brutal and more effective at controlling territories it has seized. ISIS is putting governing structures in place to rule the territories the group conquers once the dust settles on the battlefield. Her initial atrocities were against Christians but it later adopted the Nicholo Machiavellian principle to crush all religious minorities and Muslims who stand in its way to establishing its structure of terror.
ISIS' beginnings can be traced to the Second Gulf War, when the U.S. along with a small coalition of other nations, invaded Iraq and toppled Dictator Saddam Hussein. Amongst the diverse insurgency fighting coalition forces and new Iraqi government was the extremist Islamic group Al-Qaeda in Iraq.
ISIS was formed out of the Al-Qaeda affiliate by Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, a mysterious jihadist who is believed to have been born in Iraq in 1971. Initially centered on Iraq and known as the Islamic State of Iraq (ISI), ISIS added the second S for Syria to its name as that nation's civil war erupted several years ago, according to Aaron Y. Zelin of the Washington Institute.
In late 2006 AQI joined with eight other Islamist insurgent groups to form the Islamic State of Iraq (ISI), without permission from the Al-Qaeda leadership. The name chosen for this new group indicated its ambitions: it was more than a mere jihadi group, but an embryonic caliphate, governed by Islamic law, to which all Muslims within its territory owed allegiance.
The Characteristics are as follows:
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Claim to be working for Allah, the Muslim name for God.
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They force adherents of other religions to convert to Islam or face execution.
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ISIS have overrun communities and claimed territory as theirs leaving destruction in their wake.
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The terrorist groups have gone on a murderous rampage in their respective vicinities, killing women, children and even their fellow Muslims.
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They receive massive funding from unknown sources which allows them to purchase deadly state of the art weapons to carry out their attacks.
The Islamic State, which has declared a caliphate in parts of Iraq and Syria, has prompted tens of thousands of Yazidis and Christians to flee for their lives during their push to within a 30-minute drive of the Kurdish regional capital Arbil.
The Horror
The extent of heartlessness of the ISIS is beyond description. The organization has garnered international outrage for its brutal treatment of religious minorities and fellow Muslims in the territory they occupy in Syria and Iraq. Allegations of varying validity have included reports of beheading, massacres of prisoners, and attempts to exterminate Christian communities. On Aug. 14, United Nations special representatives released a joint statement calling for the highest level of humanitarian in Iraq because of ISIS. "We are gravely concerned by continued reports of acts of violence, including sexual violence against women and teenage girls and boys belonging to Iraqi minorities," The statement continued: "Atrocious accounts of abduction and detention of Yazidi Christians, as well as Turkomen and Shabak women, girls and boys, and reports of savage rapes, are reaching us in an alarming manner." The UN estimated that as many as 1,500 Yazidi and Christian persons were forced into sexual slavery and tens of thousands have been forced from their homes.
ISIS Strategic Plan
One thing Christians must learn from the ISIS is plan. They are said to have a 20years strategic plan which they are working on. They don’t fight aimlessly. In certain Salafi-jihadi circles, a so-called strategic plan of Al-Qaeda was circulated. Al-Qaeda has ostensibly been working to implement this plan according to a two-decade timetable; beginning from 2000, 9/11 terrorist attacks, and would be concluded in 2020.
The widespread belief that Al-Qaeda's bloody activities are random and not governed by any clear strategy is a misconception. Dozens of documents on al-Qaeda's projects and long-term strategic plans, have well-defined goals.
For example, one security agency, nearly a year after the beginning of the conflict in Syria, was able to intercept correspondence between the leader of al-Nusra Front, Abu Mohammed al-Golani, and a prominent Al-Qaeda figure in Lebanon, outlining the jihadi group's plans after the fall of the Syrian regime, which included recruiting experts in medicine, chemistry, IT, and telecommunications, and spreading out across Lebanon in preparation for operations, recruitment and mobilization.
Some of the features of the plan were mentioned in a book published in 2005 by Jordanian journalist Fouad Hussein, titled Zarqawi – Al-Qaeda's Second Generation. Another book circulating in jihadi forums, titled This is How We See and Want Jihad, sheds light on the objectives, plans, and stages through which al-Qaeda wants to take power. The plan calls for expanding jihadi activities to cover the entire world, “to amplify the nation's strength and terrorize its enemies.” The plan is divided into seven phases, and covers two decades, from 2000 to 2020, the year “final victory” would be achieved.
The first phase from 2000 to 2003 is dubbed the awakening stage. This phase focused on “reawakening the nation” by “dealing a powerful blow to the head of the snake in New York. The aim: to push the United States to react in a way that would “crown al-Qaeda as the leader of the nation.” This is in reference to what al-Qaeda calls the US “crusade” against Islam with the invasion of Afghanistan and Iraq, which – according to al-Qaeda – made the Americans easy prey and al-Qaeda the viral brand it is today. This phase ended with the US occupation of Iraq in 2003.
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The second phase from 2003 to 2006 is dubbed the “eye-opening stage.” In this phase, al-Qaeda's plan was to perpetually engage the enemy in combat, while developing so-called “electronic jihad” capabilities, in preparation for the third phase.
