The Rise of ISIS

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  • #791210
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    ISIS Holding 150 Christian Hostages…And Will Threaten To Kill Them

    ISIS now holds 150 Assyrian Christians as hostages– and is planning on releasing a message in video form on Wednesday threatening to murder them.

    Although initial estimates placed the number of hostages at between 70 and 100 people, including women, children, and the elderly, now Osama Edward, founder of the Assyrian Human Rights Network, is saying that 150 are being held hostage.

    The Assyrian Christians were captured early Monday.

    Read more at http://www.westernjournalism.com/isis-holds-150-christian-hostages-will-threaten-kill/#hWaZSFlCWiy5l9we.99

    Please pray that they will remain faithful even unto death.

    #791815
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    On the brink of a new Middle Eastern catastrophe: Saudi Arabia sends war planes into Yemen in a terrifying clash with Iran leaving region at boiling point

    • Religious fissure between Sunni and Shia Muslims erupted into conflict 
    • Saudi Arabia launched airstrikes against Iran-backed Shia Houthi rebels 
    • 18 civilians were injured after Saudi warplanes targeted Sana’a in Yemen
    • Britain and America supported the Saudi-led military intervention 
    • Coalition deployed 100 fighter jets and 150,000 soldiers to fight in region

    Truly, it is a terrifying development. The great religious fissure between Sunni and Shia Muslims that dominates the Middle East has erupted into open conflict in Yemen, the region’s poorest country, threatening to engulf the entire area in a wider war.

    In a dramatic escalation of the stakes, a Sunni coalition of Arab states led by Saudi Arabia launched airstrikes against Iran-backed Shia Houthi rebels who have swept south through the country.

    As Yemen veered towards political disintegration, the conflict exploded into a region-wide crisis that could have far-reaching and unpredictable international consequences.

    Brent crude oil prices increased by 6 per cent, for example, since many of the world’s oil shipments pass through or past the Bab el-Mandab Strait linking the Red Sea with the Gulf of Aden.

    But the far more pressing concern is whether we are now seeing a proxy war in Yemen between its neighbour Saudi Arabia, the leading Sunni power, and Iran, the leading Shia power, explode into a regional conflict that could sweep us all up in its wake.

    Saudi warplanes targeted Houthi positions in the country’s capital Sana’a killing 18 civilians and injuring many more.

    Britain and America supported the Saudi-led military intervention in Yemen as the coalition deployed 100 fighter jets and amassed 150,000 soldiers to fight in the region.

    Another nine Sunni states joined the offensive, including the United Arab Emirates, Kuwait and Qatar, pledging to send aircraft to bomb targets, with Egypt deploying ships.

    Anticipating the worsening situation, British elite soldiers — in Yemen to train government troops to fight Al Qaeda, which has established its most dangerous branch in the country — pulled out last Friday.

    Source:
    http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3013804/Saudi-Arabia-sends-war-planes-Yemen-terrifying-clash-Iran-leaving-Middle-East-brink-catastrophe.html?ito=social-facebook

     

     

    #794375
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    Islamic State issues fighters with ID CARDS as jihadis rush to LEAVE terror group

    ISLAMIC STATE jihadists are being issued with ID CARDS in a bid to boost morale, following a series of key losses for the brutal terror group.

    Commanders have given their militants the cards – which contain a three-dimensional chip and an electronic SIM card – to help Islamic State fighters securely move between the Iraqi stronghold of Mosul and their self-declared capital of Raqqa, in Syria.

    A civil rights activist based in Mosul, who did not wish to be named, said the cards were part of a campaign to ‘reassure’ fighters the Islamic State’s leadership were still strong and in control of their so-called ‘caliphate’.

    ISIS ID card

    The Islamic State is also in the process of issuing its own currency, which will reflect its identity as a ‘sovereign state with an independent agenda’, according to Syrian press agency ARA News. It reported the new currency will be called the ‘dinar’ and will be used as an alternative to the current currency in both Syria and Iraq.

    The news of the Islamic State’s growing infrastructure came as the jihadists launched a social media campaign threatening to repeat the Islamist terror attacks on New York City of September 11, 2001.

    The video, which is being promoted on Twitter with the hashtag #WeWillBurnUSAgain, shows footage of the Islamic State’s worst atrocities against the West, such as the beheadings of American journalists Steven Sotloff and James Foley.

