Explaining the ISIS war on Muslims

IRAN: Islamic State has claimed credit for first-ever attacks inside Iran, with gunmen dressed as women opening fire at the parliament building in central Tehran and at a mausoleum 15 miles away.

If you can wade through, this lengthy 2014 speech from the ISIS spokesman (now dead) helps explain the group’s war on Muslims, particularly Shiites, of whom the Islamic Republic in Tehran is seen as the leader.

“The State kept abiding by the advices and guidance of the elders of jihad [ref. al-Qaeda] and its symbols. It was for that reason that the State did not strike the Rafida (Shi’is) in Iran since its establishment. It left the Rawafid safe in Iran, restrained the anger of its soldiers, despite its potential at that time to transform Iran into a bloodbath.”

IRAQ: U.S.-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) launched a long-planned attack on Raqqa, the so-called ISIS capital, yesterday. Islamic State militants reportedly already have fled the city for the Euphrates Valley and the area of Deir Ezzor, where the Syrian Army is combating ISIS assaults.

In a move possibly related to the Tehran attacks, Iranian-backed militias entered Syria for the first time this week—against the advice of Kurds and others. The United States fired back.

The U.S. House last night passed legislation (H.R. 390) to provide emergency relief to victims of genocide—chiefly Yazidis, Christians, and other non-Muslims—in Iraq and Syria. The State Department under the Obama administration and so far under Trump has aided displaced Muslims and failed to assist those communities.

BRITAIN: Even major media is lining up behind Theresa May heading into elections tomorrow. Polls show May ahead but perhaps not winning sufficient seats to expand her majority in Parliament, as she hoped to do when she called early elections.

EGYPT: Attacks on Coptic Christians in Egypt are provoking a paradigm shift in rediscovering the deep roots of their faith: “Our ancestors lived and believed this message, but we never had to.”

STATE DEPARTMENT: New spokeswoman Heather Nauert, formerly of Fox News, yesterday gave the department’s first on-camera press briefing since April—and it had its painful moments. But if you endured a press briefing by Obama/Clinton State spox Jen Psaki, et. al., Nauert is off to a pretty good start.

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