Sexual jihad? Now I've heard everything.

Thankfully, the American people seem to have stopped Obama from making the civil war in Syria even worse. (A 'civil' war is a war within one country fought by two different groups in that country.)

(My friend Giulia took this photo while we were in Chelsea...Nobomba!)

Secretary of State John Kerry and President Obama had argued, among other things, that the 'rebels' (those who are fighting against the Syrian government) are the 'good guys,' whereas the dictator of Syria (a dictator is a leader who rules the country by himself) and his army make up the 'bad guys.'  They made this argument because most Americans believe that the rebels are just as bad, if not worse, than Assad.

In the following brief story we see that the rebels seem to be bringing women from Tunisia to Syria to provide sexual services for them.  Some of the women are being tricked (deceived, fooled) into going to Syria - they think they are going there for one reason but when they get there they find out that they are expected to be prostitutes for Syrian rebel soldiers. (A prostitute is a woman who sells her body for money or who provides sexual services to strangers.)

And then the rebel soldiers tell the women: "Don't worry!  You are doing God's will by having sex with us! You are serving God!  We, men, do the fighting for God, and you, women, give us sexual pleasure when we are not fighting!"

This is what they mean by a 'sexual jihad.'  Jihad seems to be a term some Muslim extremists use for a 'holy war,' or a war that is fought for God. 

Here's the article:

http://finance.yahoo.com/news/tunisian-girls-coming-home-pregnant-233735013.html

Useful vocabulary from the article:

to be pregnant - a woman is pregnant when she is carrying a baby inside of her.  But in America it is somewhat controversial to say this. (a controversy is an issue about which people might argue)  Some people who are in favor of abortion (this is when a woman goes to a doctor to stop the pregnancy) would not sat that the woman is carrying a 'baby' while she is pregnant.  They would say she is carrying an 'embryo' (the first stages of a baby) or a 'fetus' the last stages of development before a child is born.  Only when the child comes into the world is it a baby to these folks.  What do you think of abortion?

to stand guard at a checkpoint - 'to stand guard' would be the verb here.  That means a person is guarding an area - or watching the area to make sure it is safe.  A checkpoint is a place where people have to pass through and their identity is usually checked before they can get through.

swapped - traded.  Basically, the article is saying that one soldier uses the woman sexually, then 'swaps' her - gives her to another guy, who swaps her to another guy.  Swapping usually means trading, but here it just means handing the girl over to a new guy.  If I have a bottle of soda and I don't want it, and you have a bottle of orange juice and don't want it, but you want my soda, I might say, "OK, let's swap.  I'll give you this soda for your orange juice."

bearing the fruit of sexual contact - showing the results of being raped (I would argue these women are 'raped' - they are forced to have sex when they don't want to).

standing idle - standing and doing nothing

a liaison - a brief relationship; again, this is not a liaison, this is rape

to elaborate - to speak in detail

hardliners - people who are dogmatic; those who are super conservative, those who refuse to change their opinions and believe very extreme things

to stem the flow - to stop the flow

moral educational corruption - he's saying they are making religious excuses to rape women and this is something immoral and it is teaching people the wrong thing.  If you are 'moral' you are 'good.'  Corruption means extreme dishonesty and wrongful behavior.  If something becomes corrupt, it was once good but has become bad.