Tea at Trianon: Save the Christian and Yazidi Girls! #WarOnWomen

John Wilson Croker on Marie-Antoinette

"We have followed the history of Marie Antoinette with the greatest diligence and scrupulosity. We have lived in those times. We have talked with some of her friends and some of her enemies; we have read, certainly not all, but hundreds of the libels written against her; and we have, in short, examined her life with– if we may be allowed to say so of ourselves– something of the accuracy of contemporaries, the diligence of inquirers, and the impartiality of historians, all combined; and we feel it our duty to declare, in as a solemn a manner as literature admits of, our well-matured opinion that every reproach against the morals of the queen was a gross calumny– that she was, as we have said, one of the purest of human beings."

~from History of the Guillotine by John Wilson Croker, 1844

Edmund Burke on Marie-Antoinette

"It is now sixteen or seventeen years since I saw the queen of France, then dauphiness, at Versailles; and surely there never lighted on this orb, which she hardly seemed to touch, a more delightful vision. I saw her just above the horizon, decorating and cheering the elevated sphere she had just begun to move in, glittering like a morning star full of life and splendor and joy. Oh, what a revolution....Little did I dream that I should have lived to see such disasters fall upon her, in a nation of gallant men, in a nation of men of honor and of cavaliers! I thought ten thousand swords must have leaped from their scabbards, to avenge even a look which threatened her with insult. But the age of chivalry is gone; that of sophisters, economists, and calculators has succeeded...."

~Edmund Burke, October 1790

Tuesday, August 11, 2015

Save the Christian and Yazidi Girls! #WarOnWomen

Finally, someone is doing something to save the women and children held in sexual slavery by ISIS. I beg my fellow Christians, in honor of the Blessed Virgin Mary and her Glorious Assumption into Heaven, to make an offering towards the ransom of her children from the most debased form of slavery. To quote:

Last summer the world looked on in horror as ISIS swept through north Iraq, home to Assyrian and Chaldean Christians, and Yazidis. Hundreds of thousands fled before them, but thousands more starved to death in the desert, or were captured by Islamic forces. Girls in particular were bartered for in the markets, standing naked while men bought them as sex slaves.

But while most of the west turned off their TV sets, Canadian entrepreneur Steve Maman decided to take positive action. Making contacts in Iraq who could negotiate the release of the girls, Mr Maman raised thousands of Canadian dollars to finance a rescue operation, The Liberation of Christian and Yazidi Children of Iraq (CYCI).

Initially he turned to business contacts, mainly fellow Jews who he thanked as being “remarkably generous”, who donated tens of thousands of Canadian dollars to fund the efforts. Last month, he turned to GoFundMe in a bid to raise half a million. So far 120 girls have been freed, but around 2,700 are still being held.

“I said to myself: ‘I cannot, and will not stand idle. I will not look at the daily reports and stay passive’,” Mr Maman wrote in a statement on the website.

“The price of a child’s life to remove them from the hands of ISIS is between $1000-$3000. We, as avid consumers, spend that money on gadgets and tools. Why not spend that money to save a life?”

Most of the girls and women held by ISIS are being used as sex slaves, raped up to 30 times a day by both Islamic fighters and local men, he explained.

“Some of these children are as young as 8 years old. Not only are they at the mercy of the fighters, but also of the men still residing in Mosul; men of various ages, in some cases over 60 years of age. The rapes, abuse, and brutality they suffer at the hands of their captors are beyond imagination.

“There are many reports of owners that have decapitated innocent children and women because they refused to perform certain sexual acts. Those who comply are repeatedly beaten and serve as sex slaves to their owners, as well as their friends and guests, hardly ever limited to one predator at a time.

“Many young adolescents are sold to brothels, where they are raped 30 to 40 times a day by ISIS fighters. The U.N reports that ISIS militants have forced overly abused sex slaves to undergo virginity restoration surgery, up to 20 times after being raped and sold. This type of female genital mutilation is gaining popularity as these young girls may command premium prices on the market.”

Mr Maman has cited Oskar Schindler, the German businessman who saved dozens of Jewish children from the holocaust by buying them from the Nazis to work in his munitions factory as his inspiration. “What if someone had told Oskar Schindler that what he tried to do in the time of the Holocaust was incomprehensible and impossible?” he asked, adding: “Nothing is impossible.” (Read more.)