Morning Star

Where the "true religion" is

ISIS insists that they live Islam in the purest sense, and it's not a pleasant life for women, as these two former collaborators came to understand:

Two former members of Islamic State's elite women's police unit, known as al Khansa Brigade, who were married off to foreign fighters are now in hiding. The women escaped the Syrian city Raqqa, an IS stronghold, and were smuggled to southern Turkey earlier this year. They are afraid IS fighters will find them.

Doaa (not her real name), 20, left Syria after her Saudi Arabian husband, an IS fighter, blew himself up in a suicide attack. She has told Sky News she grew to love her husband and he convinced her that life in the so-called Islamic State was the right path.

Her role in the brigade was to punish women who didn't follow IS's strict rules. She even carried out the lashing herself.

She explained the different levels of punishment: "If the woman tries to escape when we arrest her then she'll get 60 lashes. "Otherwise, when it comes to clothes, if she's not wearing the abaya (Islamic dress) or she's wearing high heels then it's the standard 40 lashes."

Doaa says she now regrets what she did. "What upset me most was lashing old women when they weren't wearing the proper clothes. These women were like my mother. I mean for girls, yes, they should wear the proper attire but old women no. They'd lash them and humiliate them."

They note that women attached to ISIS are from all around the world. The Arab women would be charged with running and policing the cities, the non-Arab women were often put on the front lines.  Leaving their posts has saved them from performing duties they now deeply regret, but they are now in hiding in Turkey, knowing that ISIS is searching for them. A ghastly existence either way.

Wisdom and the Creed

Mehmet Gormez, Turkey's newly chosen Minister for Religious Affairs, has pleased many Muslims with a bold move: turning the Aghia Sophia in Nicaea (Izmit) back into a mosque. It was originally a Christian church, but was taken over by the Ottomans in 1331. With the secularisation of the country under Mustafa Ataturk in the early 20th century, it was turned into a museum in 1920. 

Nicea is the site of two of the Church's Ecumenical Councils, one in the year 325, the other in 787. The first council began work on a Christian creed, the second was to discuss the iconoclast controversy. Concerning the first, Fr Edward McNamara gives some details on the history:

From a historical perspective the creed as we know it was first sketched out at the Councils of Nicaea (325) and Constantinople (381) although in its developed form it first appears in the acts of the Council of Chalcedon (451).  This creed was probably based on a baptismal profession of faith and encapsulated what were perceived as the essential tenets of the faith.  Above all it was a response to Arian and other heresies and defended the doctrine of the Trinity and Christ's true humanity and divinity. [...]

 The practice of reciting the creed at Mass is attributed to Patriarch Timothy of Constantinople (511-517), and the initiative was copied in other churches under Byzantine influence, including that part of Spain which was under the empire at that time.  About 568, the Byzantine emperor Justinian ordered the creed recited at every Mass within his dominions. Twenty years later (589) the Visigoth king of Spain Reccared renounced the Arian heresy in favor of Catholicism and ordered the creed said at every Mass. About two centuries later we find the practice of reciting the creed in France and the custom spread slowly to other parts of Northern Europe.

Through prayer and collaboration with the bishops of the universal Church, here is that creed:

I believe in one God
the Father almighty,
maker of heaven and earth
of all things visible and invisible.

And in one Lord Jesus Christ,
the Only-begotten Son of God,
born of the Father before all ages.
God from God, Light from Light,
true God from true God,
begotten, not made, consubstantial with the Father; through Him all things were made.
For us and for our salvation
He came down from heaven.

(at the following words, up to and including “and became man”, all bow)
and by the Holy Spirit was incarnate
of the Virgin Mary,
and became man.

For our sake He was crucified under Pontius Pilate,
He suffered death and was buried,
and rose again on the third day
in accordance with the Scriptures.
He ascended into heaven
and is seated at the right hand of the Father.
He will come again in glory
to judge the living and the dead.
His kingdom will have no end.

And in the Holy Spirit, the Lord, the giver of life
who proceeds from the Father and the Son,
who with the Father and the Son is adored and glorified,
who has spoken through the prophets;
And in one, holy, catholic, and apostolic Church.
I confess one baptism for the forgiveness of sins.
I look forward to the resurrection of the dead
and the life of the world to come. Amen.

It must be noted that this Church--dedicated to the "Seat of Wisdom"--was built in honour of Mary, the mother of Jesus, whom we refer to by that title (among many others). Just as we bow when remembering the Incarnation in the creed, we show reverence for all women who are called to motherhood, whether spiritual and physical.

The difference between Islam and Christianity concerning the motherhood of Mary is that in the Quran she was told what would happen, whereas in the Bible she was invited. We rejoice in her free assent to the plan of God, not her coercion.