Human Rights Watch: After Liberation Came Destruction Iraqi Militias and the Aftermath of Amerli (March 18, 2015)

http://www.hrw.org/reports/2015/03/18/after-liberation-came-destruction

This 31-page report documents, through field visits, analysis of satellite imagery, interviews with victims and witnesses, and review of photo and video evidence, that militias looted property of Sunni civilians who had fled fighting, burned their homes and businesses, and destroyed at least two entire villages. The actions violated the laws of war. Human Rights Watch also documented the abduction of 11 men during the operation, in September and October.

via Democracy Now

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Dr. Yasir Qadhi on NPR on ISIS, American foreign policy and Wood's article

I was interviewed alongside Graeme Wood, the author of The Atlantic article, 'What ISIS Really Wants'. The interview will be broadcast on NPR stations tomorrow, but it's already online here. Overall I was satisfied with the interview and felt that I got my main points across.  

The thrust of the interview (for those who can't listen to it) was that Graeme's article almost completely sidelines the main cause of the rise of ISIS, and that is the utterly destructive American foreign policy in the region. For over 35 years, America has been directly meddling in that region, by supporting and deposing dictators, going to war twice, imposing sanctions that killed millions, installing puppet regimes that allowed for sectarian massacres, dropping hundred of thousands of tons of bombs over the last decade and a half, and the list goes on and on.  

But rather than concentrate on those issues, Mr. Wood's article concentrates on 'Islamic laws' and how ISIS is so 'Islamic'.  

Had it not been for the barbarity of the American invasions and sanctions, regular, ordinary Muslims would not have resorted to or believed in the barbarity of ISIS. This is not a justification of ISIS - it is a call of accountability for the role that America itself played in the direction creation of the causes that allowed ISIS to come forth.

-Public post on Yasir Qadhi fb page, March 21st, 2015, 7:49 AM.