    It also features a voiceover saying: “America thinks it’s safe because of the geographical location.

    “Thus you see it invades Muslim lands, and thinks that the army of jihad won’t reach in their lands.

    Source:
    http://www.express.co.uk/news/world/570226/Islamic-State-brings-out-ID-cards-jihadists

    #794811
    Proclaimer
    Participant

    The blood-soaked depravity of the Ottoman Empire exceeded even today’s atrocities by Islamic State

    Genocide of the Christians: 100 years on Turkey faces global disgust at its refusal to admit butchering over a MILLION Armenians

    • In 1915 the rulers of the Ottoman empire turned their hatred on Armenians
    • The Young Turks persecution of the minority turned to unbridled savagery
    • Modern Turkey faces disgust over refusal to admit the historic genocide

    She was in bed when the soldiers came in the middle of the night and dragged her father out of the family home in Diyarbakir, a city in eastern Turkey.

    The last thing little Aghavni (her name means ‘dove’ in her native Armenian) heard as she cowered in her room was his shout of defiance: ‘I was born a Christian and I will die a Christian.’

    Not until first light did Aghavni dare to creep downstairs on that morning 100 years ago. ‘I saw an object sticking through the front door,’ she later remembered. ‘I pushed it open and there lay two horseshoes nailed to two feet.

    ‘My eyes followed up to the blood-covered ankles, the disjointed knees, the mound of blood where the genitals had been, to a long laceration through the abdomen to the chest.

    ‘I came to the hands, which were nailed horizontally on a board with big spikes of iron, like a cross. The shoulders were remarkably clean and white, but there was no head.

    ‘This was lying on the steps, propped up by the nose. I recognised the neatly trimmed beard along the cheekbones. It was my father.’

    The year was 1915. In the sprawling, beleaguered Ottoman Empire — an ally of the German Kaiser in the world war that had engulfed Europe and parts of Asia for nine months — the ruling Turks had turned their hatred on the 2 million men, women and children of Armenian extraction who lived within their borders.

    The Armenians — who lived on the eastern edge of the empire ruled from Constantinople (modern-day Istanbul) — were Christians and had been since the year 301, making theirs the first nation officially to adopt Christianity, even before Rome.

    But here, among the Islamic Turks, they had long been second-class citizens, a persecuted minority. Now, as power in the land was seized by a junta of nationalist officers known as the Young Turks, persecution turned to unbridled savagery.

    Over the next six months, there was to be a systematic uprooting and slaughter of perhaps as many as 1.5 million Armenians — on the grounds that they were infidels, racially inferior ‘dogs’ and traitors who were siding with Russia against Turkey.

    Those who weren’t put to death on the spot, their faith cruelly mocked — such as Aghavni’s father, a mild-mannered, cultivated spice merchant who spoke five languages — were hounded in columns, eastwards, into the deserts of Syria and Iraq to die.

    Their remains are long turned to dust, but the controversy that surrounds those terrible events is as alive as ever.

    Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3044292/Genocide-Christians-blood-soaked-depravity-exceeded-today-s-atrocities-Islamic-State-100-years-Turkey-faces-global-disgust-refusal-admit-butchering-MILLION-Christians.html

    #794978
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    Participant

    Islamic State jihadists murder Christians on Libyan beach in sickening new video

    A SICKENING video appearing to show Islamic State militants killing Ethiopian Christians on a Libyan beach has emerged.

    The footage, released via ISIS extremist social media accounts, shows prisoners in orange jumpsuits being lead along a beach by masked militants, grabbing them by the neck.

    The video, lasting 29 minutes, widens the number of countries embroiled in the terrorist group’s atrocities.

    Anger has erupted among extremists following Ethiopia’s military attacks on neighbouring Somalia.

    A voice in the video is heard shouting “Muslim blood that was shed under the hands of your religion is not cheap.”

    But there is no direct mention of Ethiopia’s government.

    [caption id="" align="alignnone" width="590"] Islamic State murdering Christians in Ethiopia[/caption]

    Source: http://www.express.co.uk/news/world/571518/Islamic-State-Christians-murdered-Libya

    #795172
    Proclaimer
    Participant

    Christians slaughtered on Libya beach by IS were ‘migrants trying to reach Europe

    AROUND 30 Christians believed to have been beheaded by Islamic State militants on a beach in Libya were desperate migrants waiting to travel Europe, it has been claimed.