In parallel, al-Qaeda would expand quietly in strategic parts of the Arab and Islamic world, while using Iraq as a base to build an army to be deployed in neighboring countries, also with the start of the third phase. In addition, efforts would be stepped up to raise funds from Muslims though charities and alms, to be diverted to al-Qaeda.
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The third phase from 2007 to 2010 is dubbed “rising up and standing on the feet,” a phase of proactive al-Qaeda activities. During this stage, important changes would be introduced in the region surrounding Iraq.
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The fourth phase, from 2010 to 2013, dubbed “recovery,” coincided in reality with the Arab Spring wave of uprisings and the crisis in Syria. In this phase, al-Qaeda would focus on toppling regimes by directly participating in insurgencies against them.
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The fifth phase from 2013 to 2016 would see the “declaration of the caliphate or the Islamic state,” al-Qaeda's ultimate goal. This phase would see many international transformations, beginning with the demise of the Anglo-Saxon axis and the emergence of new world powers that Muslims have no strong antagonisms with, such as India and China, in tandem with the exponential rise of al-Qaeda.
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The sixth phase from 2016 to 2020 is the phase of “total war.” Al-Qaeda's ideologues estimate that the beginning of 2016 would be the “beginning of the confrontation between faith and disbelief, which would begin in earnest after the establishment of the Islamic caliphate,” echoing Osama bin Laden's discourse in many of his speeches. This would be followed by the final phase, the phase of “final victory,” sometime in 2020. By then, according to al-Qaeda's plans, “the Islamic state's capabilities will be great beyond measure when Muslims would number more than 1.5 billion.
” Will al-Qaeda continue to grow in strength all the way to achieving victory in 2020?
ISIS and the World Harvest
As horrible as the ISIS situation is, God is beginning to use it to bring in mighty harvest. One of the mind-blowing testimonies filtering in recently is the conversion of some of the ISIS fighters. The most recent one was narrated by a Youth With A Mission (YWAM) missionary in the Middle East. Speaking on The Voice of the Martyrs Radio Network,he said that one of YWAM's workers was introduced to an ISIS fighter who had killed a number of Christians. He even admitted to having enjoyed doing so, until he met Jesus in a dream.
"He [the jihadist] told this YWAM leader that he had begun having dreams of this man in white who came to him and said, 'You are killing my people.' And he started to feel really sick and uneasy about what he was doing," Fadely said.
She added that the militant was given a Bible by a Christian man who was about to be killed, which he took and read. "In another dream, Jesus asked him to follow him and he was now asking to become a follower of Christ and to be discipled," He added: "So who knows, perhaps this man will be like Saul in the Bible, who persecuted Christians and then turned from that persecution of the early church to become the Apostle Paul who led it.
Another ISIS Jihadist recently converted to Christianity after being left for death near the Eastern border of Syria where he was finally rescued by Christian missionaries from the region, reports the Aleppo Herald this morning. The man, that has miraculously survived multiple gun shot wounds after an altercation between ISIS and Syrian Army forces, was rescued by members of the Saint Dominican Catholic Presbytery of Ayyash hours after the conflict had erupted. The members of the Christian organization wanted to give the man a proper Christian burial and carried him over 26 kilometers before the man miraculously came back to life as he was believed to have died from his wounds.
The number of Muslim converts in the recent period, especially the last 14 years since the devastating Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks in the US. is said to be greater than the entire 14 centuries of Islamic history.
"Many Muslims are saying, 'If ISIS is Islam, I'm leaving.' Some are becoming atheists," said Brother Rachid, who hosts a Christian program reaching Muslims called "Daring Questions" in Arabic language. "There is a huge wave of atheism in the Arab world right now and many are turning to Jesus Christ. Islam was never faced with this crisis before."
"Islam is going to collapse," added Brother Rachid, whose father is a Moroccan imam who lived as a secret Christian convert for 15 years. Pastor Fouad Rasho of Angered Alliance Church in Sweden, who has baptized more than a hundred former Muslims, maintained that ISIS causes many Muslims to come to Jesus.
"Every week I meet one or more persons who come to me and want to know more about Christianity and the Bible because they are very angry about being a Muslim. They don't want to continue to be Muslim," said Imran, who is also an immigrant from Syria.
Many converts keep their shift in religion a secret, fearing for their lives and for being an outcast. Imram (not his real name), a British college student from a Pakistani immigrant family, said leaving Islam is tough. "If someone leaves Islam and becomes an apostate, he is thrown out of his family; his family will be the first ones to abandon him”, he said "His friends will reject him and he will be killed and persecuted.
The Great Commission transcends just conversion. We are called to make disciples of all nations. The current harvest opens the door to a new challenge - the challenge of "Laborers" who are willing to stake their lives to live among these converts and raise them to become formidable armies of the Lord. The harvest in this region is ripe. The Prophet Jeremiah echoed their cry better: “...the harvest is past, the summer is ended but we are not saved” (Jeremiah 8:20)
* Tosan is An Associate Editor with God's Heartbeat Magazine
