I came across this surprising article today - Gadhafi of Libya had contacted the US before the coalition bombing campaign which also armed various rebel groups that are still at war.

He offered a peaceful transfer of power where he woudl abdicate and go into exile - he even took "confidence building" measures of moving his armed forces away from the cities.

He recieved no response and eventually after the passing of a UN resolution to "protect civilians" the Western coalition of nations, mainly France and the UK went to war to oust him.

Libya has remained broken and in chaos ever since.

There is a story on BBC News today: a mother who cooperated with the police when she found out about her son, Yusuf Sarwar, had traveled to Syria to fight felt betrayed by his arrest and subsequent 12 years and 8 months sentence under the anti terrorism laws.

His mother Majida told the BBC she believed the sentence would discourage other Muslims from helping the police.

There is a question of how these returnees should be treated. Should they be incarcerated and seen as a problem? Surely they cannot be left alone, after coming back from carrying out "terrorist activities" abroad?

Kobane/Kobani in Syria next to the Turkish border and has for a couple of months now been under assault by SIS.

There has been immense international pressure on Turkey to intervene and when it didn't, mass accusations that it was aiding ISIS.

It has often been stated that Turkey is often a route used by westerners to get into Syria/Iraq and potentially join ISIS. Further "damning" evidence against Turkey is that potentially around 400 Turks have joined ISIS.

What is often ignored when quoting this number is that there are more suspected britons (500) of having joined ISIS that Turks (400) even though Turkey is a Muslim country and is right next to the theatre of operations.

For a century now the fates of the middle east have been entangled with western intervention which lead to the collapse of the ottoman empire. Intervention has lasted longer still if you consider North Africa/Egypt and its control and relation with the Ottomans

It has been a century where the arab has not been allowed to decide his own fate but used as a pawn for western interests.

Now the threat of ISIS is being used by western powers including our own to seek a new intervention in Iraq and Syria.

They are looking to ally themselves with butchers who have killed more people than ISIS have.

Someone informed me recently about an online campaign raising awareness of the plight of persecuted Christians in Iraq.

The symbol of solidarity for that was the Arabic letter n, or "ن".

On Sunday I was listening to the news and there was someone from the church on saying that the UK government has been far too quiet for far too long on the plight of Christians in Iraq.

I haven't liked what the campaign represented for the first moment. I understand that for western individuals this may seem worthy and they may focus on the non-muslim minorities. I think it is misguided for Muslims to join any such campaign

What this campaign and others do is devalue Muslim blood.

May I have your attention please...

May I have your attention please...

will the real Islamic state stand up.

I repeat, will the real Islamic State please stand up.

We're gonna have a problem here,

Because ISIS ain't it.

I am not speaking up here just for its oppression of Christians. I am not going to put the "noon" as a symbol of solidarity.

Nor for the plight of the Yezidis on Shinjar mountain (to protect whom Obama came running and bombed ISIS... mostly in a different location around Irbil to protect its CIA base there... Do not trust what America tells you. )

Because each of those campaigns and bandwagons belittles Muslim blood.

...but right now the Muslim world needs to sort its act out.

The whole of North Africa, Syria, Iraq, Bahrain and the rest need to fix themselves first. That may be less "romantic" and less popular with the sloganeers, but you can't build a house on sand.

For those not following the not-broadcast news - Israel has been pummelling the Palestinians recently, "searching for" 3 settler teenagers who may or may not have been kidnapped while hitchhiking. Netanyahu has naturally blamed Hamas and Fatah has complied with its masters in closing sections of the West Bank off so that Israeli's can search for the missing teenagers.

...from Monday.

So that they can kill all the men.

#ReadBetweenTheLines

Then again that may be better than them all starving to death.