    The sickening 29-minute video entitled ‘Until It Came to Them – Clear Evidence’, which apparently showed the killing of two groups of Ethiopian captives on the North African beach was released by the terror group at the weekend.

    Ethiopian government spokesman Redwan Hussein has since said officials are in contact with its embassy in Cairo, Egypt, to verify the video.

    He will also hope to determine whether the victims were solely in Libya in the hope of crossing the Mediterranean Sea to Europe.

    He said: “If this is confirmed, it will be a warning to people who wish to risk and travel to Europe through the dangerous route.”

    The news comes just hours after more than 900 migrants were feared dead after an overcrowded boat capsized off the coast of Libya on Sunday.

    It is said to be the worst maritime disaster in the Mediterranean Sea, according to European immigrant authorities.

    EU leaders will hold an emergency summit on Thursday to address the worsening tragedy.

    Abba Kaletsidk Mulugeta, an official with the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahdo Church, said he also believed the victims shown in the Islamic State video were migrants.

    “I believe this is just another case of the Islamic State group killing Christians in the name of Islam,” he added.

    “Our fellow citizens have just been killed on a faith-based violence that is totally unacceptable.

    Source:
    http://www.express.co.uk/news/world/571810/Christians-Libya-Islamic-State-migrants-Europe-Libya

    #795350
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    Participant

    Isis leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi ‘seriously wounded in Coalition air strike and no longer in control of the group

    • Iraqi source said he was wounded after his three-car convoy was attacked
    • Air strike is thought to have taken place on March 18 near Syrian border 
    • He is slowly recovering but reportedly does not have reins of the group

    Isis leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi has been seriously injured in an air strike and is no longer in control of the terrorist group, according to an Iraqi source.

    The source said that he was wounded by an attack from the US-led coalition while travelling in a three-car convoy in March in Nineveh, Iraq.

    At first his chances of survival were deemed by his lieutenants to be low, but he pulled through.

    However, he was left so weakened that his inner circle reportedly mooted the idea of naming a new leader.

    Another, an Iraqi expert on Isis used by the government in Baghdad in an advisory capacity, revealed that he had in fact been wounded.

    He said: ‘Yes, he was wounded in al-Baaj near the village of Umm al-Rous on 18 March with a group that was with him.’

    This area is known to be largely lawless and a hotbed of jihadi activity, with very little Coalition air presence.

    Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3049120/Isis-leader-Abu-Bakr-al-Baghdadi-seriously-wounded-Coalition-air-strike-no-longer-control-group.html#ixzz3Y2SGJHNS

    #795838
    Proclaimer
    Participant

    Retired generals: Be afraid of ISIS

    Retired Lt. Gen. Michael T. Flynn served as director of the Defense Intelligence Agency. Medal of Honor recipient and retired Maj. Gen. James E. Livingston, USMC, and congressional counterterrorism adviser Michael S. Smith II are co-founders of the strategic advisory firm Kronos Advisory. The views expressed are solely the authors’ own.

    Be afraid — be very afraid. This is the warning the world deserves to hear. Because the leader of the free world refuses to look with clear eyes at the chief security challenges of the 21st century: the fruits of radical Islam.

    The results of the Obama White House’s innovative efforts to make the world a better place can be accounted for in the ever-growing numbers of victims of radical Islam in the Middle East, North Africa and South Asia. Not to mention here in the United States, Canada and Europe. Is it not a tragic irony that the Arab Spring-era policies of a Nobel Peace Prize recipient accommodated the transition of Syria into the world’s newest jihad theater while leaving Libya a failed state and Yemen a failing state?

    The Syrian jihad gave rise to the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria, which now uses Syria as a rear operating base to support its jihad in Iraq, which could soon spill over into Jordan. Plus, Libya is now being used as a rear operating base by ISIS and other global jihadist elements striving to redraw the map of the Middle East, even as they plan attacks in Europe and North America.

    Given the frightfully slow pace America’s commander-in-chief is currently allowing our military and intelligence community to take action against both ISIS and its progenitor, al Qaeda, the picture of what’s in store is clear: The body count will continue to grow in the places where these groups can generate buy-in for their agendas. And neither the United States nor our Western allies are immune to this cancer.

