Author: IANS
Publication: The Times of India
Date: December 14, 2014
URL: http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/world/middle-east/ISIS-justifies-enslaving-having-sex-with-non-believers-Report/articleshow/45506926.cms
The Sunni militant group ISIS has justified the enslavement of non-Muslim women and children and sexual intercourse with them, not sparing even prepubescent girls. This message has been propagated by an ISIS pamphlet titled “Question and Answers on Female Slaves and their Freedom”, which was distributed to the people of the Iraqi city of Mosul, which the extremists control, after sunset on Friday, CNN reported Saturday.
The pamphlet also claimed that non-Muslim women and children could be sold off and given as gifts to others.
“Most (of us) are shocked, but (we) cannot do much about it,” said a resident of Mosul about the ISIS pamphlet.
Many accounts of the ISIS kidnapping, selling and raping women and children have surfaced since the group began its brutal run through Syria and Iraq, according to the CNN report. These are on top of other allegations, such as the killings of innocent civilians simply because they did not subscribe to the ISIS’s extreme take on the Sharia law.
The ISIS militants have justified their actions — like the beheadings of journalists and aid workers — in god’s name. Even then, it is rare to see its rationale being laid out as plainly as in this pamphlet distributed in Mosul, the report noted. The document explained that capturing women is permissible if they were “nonbelievers”. The pamphlet added that female slaves were women that Muslims took from their enemies.
Much of the pamphlet talks about the ISIS’s policy on having sexual intercourse with a female slave, something that the group cites the Islamic holy text Quran to justify. The pamphlet lays down other rules as well and makes it clear that the captors have full control of their captives. This document marks the most detailed, albeit not the first, justification for enslaving “non-believers”, as defined by the ISIS, according to the report.
“ISIS is drawing these rulings from ancient Middle Eastern and Mediterranean codes of conduct for war and prisoners,” said Abbas Barzegar, professor of religious studies at Georgia State University in the US.
Jihadis shoot down Iraqi helicopter
ISIS group militants shot down an Iraqi military helicopter, officials said on Saturday, killing the two pilots onboard and raising fresh concerns about the extremists' ability to attack aircraft. The attack happened late on Friday in the Shia holy city of Samarra, about 95 kilometres (60 miles) north of Baghdad.
|