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| Witchvox Chapter: Wren's Nest News | Chapter Page Views: 59,684,706 |
 Stolen Away:The Missing Girls Of Iraq Author: Brian Bennett Source: Times Online (UK) Title: STOLEN AWAY The man on the phone with the 14-year-old Iraqi girl called himself Sa'ad. He was calling long distance from Dubai and telling her wonderful things about the place. He was also about to buy her. Safah, the teenager, was well aware of the impending transaction. In the weeks after she was kidnapped and imprisoned in a dark house in Baghdad's middle-class Karada district, Safah heard her captors haggling with Sa'ad over her price. It was finally settled at $10,000. Safah knew that she was running out of time. A fake passport with her photo and assumed name had already been forged for her. But even if she escaped, she had no family who would take her in. She was even likely to end up in prison. What was she to do? Safah is part of a seldom-discussed aspect of the epidemic of kidnappings in Iraq: sex trafficking. | |
| Community Thoughts: There are 14 comments posted | Reverse Sort |
| One Heck Of A Fan | Apr 27th. at 4:57:57 am EDT |
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Mysteries Child (Garfield, West Virginia) - Email Me The one all this sh*t has hit, that is. Human beings by nature are often not "good" creatures. Many of us will do whatever benefits us most, even if that is brutalizing another human being and selling them into slavery, aiding and abetting the process, or being on the buying end. People can really suck. Irrespective of religion, or the absense thereof. People can just really suck. Meanwhile... "The collapse of law and order and the absence of a stable government have allowed criminal gangs, alongside terrorists, to run amuck." This entire situation has gone, in essence, exactly the way I said it would at the outset. American military forces went in there with enough force and support to destroy Saddam Hussein's infrastructure... ...and without sufficient force, support, or committment to do everything it would take ot replace it with something even approximating the infrastructure we enjoy in the Western world. Doing that probably would have required the committment of massive numbers of troops and support personnel of all kinds-- not to mention a ton of money-- for an extended period of time. As in, just how long did it take to rebuild Berlin after WWII?? Well, that might have been a starting figure. It's too late now. Now we've got tens or hundreds of thousands of Iraqis whose lives have been f---ed over by American policies. Tens of thousands more people who despise us, with a reason. Now we've got thousands of American soldiers who died, in the end, for nothing more than an ideal and some higher-up's campaign. Hey, maybe the folks in charge should have got themselves some dice and role-played this in a player-versus-player setting instead. I'd love to give the folks trying to help these kids some assistance. But who in blazes should I trust?? And do I want to take the risk of what I'm doing if I'm wrong?? And why don't I want to risk my life to go over there and see what I can do with a resource somewhat less corruptible than money?? Wonder if the Taliban is planning its ascent to official power in Iraq yet?? |
| Understand Their Worth ... | Apr 26th. at 4:25:27 pm EDT |
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Storm Summerhaven (Lanark County, Ontario) - Email Me ... which is ZERO, in this culture, once they are no longer virgins. It's important to understand how VERY different this culture is from ours. These girls are in far greater danger of being killed by their own brothers, after the fact, than they are by the men who kidnap, buy/sell, or rape them. I, too, am fed up with the Muslim/Islam-bashing, but the facts are the facts. I have no idea, sadly, what the solution is. Who are we to tell people of another culture and another religion, what they must believe? Would we want them telling US how we must live our lives? The tragedy HERE is as much in the culture this is happening in, as it is in the vile and seedy underground of sex slavery. |
| Well Said!! | Apr 25th. at 7:41:16 pm EDT |
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Anail Sapphire (Springfield, Florida) - Email Me - Web Amtehuti, I could not agree more! |
| This Is Ridiculous! | Apr 25th. at 6:13:46 pm EDT |
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Tehuti-Am (Queens, Florida) - Email Me Sex trafficking is huge in Russia, Eastern Europe, and Asia as well, and those are NOT Muslim countries. Could people stop using this for anti-Muslim hysteria? Let's not focus on Islam, shall we? Let's focus on human slavery. Let's focus on the fact that underground charities could do a lot of good, not only for girls here but the rest of the world. Let's help these women recover from their ordeals, alright? There is nothing here saying that the slavery occured because of Islam and unless every other case of human trafficking is done by Muslims, then that is an erronious argument. We need to talk here about the sanctity and dignity of human life. This is a great article and call to arms for the right of a person to their own life. Do we really need to let this disintergrate into another bickering fight about Islam? |
| Just In Case You're Wondering What I Meant Earlier | Apr 25th. at 5:09:03 pm EDT |