    Academics who must say something new or different to garner interest in their work may describe the agendas of ISIS and al Qaeda as distinctly different. But the fact is they are not — their agendas, which constitute the foremost threats to the global security environment today, are manifestations of radical Islam.

    http://edition.cnn.com/2015/04/26/opinions/flynn-livingston-smith-isis-threat/index.html

    #796561
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    Participant

    Islamic State opens luxury hotel…but guests face beheading if they break rules

    ISLAMIC State have released images of its first jihadi hotel, complete with swimming pools and tennis courts – but without a bar.

    Fighters for the brutal terror group have refurbished the Ninawa International Hotel in Mosul, the northern Iraqi city currently under IS control.

    The 262-bed, five-star hotel, once voted the best place to stay in Iraq, has had an ISIS makeover with manicured gardens and freshly-polished marble floors.

    It is unclear whether the hotel once famed for its “luxurious elegance and comfort” has retained its bowling alley and sauna after the recent renovations.

    But dancing, music, smoking or gambling are now forbidden and women must dress head-to-toe in black.

    Members of the group’s notorious al-Khansaa brigade – its female police force – are understood to be tasked with patrolling the grounds to check clients are obeying strict Sharia law.

    Patrons risk amputation or beheading for failing to adhere to the Islamic rules that govern the area.

    The 11-storey hotel is situated on the Tigres river and is just a few minutes from the once-popular tourist street in the centre of Mosul.

    Pictures released by the organisation’s ministry of propaganda show workmen using tools to destroy the intricate carvings on the façade of the old hotel.

    Sitting on leather sofas next to the lavish property’s interior waterfalls, guests could be forgiven for forgetting that they are staying in one of the world’s most dangerous towns.

    Source: http://www.express.co.uk/news/world/575149/Islamic-State-5star-hotel-beheading-break-rules

    #796568
    bodhitharta
    Participant

    Why are you printing Satire as your source of information? That is poor journalism t8, before you post from “News sites” you should always read their disclaimers or “about” section where they explain whether it is real news or satire or random unedited submissions, this particular site allows unchecked unsubstantiated articles by third parties and uses no editor to check for accuracy or validity

    #797180
    Proclaimer
    Participant

    While that site is not that serious about journalism, that doesn’t make the story not true. If you go to Google News Search you will see that many news sites ran this story including RT. Sure if you have proof this is not true, then feel free to show us. I have no problem with that.

    This topic is about the rise of an Islamic Empire and has many posts dedicated to ISIS since they have declared an Islamic Caliphate and their influence is spreading quite fast. This story was just showing the process of their establishment and was not meant to be derogatory in any way.

    Of course ISIS may get wiped off the Earth for all I know, but I am keeping tabs on the rise of an Islamic Empire in the Middle East. One way or another, I am starting to think this will happen.

    The last time there was an empire in this part of the world, they superseded the Roman Empire, lasted around 500 years, ruled over large swathes of the Middle East and Europe, and massacred Jews and Christians. There is a theory regarding that empire that is was part of the Beast prophesied in Revelation as many of the biblical prophecies regarding the seventh and eighth king look eerily similar to the Islamic prophecies regarding the Mahdi. If the Ottoman Empire was the seventh, then we know that the beast received a deadly wound, and came back to life. It certainly fits the prophecy, but there are a number of other contenders too.

    This thread is a work in progress and is keeping tabs on stories that show the establishment of an Islamic Empire.

    #797571
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    Participant

    The ancient city that has stood for 2,000 years but now faces destruction at the hands of ISIS

    Fears for Palmyra, the archaeological jewel of the Middle East which Islamists want to reduce to rubble as modern barbarians gather at its gates

    • Fears grow for city that’s ‘an irreplaceable treasure for the Syrian people’
    • Syria’s head of antiquities made an appeal for international action
    • UNESCO describes Palmyra as a site of ‘outstanding universal value’
    • Syria’s army dispatched reinforcements to Palmyra to push back IS

    Islamic State terrorists advanced to the gates of ancient Palmyra on Thursday, raising fears the Syrian world heritage site could face destruction of the kind the jihadists have already wreaked in Iraq.

    As it overran nearby villages, IS executed 26 civilians – 10 of whom were beheaded – for ‘collaborating with the regime,’ the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.

    Irina Bokova, head of the UN’s cultural body UNESCO, called on Syrian troops and extremists to spare Palmyra, saying it ‘represents an irreplaceable treasure for the Syrian people, and the world.’

