A strong Kurdish State can fight ISIS

OPINION

Bahaadin Penjweny

A lot of friends and colleagues ask for my opinion about the situation in Kurdistan, namely what is happening in northern Iraq, because I am a Kurd.

Firstly, most of the weapons the Islamic State militants are using against innocent people were, in fact, sold to the Iraqi Army by the American Government to help protect the country.

When the Iraqi armed forces in Mosul and most of the other Sunni areas deserted their positions, they left behind their weapons, which included American assault and semi-automatic rifles.

The Iraqi Government, being a sectarian Government, made some of the Sunnis support IS and the Arab Socialist Ba'ath Party supporters joined in because they saw it as an opportunity to take revenge on the American and Iraqi Governments.

This brings us to the crimes IS has committed.

They have displaced the Christians in Mosul and in disputed territories between the Kurdish Regional Government and the Iraqi Government.

The Yazidis have been massacred and 1.3 million refugees have fled to Kurdistan.

The young Kurdish fighters who are the Peshmerga - which literally means the one facing death - have been able to freeze the momentum of IS militants.

The Peshmerga achieved these gains within a few weeks of fighting, with outdated weapons and with no help from the Iraqi Government.

The majority of the Kurdistan population is Muslim and the Peshmerga, who are at the front lines battling the brutal IS, are also Muslims.

The Kurdish Parliament urged the international community to send arms.

The US and the European Union decided to send modern weapons to the brave Peshmerga fighters who were on the forefront of the war, after communicating with the Iraqi Government in Baghdad.

Australia followed this lead and the Royal Australian Air Force dropped weapons and ammunition to the Peshmerga fighters.

I was rather disappointed the sacrifices of the young Peshmerga, who include female fighters, were not mentioned in Australian Federal Parliament.

Had it not been for the Peshmerga, there would be further civil unrest and, potentially, international unrest.

I would like to ask readers to urge their local MPs, whichever political party they support, to tell the Federal Parliament to support the independence of the Kurdish State, which will help to contain the momentum and growth of IS and their affiliates.

This is what Australians can do to help the forces resisting IS.

Bahaadin Penjweny is a Rockingham resident who immigrated to Australia in 1999. He has a Masters degree in Islamic Studies from the International Islamic University in Islamabad, Pakistan.