Operation: Dard and Devotion

Extra 1 | Veracity & Reality

BEFORE YOU PROCEED, KNOW THAT THIS SECTION IS THE MOTHER OF ALL SPOILERS.

If you haven't read up to the epilogue and are not fond of spoilers, DO NOT CONTINUE. If you haven't read up to the epilogue and like spoilers, WHAT KIND OF ORGANISM ARE YOU?!

Now that we've cleared that up...

There are multiple scenarios throughout the story that are loosely based on events that happened in reality. For example, there have been plenty of people who have died at the hands of terrorists, however, I'm only including the real events that I've incorporated into the story. There are just too many tragedies and massacres happening daily and I cannot include them all. If you are curious to read further on the real events listed, I encourage you to do just that. Elaborating each event would be too verbose of me, so you'll learn better if you just search the keywords of whatever event you are curious about.

Before you read on, I'd like to bring something to your attention. Yes, Al-Tho'baan is a fictional parallel to what is known as "ISIS" (Islamic State of Iraq and Syria) or "ISIL" (Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant). However, the nonsense that is "ISIS/ISIL" is far from being anywhere close to an "Islamic State" -with their un-Islamic tactics- so much that we should try to avoid the usage of that acronym as much as we can. Do not give them the impression that we acknowledge them as Islamic.

....unless if you actually do. In that case, it seems as though you have not learned anything from this story, and you may or may not need professional help...

Anyway, the proper alternative term would be "DAESH"/"DAIISH", which are the main initials of the Arabic-English transliteration of "ISIL": al-Dawlah al-Islamīyah fī al-ʻIrāq wa-al-Shām (الدولة الإسلامية في العراق والشام‎)

The group abhors this term. Why, you may ask?

"Because it is similar to the Arabic word, Daes, or 'one who crushes something underfoot' and Dahes, which is translated as 'one who sows discord'."

As Australian Prime Minister, Tony Abbott, had rightly put it: "Daesh hates being referred to by this term, and what they don't like has an instinctive appeal to me."

Ditto.

So here we go.

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1 | Goodbyes & Greetings - Hayat Ishfaq: Similar to Hayat, Kayla Mueller was an American human rights activist and humanitarian aid worker who was captured by Daesh in Syria for months and was eventually killed in February 2015.

3 | Pleasantries & Pain - School Massacre: This scene was the fictional representation of the slaughter of students and teachers in Army Public School in Peshawar, Pakistan on December 16, 2014 by the Taliban, and the slaughter of students and teachers on December 14, 2012 in Sandy Hook Elementary School in Connecticut, USA.

4 | Afraid & Alliance - Forced Marriage & Beheadings: There are plenty of incidences where female captives (mostly from minority groups) were forced to marry terrorist militants, and there are innumerable accounts of decapitating children and adults.

5 | Confidant & Cruel - Forced Cannibalism: Daesh has been reported to have cooked a male and fed him to his unknowing mother when she had inquired of her son's whereabouts.

7 | Persistance & Prayers - Demolished Churches: A number of Christian religious sites have been destroyed all throughout Syria and Iraq. As with the Nazis when they identified all Jewish homes and businesses with the Star of David, extremists in the Middle East graffiti the Arabic letter ن on all Christian-affiliated buildings.