    ‘Palmyra must be saved,’ Bokova said at a two-day conference in Cairo on protecting the region’s archeological sites.

    Syria’s head of antiquities made an appeal for international action earlier Thursday, saying IS was less than two kilometres (barely a mile) from the remains of one of the most important cultural centres of the ancient world.

    [caption id="" align="alignnone" width="634"]Palmyra as a heritage site of 'outstanding universal value' UNESCO describes Syria’s Palmyra as a heritage site of ‘outstanding universal value’[/caption]

    Read more:
    http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3081310/IS-jihadists-threaten-Syrias-ancient-Palmyra.html#ixzz3aItDfdK0

    #797862
    Proclaimer
    Participant

    Iraq braced for the Battle of Baghdad

    Chilling images show ISIS victory parade after fanatics seize key city of Ramadi – just 60 miles from the capital – in an orgy of violence and beheadings

    • ISIS has ‘surrounded’ Iraqi capital and wants ‘all-out war’ with militia there
    • Battle between terror group and Shia fighters there would be ‘utter carnage’
    • Islamic State seized strategic city of Ramadi just 60 miles west of Baghdad
    • Released sick images showing militants and children celebrating victory
    • 3,000 Shi’ite paramilitaries are now preparing to launch counter-offensive

    ISIS militants have held a twisted victory parade after taking the key city of Ramadi in an orgy of violence and beheadings – and the extremists could march on the Iraqi capital Baghdad within the next month.

    Mutilated bodies scatter the streets of the ‘Gateway of Baghdad’, where Islamic State slaughtered around 500 and forced nearly 25,000 to flee their homes over the last few days.

    Now ISIS has released images of militants celebrating, children wielding automatic weapons and a fleet of pick-up trucks carrying its jubilant fighters through the blood-stained streets of Ramadi.

    Shi’ite fighters have already launched a counter-offensive to recapture the city, but these kinds of tactics play straight into Islamic State’s grand plan to spark all-out war in the region, according to the Middle East director of counter-terrorism think-tank RUSI.

    Islamic State militants are already marching east towards the Habbaniya army base – around 20 miles east of Ramadi – where a column of 3,000 Shi’ite paramilitaries are amassing, witnesses and a military officer has said.

    And if ISIS manage to reach Baghdad, it would be ‘utter carnage’, Professor Gareth Stansfield told MailOnline.

    [caption id="" align="alignnone" width="634"] Show of strength: ISIS flags line the streets of Ramadi as a procession of militants[/caption]

     

    Read more:
    http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3085486/ISIS-claim-taken-control-Iraqi-city-Ramadi-security-forces-flee-following-series-suicide-car-bombings.html#ixzz3aXRBhVSj

    #798405
    Proclaimer
    Participant

    ISIS slaughters 400 mostly women and children in ancient Syria city

    • Follows execution of 300 pro-government soldiers in historic settlement 
    • Jihadi fighters previously warned residents against sheltering troops
    • Black ISIS flag hoisted over an ancient citadel after taking over city

    Islamic State militants have executed at least 400 mostly women and children in Syria’s ancient city of Palmyra.

    Eye-witnesses have reported the streets are strewn with bodies – the latest victims of the Islamic State’s unrelenting savagery – on the same day photographs of captured Syrian soldiers have emerged.

    It follows the killing of nearly 300 pro-government troops two days after they captured the city, now symbolised by a black ISIS flag flying above an ancient citadel.

    ISIS has also strengthened its position in neighbouring Iraq with Jihadi fighters killing more than 500 people when they captured the city of Ramadi, last week.

    #798406
    Proclaimer
    Participant

    Is ISIS close to buying nuclear weapon from Pakistan?

    Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant’s (ISIS), in its propaganda magazine Dabiq, has claimed that it is ‘infinitely’ more possible to buy a nuclear bomb from Pakistan and transport it to the United States.

    The article ‘Perfect Storm’, attributed to captive British photojournalist John Cantlie, mentions a hypothetical operation in which the Islamic State uses its billions of dollars to purchase a nuclear device “through weapon dealers with links to corrupt officials in the region”.

    thousand tons of ammonium nitrate explosive? That’s easy enough to make,” it further states.

    It mentions how the nuclear device can be smuggled into the United States.

    The article states that ‘perhaps such a scenario is far-fetched but it’s the sum of all fears for Western intelligence agencies and it’s infinitely more possible today than it was just one year ago’.

