Welcome back friends!  ISIS has been in the news this year, and has recently been the most often searched subject on this blog.  Some have asked about ISIS:

• Where are they from?
• Who are they?
• What are their objectives?

I don’t claim to know it all, but yesterday I shared what I know to help answer the question, “Where are they from?”  Today we’ll take a look at who ISIS is.

According to Voice of the Martyrs, the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) is now “the best known, most organized and wealthiest jihadist group.”  While most jihadist groups rely upon funding of wealthy Arab states, ISIS has hijacked power plants in Syria and is also exporting oil to fund their militant activities.  In addition, they practice extortion and confiscate money and property, including Iraqi military equipment obtained after Iraqi soldiers abandoned their positions when ISIS invaded. It is estimated that the group is worth about $2 billion, making its jihadists the highest paid, best trained, and best armed terror organization in the world.

The American CIA estimates that ISIS has at least 30,000 fighters, many of them foreign fighters drawn by the robust social media strategy employed by ISIS.  Thousands of westerners (some of them American) are believed to have joined ISIS’s ranks.

ISIS attracts Sunni Muslims who are frustrated with Shi’ite leadership and oppression in Iraq and Syria.  The brutality we hear about in the news (raping, maiming, torturing, beheading, etc) is directed not only against Christians, but against Shia Muslims, Kurds, and any other group that does not share their ideology.  In fact, in their rampage through Iraq, ISIS has destroyed dozens of shrines, mosques, and Christian gathering places.  Hundreds of thousands have fled for their lives, and Christians have been forced to convert, pay a high tax, leave or die.

Check out this very informative, 3-minute video that sheds more light on who ISIS is.

Fellow believers, may I encourage you to visit the Voice of the Martyrs website for specific ways in which to pray for persecuted Christians in Iraq and other places in the world?  (On the website, search “Iraq” for information specific to ISIS activity in Iraq.)  David once prayed, “My times are in Your hand; Deliver me from the hand of my enemies and from those who persecute me.”  (Psalm 31:15)  We can pray the same on behalf of our brothers and sisters who are persecuted. Also, let’s follow the example given to us in Acts 12:1-5:

Now about that time Herod the king laid hands on some who belonged to the church in order to mistreat them.  And he had James the brother of John put to death with a sword.  When he saw that it pleased the Jews, he proceeded to arrest Peter also.  Now it was during the days of Unleavened Bread.  When he had seized him, he put him in prison, delivering him to four squads of soldiers to guard him, intending after the Passover to bring him out before the people.  So Peter was kept in the prison, but prayer for him was being made fervently by the church of God.

Rise up, church of God (believers)!  Please pray for brothers and sisters who are persecuted by ISIS and other oppressors, for greater is He who is in us than he who is in the world!  1 John 4:4