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Draken (Bronx, New York) - Email Me - Web Suha 2:282 O ye who believe! When ye contract a debt for a fixed term, record it in writing. Let a scribe record it in writing between you (in terms of) equity. No scribe should refuse to write as Allah hath taught him, so let him write, and let him who incurreth the debt dictate, and let him observe his duty to Allah his Lord, and diminish naught thereof. But if he who oweth the debt is of low understanding, or weak, or unable himself to dictate, then let the guardian of his interests dictate in (terms of) equity. And call two witness from among your men, two witnesses. And if two men be not at hand, then a man and two women, of such as ye approve as witnesses, so that if one erreth (though forgetfulness) the other will remember. And the witnesses must not refuse when they are summoned. Be no averse to writing down (the contract) whether it be small or great, with (record of) the term thereof. That is more equitable in the sight of Allah and more sure for testimony, and the best way of avoiding doubt between you; save only in the case when it is actual merchandise which ye transfer among yourselves from hand to hand. In that case it is no sin for you if ye write it not. And have witnesses when ye sell to one another, and let no harm be done to scribe or witness. If ye do (harm to them) lo! it is a sin in you. Observe your duty to Allah. Allah is teaching you. And Allah is knower of all things. --------------------------------------------------------------- Sorry about the long post, but I felt it necessary to point out specifically where it says that a woman is half of a man in the Quran. |
| Responding To Comment Upthread | Apr 25th. at 3:52:41 pm EDT |
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Harmony (Saint Petersburg, Florida) - Email Me The Quran specifically states that women are only half of what men are. Sura, please? I've read the Quran, and I don't recall seeing any such thing. In point of fact, I see where the Quran specifies that women are equal in matters of law and inheritance. The problem highlighted in the article has nothing to do with Islam - it has to do with men who worship no-one but themselves, and see others as commodities to be bought and sold. |
| Lesson From Ancient Pagan Empires | Apr 25th. at 2:05:58 pm EDT |
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Mars (brooklyn, New York) - Email Me The problem we have here is that in our christianized world we, the western world, have the power and might to bring about a pax europa-americana and abolish much of this slave trade, but instead hamstring ourselves over misguided notions of 'human rights' and 'not harming innocent people' which in an exercise of over-restraint turn allows evil people to exploit others and become powerful. The answer to vast human rights abuses is annihilation of genocidal societies and governments as an example to the rest. Rome was able to maintain pax Romana because of the terrible price paid by those who opposed Rome. It was said that under pax Mongolia a virgin could walk from one end of the Mongol empire to the other with a pot of gold on her head without fear of any harm. This was because of the terrible price paid for breaking the Mongol peace. What is needed here is to make a horrifying example of those societies that condone or aid enslavement. As Rome and the Mongols, and even the ancient Hebrews, slaughtered whole cities to make their point, so should be do the same to the Sudanese government and Islamic Sudan. Kill everything and everyone in and around Khartoum, destroy everything, sow the soil with salt. So the same with cities in Iraq where kidnapping and sex trading is rampant-- make an example of one or a few. These merchants of misery love nothing more than their own lives. Pull out all the stops and make an example of a few. We should crucify individuals we find in this trade. A high price, but well worth the returns. Let's learn from the great pagan rulers. |
| Islam Is Not The Problem | Apr 25th. at 1:59:58 pm EDT |
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Lorca (Longview, Washington) - Email Me Islam is not the problem any more than is Christianity, or any other collection of religious dogma. The problem is that there are people who will use their chosen collection of "the word of god" to further their worldly pursuits. Things are further complicated by the sad fact that many, if not most people are all too eager to cede reason to the "teachings" of their "spiritual leaders". The bulk of the suffering that humans have inflicted upon each other throughout history is a direct result of this phenomenon. And yet within virtually every religion or system of morality is a variation on the same simple rule, "Be nice to each other." (See the link for a concise treatise on the many variations of "The Golden Rule") If we all just kept in mind that guiding principle when dealing with others, and applied all the other dogmatic excesses that we choose to embrace only to ourselves, the world would be a very, VERY different place. |
| ... | Apr 25th. at 1:34:11 pm EDT |
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Draken (Bronx, New York) - Email Me - Web Tell me again how Islam is a modern religion? The Quran specifically states that women are only half of what men are. Even cattle are worth more in the Muslim world! Don't blame me for being paranoid, it's right there in black and white. |
| Religion In Government | Apr 25th. at 1:17:29 pm EDT |
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Ahr-Ohn (Bridgeport, Connecticut) - Email Me "Meanwhile, some aid workers say, bureaucrats in the ministries have either paralyzed with red tape or frozen the assets of charities that might have provided refuge for these girls. As a result, sex trafficking has been allowed to fester unchecked." I was hoping that a restored Sisters Magdalene might help, but this shows the Government at war with Decency. Proffessionalism is a Religion, and an unproffessional government is a nest of Predations. Some sort of Circle is needed, in that part of the World, so the Imams know to acknowledge those who bow towards the Bakkah. Ordering people to put aside their Graven Images hasn't worked for Imhotep, Moses, Gautama, nor Mohammed, but perhaps they could start a practice of worshipping Real Moslems, for those who do not pipe directly unto Divinity. The Gita was a bit wiser, in allowing a diversity of Worships and Gnosticisms. To remembrance that the Saints were People, through whom Divinity could manifest is in the Mode of Goodness; to remembrance the Power that the Saints manifested is in the Mode of Passion; to remembrance the True Names of the Saints, and invite them to Party, is in the Mode of the Wyld Hunt. Arawn |
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