MESOP NEWS BOOK RECOMMENDATION / Deakin University, Faculty of Arts & Education, Faculty Member

The Iraqi Kurdish Response to the Islamic State: Political Leverage in Times of Crisis

THE IRAQI KURDISH RESPONSE TO THE “ISLAMIC STATE” – By  Benjamin Isakhan

In June 2014 the Sunni Arab fundamentalist terrorist organization of the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) expanded rapidly across parts of central and northernIraq.

They captured significant cities such as Mosul and Tikrit, adding them to theirexisting strongholds in a number of restive Sunni-majority towns and cities in Iraq(including Ramadi and Fallujah, which they had held since January 2014) and inSyria (such as Raqqa, which they controlled from March 2013). In a matter of days,ISIS had bulldozed key parts of the border between Iraq and Syria and declared theirnew “Islamic State.” Having seized such large swathes of territory, they began toimpose their strict fundamentalist vision: they set up makeshi shari’a law courts in which “infidels” (non-Muslims, those who refused to endorse their ideology publicly and even those accused of petty crimes like drinking alcohol) were tried and, in manycases, executed; women were forced into marriages and then raped; girls as young asfourteen were sold as sex slaves, while boys as young as twelve were indoctrinated andarmed before being used as child soldiers; and minority groups like Christians and Yezidis faced cruel and deadly persecution, ranging from public crucifixion to being slaughtered and dumped in mass graves. With every victory, ISIS increased in strength, money, military equipment, and prestige among their fellow militant S   Read full text https://www.academia.edu/33918413/The_Iraqi_Kurdish_Response_to_the_Islamic_State_Political_Leverage_in_Times_of_Crisis?auto=bookmark&campaign=weekly_digest