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[ by Charles Cameron — as one headline put it, 20 Million Shia Muslims Brave Isis by Making Pilgrimage to Karbala ]
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You may remember IS / Daesh bulldozing the berm separating Syria and Iraq (upper image, below) not so long ago:

Putting that into perspective is this image from the border between Iran and Iraq (lower image, above), as millions of pilgrims queue up there on their way to Karbala for Arbaeen, the final day of the Shia’s forty days mourning for Imam Hussein.

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At a time when the sectarian anti-Shia brutalities of Daesh / IS are capturing the attention of many in the west, the presence of Christian priests participating in the Arbaeen proceedings (upper panel, below)) echoes Pope Francis’ recent gesture in offering his prayers in the Blue Mosque in Istanbul:

The enormous turnout for Arbaeen in Karbala this year — those gathering at the shrine are reported to number 17.5 million (lower panel, above) — can be seen as a mark of Shia solidarity and devotion in the face of possible violence from Sunni jihadists.

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One tweeter posted this image of a road sign seen along the pilgrimage route early in the forty-day period of mourning:

The sign reads: If it rains Daesh, still we will visit Hussein!

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Sources:

Guardian: Isis breach of Iraq-Syria border merges two wars into one ‘nightmarish reality’

Iraq Live Update: Iran-Iraq border crossing … Millions queue to go Karbala

Shafaqna: Christian priests in the holy shrine of Imam Hussein (AS)

Iraq Live Update: Largest prayer congregation in the world

IB Times: 20 Million Shia Muslims Brave Isis by Making Pilgrimage to Karbala for Arbaeen

[ by Charles Cameron — is Daesh the exception that proves the rule? ]
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In IS prison, it has JN prisoners hit each other while saying ‘Jabhat al-Nusrah – murtadin (apostates).’ pic.twitter.com/QAQPjpPf6c

— Aaron Y. Zelin (@azelin) December 9, 2014

Qur’an 2. 256:

Let there be no compulsion in religion: Truth stands out clear from Error

[ by Charles Cameron — these two tweets hopefully speak for themselves ]
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Merciless:

ISIS Jihadists Turn Churches Into Prisons in Formerly Christian City of Mosul: http://t.co/eRemDKRsFa pic.twitter.com/n0SyRj1Uev

— The Christian Post (@ChristianPost) December 3, 2014

and Merciful:

Kurdish mosque made of to church for Christian refugees who fled to #Kurdistan. #TwitterKurds #ISIS #ISIL #Daesh #USA pic.twitter.com/65QIbYzbUi

— Peshmerga forces (@salar_dd) December 4, 2014

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The world seems filled with these simultaneities of the gruesome and the glorious.

And what of man?

What a piece of work is a man! How noble in reason, how infinite in faculty! In form and moving how express and admirable! In action how like an Angel! in apprehension how like a god! The beauty of the world! The paragon of animals! And yet to me, what is this quintessence of dust? Man delights not me; no..

[ by Charles Cameron — with an assist from the young Isaac Newton ]
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This is one of those micro-events that crop up if you frequently read from diverse sources, haphazardly piling one thing atop another:

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Here’s what I’m thinking. Taken at face value these two statements seem pretty similar: tidy up the archaic spellings in the first, the contemporary ellipsis in the second, and tweet them — you’d have the same basic threat in each case:

I’ll burn you guys and the roof over your heads.

The problem here is fundamental to our times and to the way we handle potential recruits to, and returning fighters from, IS / Daesh —

how can you tell the merely radical sounding from those who will in fact put their radical ideas into violent practice?

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Verbal threats can easily indicate one state of affairs or the other. Consider these facts:

Whoever it was that made the threat in the lower panel over the phone to Pastor Carlton Lee of Flood Christian Church in Feruson, someone indeed made good on the church part, setting the cinder block structure ablaze and burning it to the ground on Monday.

Whoever it was who threatened to burn his parents’ home over their heads and them with it in the upper panel seems not to have done so, but went on to discover the law of gravitational attraction, write the Philosophiæ Naturalis Principia Mathematica, co-discover the calculus, and hold the presidency of the Royal Society before dying at the over-ripe old age of 84.

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Newton.

Sir Isaac, I mean, Newton. That second quote came from Sir Isaac Newton, alchemist extraordinaire, listing his youthful sins — Newton who, by the way, calculated that the beginning of the reign of Christ would not occur before 2060, writing:

And the days of short lived Beasts being put for the years of lived [sic] kingdoms, the period of 1260 days, if dated from the complete conquest of the three kings A.C. 800, will end A.C. 2060. It may end later, but I see no reason for its ending sooner. This I mention not to assert when the time of the end shall be, but to put a stop to the rash conjectures of fancifull men who are frequently predicting the time of the end, & by doing so bring the sacred prophesies into discredit as often as their predictions fail. Christ comes as a thief in the night, & it is not for us to know the times & seasons wch God hath put into his own breast.

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So — would you lock up the young Newton and throw away the key? Or track down whoever phoned that threat to the pastor in Ferguson? I wouldn’t send them to Cambridge and expect too much of them ..

Words can certainly be inflammatory — in some cases they result in flames..

[ by Charles Cameron — once again a Mahdist hadith — and a video link, I’m pretty sure ]
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Dabiq issue #5 (front & back covers above) has now been out a day or three.

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This time, there’s an “end times” hadith that doesn’t mention the title Mahdi while referring to him on the back cover:

This particular hadith as quoted requires the Mahdi to have both the name of the Prophet and of his father — which will make it difficult, but not impossible, for the current caliph to receive that title. Mr Orange first suggested this problem to me, and I hope in a future post to discuss it in some detail.

I also hope to continue discussing Dabiq issue #5 as time allows..

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For now, let me close by saying I am pretty sure the child in the photo above is also “Abdullah” from Khazakstan interviewed in this video:

which I found in Australia’s 9News piece, Child demonstrates frightening firearms proficiency in ISIL video.