Reports that American hostage Kayla Mueller was raped repeatedly by the head of ISIL, Abu Bakr Al Baghdadi, before her death are deeply shocking but, sadly, not surprising. Mueller was one of thousands of victims of the extremist group's perverse ideology. A United Nations report issued in April highlighted many harrowing accounts of rape, sexual slavery and forced marriages being used by armed extremists as a weapon of war.
The war against ISIL is well underway, and it has brought together a coalition of forces that includes the UAE and other Gulf countries. But it will be a long battle, and it serves us well to remember exactly what we are fighting against. In previous conflicts of similar scale, there have been constant reminders of the basic morality at stake.
In the saturated media environment that surrounds us, the gravity of the war can easily be overshadowed by other events. The 24-hour news cycle provides many distractions. Part of the impetus to establish institutions such as Abu Dhabi’s Sawab Centre is to counter ISIL’s messaging and underline the reasons why the extremists must be defeated. This is a war of ideas – of good versus evil – that is being fought on social media platforms as well as in mosques, majilis and other meeting places.
From its very inception, ISIL has used tactics that are anathema not only to Islam but to modern civilisation. It has actively recruited young men from all parts of the world to fight in Syria and Iraq on the promise of offering them brides from among the people it has enslaved. Twisted ISIL apologists have even claimed that the Quran permits them to rape women who are non-believers.
This is all a reminder of the enemy that we face. As gruesome as it may be, we must regularly confront exactly what is at stake if we fail to contain, and ultimately degrade, ISIL. A group that has no respect for human life, and reduces women to sexual servitude, is an affront to civilised society. We must face this reality with our eyes open and maintain our will to prevail against this perversion. n