    ‘The Islamic State make no secret of the fact that they have every intention of attacking America on its home soil and they’re not going to mince about with two mujahidin taking down a dozen casualties if it originates from the Caliphate. They’ll be looking to do something big, something that would make any past operation look like a squirrel shoot, and the more groups that pledge allegiance the more possible it becomes to pull off something truly epic,” the article further states.

    It further states, “Remember, all of this has happened in less than a year. How more dangerous will be the lines of communication and supply a year on from today?”

    The article ends with a warning, “As the territory of the Islamic State crosses from one border to another like a wildfire that is burning out of control, it’ll be only a matter of time before the Islamic State reaches the Western world.”

    http://zeenews.india.com/news/world/isis-close-to-buying-nuclear-weapon-from-pakistan_1600094.html

    #798481
    Proclaimer
    Participant

    Huge majority SUPPORT Islamic State in Arab world, shock poll finds

    SUPPORT for Islamic State (ISIS) has soared above 80 PER CENT in a poll for the controversial Arabic news channel Al Jazeera.

    More than eight out of 10 of the respondents to an online survey for the Qatar-based network – which also has offices in London – gave their backing to the brutal regime.

    The poll, which asked in Arabic “Do you support the organising victories of the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS)?” has attracted almost 60,000 votes.

    Shockingly, 81.3 per cent – or 61,145 people – voted yes to the question, in support of the Islamic extremists.

    The ‘no’ side gained just 18.7 per cent of the vote.

    Al Jazeera, which is funded and run by Qatar’s ruling family, has courted controversy in the past for its support of groups including Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood, which is identified as a terrorist organisation in many countries.

    Critics say it has a bias towards Islamist groups and dozens of staff in its Egypt office quit over the network’s coverage.

    The channel first gained widespread attention in the wake of the 9/11 terror attacks on America, when it broadcast videos from Osama Bin Laden.

    According to a US journalist, the channel also had a “huge, glamorous poster of bin Laden’s silhouette” hanging in the background of the main studio set.

    Pro-ISIS Twitter accounts are thought to be promoting the poll and asking followers to vote in support of the extremist group.

    Source

    #800876
    Proclaimer
    Participant

    Tribulation.

    #801214
    Proclaimer
    Participant

    What do you think?

    #801976
    Proclaimer
    Participant

    ISIS unveils map of countries it wants to rule by 2020

     ISIS-2020

    #802047
    Proclaimer
    Participant

    Carly Fiorina: Islamic Civilization was “Greatest in the World

    Republican presidential candidate Carly Fiorina, believes the Islamic Ottoman Empire civilization was the greatest in the world.

    There was once a civilization that was the greatest in the world.

    It was able to create a continental super-state that stretched from ocean to ocean, and from northern climes to tropics and deserts. Within its dominion lived hundreds of millions of people, of different creeds and ethnic origins.

    One of its languages became the universal language of much of the world, the bridge between the peoples of a hundred lands. Its armies were made up of people of many nationalities, and its military protection allowed a degree of peace and prosperity that had never been known. The reach of this civilization’s commerce extended from Latin America to China, and everywhere in between.

    And this civilization was driven more than anything, by invention. Its architects designed buildings that defied gravity. Its mathematicians created the algebra and algorithms that would enable the building of computers, and the creation of encryption. Its doctors examined the human body, and found new cures for disease. Its astronomers looked into the heavens, named the stars, and paved the way for space travel and exploration.

    Its writers created thousands of stories. Stories of courage, romance and magic. Its poets wrote of love, when others before them were too steeped in fear to think of such things.

    When other nations were afraid of ideas, this civilization thrived on them, and kept them alive. When censors threatened to wipe out knowledge from past civilizations, this civilization kept the knowledge alive, and passed it on to others.

    While modern Western civilization shares many of these traits, the civilization I’m talking about was the Islamic world from the year 800 to 1600, which included the Ottoman Empire and the courts of Baghdad, Damascus and Cairo, and enlightened rulers like Suleiman the Magnificent.

    Although we are often unaware of our indebtedness to this other civilization, its gifts are very much a part of our heritage. The technology industry would not exist without the contributions of Arab mathematicians. Sufi poet-philosophers like Rumi challenged our notions of self and truth. Leaders like Suleiman contributed to our notions of tolerance and civic leadership.

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