Professor: “ISIS is committing genocide.”

By Sara Wagner, August 21, 2015

Dr. John Andrew Morrow teaches foreign language at Ivy Tech. He’s also the director of the Genocide Initiative, a worldwide effort to help put a stop to ISIS.

“We know they’re committing genocide, and we believe that world leaders should do something about it. They should act. Unfortunately, so far, there hasn’t been a clear will to do so,” Dr. Morrow said. “If we could use our network in order to pressure governments, world leaders, politicians, human rights organizations to declare the atrocities being committed by ISIS and similar groups as acts of genocide, as crimes against humanity. When you do so, that would be a great accomplishment in and of itself. It would trigger a series of consequences- politically, economically, and so on. It would ensure that eventually justice would be served.”

The Genocide Initiative is the product of a book Dr. Morrow wrote back in 2013 called “The Covenants of Prophet Mohammed with the Christian World.” Dr. Morrow said the book is essentially a collection of long lost letters that the Mohammed sent to Christian leaders of his time. Dr. Morrow said the book was initially aimed at the Muslim community to show Christians that they support them during this time of persecution. From there, Dr. Morrow asked Christian leaders how else they could help, and thus, the Genocide Initiative was born.

The group is sponsoring a petition that anyone can sign to show their opposition to ISIS.

“This is open to everyone, people of faith and people without faith, just human beings as a whole. After we have a significant amount of signatures, we would start sending this out to different political leaders throughout the world to put some pressure on these people to act,” Dr. Morrow said. “People need to realize that they can do something, and it can be something very simple.”

Dr. Morrow thinks the actions of ISIS are worse than past genocides in history.

“Perhaps quantitatively, it is not the same as what happened in Europe or in Germany, but qualitatively, it is exactly the same thing. They make no secret about it. They film their atrocities. When they drown people, when they burn people alive, crucify people, they’re very proud of it,” Dr. Morrow said. “Pretty much anyone who disagrees with their ideology, with their mode of thinking, is someone whose blood, in their eyes, is legitimate to shed. They are committing genocide. There is no question about it. When you try to exterminate a specific group, a religious group, an ethnic group, this is genocide.”

He believes doing nothing is simply not an option.

“I have many roles in life. I’m a father, I’m a professor, I’m an academic, and apparently now, I’m an activist. All of it ties together. It just boils down to that I’m a human being who cares for other human beings. We’re talking about human life here. Human life is sacred. If you don’t believe that life is sacred, then I don’t think you deserve to live. I think we should all unite as human beings in order to save human lives,” Dr. Morrow said.

The group hopes to get at least 100,000 signatures. It plans to upload the petition to www.change.org sometime next week. Below is a copy of the petition:
THE GENOCIDE INITIATIVE

We, the undersigned, call upon all political powers: beyond all questions of political affiliation, and in the true spirit of human solidarity and decency, to categorize the crimes being committed by ISIS and other Takfiri terrorists against Christians, Twelver Shiites, Ismailis, Alawis, Sufis, traditional Sunnis, and others, as acts of religious, cultural, and ethnic genocide.

Before ISIS, all religious denominations stand in the line of fire. Christians and Muslims know only too well the bitterness and despair of a life spent under the ominous flag of Takfirism—a heretical perversion of Islam, also known as Wahhabism, which reared its hideous head a mere two centuries ago.  Evil has a new face and it is Takfirism! Doing nothing while millions of lives are at risk is tantamount to murder. We owe it to our children to carry on this fight so as to prevent the shadow of our shameful inaction from falling on future generations.

Before the threat of Wahhabi-inspired radicalism the world can no longer afford to stand on the sidelines—the enemy needs to be engaged on all fronts: ideologically through the denunciation of its nefarious dogma, religiously through the coming together of people of all faiths, politically, militarily, financially … everything conceivable must be done and no effort should be spared.

We demand that local, regional, and international powers act decisively to neutralize ISIS and other Takfiri terrorists by cutting off their legs from under them—systematically dismantling their networks, whether financial, political or religious.

While we remain committed to peace, local populations have the right to defend themselves; and we have a duty of care towards them. Therefore, concerted efforts, in keeping with international and territorial sovereignty, should be made to combat this evil by all means necessary.

We urge political and economic powers to freeze all bank accounts of ISIS and other Takfiri terrorists; to seize their assets; and to prosecute any and all who provide material support to genocidalist war criminals.

We further urge these powers to do all they can to determine how the black market trade in oil, drugs, arms, art treasures and enslaved human beings that ISIS and other Takfiri groups rely upon to fund their efforts can be interrupted and brought to a halt, and how anyone involved in any aspect of this trade, as either seller or buyer, can be prosecuted under existing laws.

We challenge all international organizations, human rights groups, intelligence agencies, national security agencies, law enforcement agencies, and military forces to coordinate their efforts to locate, arrest, indict, try, and convict any and all parties responsible for supporting ISIS and other Takfiri terrorists in any form or fashion, including, but not limited to, financial, military, strategic, political or ideological assistance. We call upon members of the legal profession to determine how the perpetrators of these crimes can be indicted under existing laws, including but not limited to those against criminal conspiracy, hate speech, and providing aid to the enemy in time of war.

Finally, we demand that any and all parties who have supported ISIS and other Takfiri groups, in any form or fashion, be labeled as war criminals guilty of genocide.