The Complete Infidel's Guide to ISIS (48 page)

The pamphlet was entirely in line with classic Islamic theology regarding sex slaves. It explained that
al-Sabi
—the slave—was “a woman from among
ahl al-harb
(the people of war) who has been captured by Muslims”—that is, a non-Muslim woman taken as the spoils of war. It was permitted to use these women in this way because of their “unbelief”:
“Unbelieving (women) who were captured and brought into the abode of Islam are permissible to us, after the imam distributes them (among us).”

The Islamic State asserted that “there is no dispute among the scholars that it is permissible to capture unbelieving women (who are characterized by) original unbelief (
kufr asli
), such as the
kitabiyat
(women from among the People of the Book, i.e. Jews and Christians) and polytheists. However, (the scholars) are disputed over (the issue of) capturing apostate women.” In other words, there was some question over whether women who had left Islam could be used as sex slaves. But since “the consensus leans towards forbidding it,” the Islamic State announced that it was inclined not to use ex-Muslim women in this way.

Other rules allow Muslims “to buy, sell, or give as a gift female captives and slaves, for they are merely property, which can be disposed of (as long as that doesn’t cause the Muslim ummah) any harm or damage.” An owner cannot sell his slave if she becomes pregnant by him. Upon his death, his slaves will be “distributed as part of his estate, just as all [other parts] of his estate [are distributed].”

The instructions are quite detailed. “A man may not have intercourse with the female slave of
his wife, because [the slave] is owned by someone else. . . . A man may not kiss the female slave of another, for kissing [involves] pleasure, and pleasure is prohibited unless [the man] owns [the slave] exclusively.”

And if a slave gets out of line, it is “permissible to beat the female slave.” A runaway is to be “reprimanded (in such a way that) deters others like her from escaping.” It is forbidden for a Muslim man to marry his slaves, except under certain strict circumstances.
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The Islamic State’s guidelines on sex slavery are remarkably similar to what the other proponents of the practice had said several years before the Islamic State was established. And no wonder—they were all drawing their understanding from the same principles of Islamic law. Thus the October 2014 issue of the Islamic State magazine
Dabiq
explained that in practicing sex slavery, the group was simply reviving an institution justified under Sharia. The article noted that, scrupulously, “one fifth of the slaves were transferred to the Islamic State’s authority to be divided as khums”—that is, the cut of the spoils of war due to Islamic leaders, in line with the Qur’an: “And know that anything you obtain of war booty—then indeed, for Allah is one fifth of it and for the Messenger . . . ” (8:41).
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Qur’anic Punishments

On December 15, 2014, the Islamic State released a document entitled “Clarification [regarding] the Hudud”—that is, punishments Allah specifies in the Qur’an. This was essentially the Islamic State’s penal code, and every aspect of it was drawn from Islamic teaching.

The “Clarification” mandates death for blasphemy against Allah or Muhammad. The document also specifies that murder with stealing will be punished by death and crucifixion (of the dead body). Murder alone will be punishable by just death. Stealing as part of banditry will be rewarded
with the amputation of the right hand and the left leg, and terrorizing people will result in exile.
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All these penalties are derived from this Qur’anic verse: “Indeed, the penalty for those who wage war against Allah and His Messenger and strive upon earth corruption is none but that they be killed or crucified or that their hands and feet be cut off from opposite sides or that they be exiled from the land. That is for them a disgrace in this world; and for them in the Hereafter is a great punishment, except for those who return before you apprehend them. And know that Allah is Forgiving and Merciful” (5:33–34).

Blasphemy against Islam is likewise punishable by death, also as per the Qur’an: “If they violate their oaths after pledging to keep their covenants, and attack your religion, you may fight the leaders of paganism—you are no longer bound by your covenant with them—that they may refrain” (Qur’an 9:12).

In fact all of the Islamic State’s penalties line up with the Qur’an and Muhammad’s words in the hadith. Adulterers, for example, are to be stoned to death; fornicators will be given a hundred lashes and exile.

Stoning for adultery is in the hadith—a hadith which the caliph Umar claimed had once been in the Qur’an:

           
‘Umar said, “I am afraid that after a long time has passed, people may say, ‘We do not find the Verses of the Rajam (stoning to death) in the Holy Book,’ and consequently they may go astray by leaving an obligation that Allah has revealed. Lo! I confirm that the penalty of Rajam be inflicted on him who commits illegal sexual intercourse, if he is already married and the crime is proved by witnesses or pregnancy or confession.” Sufyan added, “I have memorized this narration in this way.” ‘Umar added,
“Surely Allah’s Apostle carried out the penalty of Rajam, and so did we after him.”
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Sodomy (homosexuality) is also to be punished by death, as per Muhammad’s reported words: “If you find anyone doing as Lot’s people did, kill the one who does it, and the one to whom it is done” (Sunan Abu Dawood 38:4447).

The hand of the thief will be amputated: “The thief, the male and the female, amputate their hands in recompense for what they committed as a deterrent from Allah. And Allah is Exalted in Might and Wise” (Qur’an 5:38).

Those who drink alcohol will be lashed eighty times, also as per a hadith:

           
Abu Huraira said, “A man who drank wine was brought to the Prophet. The Prophet said, ‘Beat him!’” Abu Huraira added, “So some of us beat him with our hands, and some with their shoes, and some with their garments (by twisting it) like a lash, and then when we finished, someone said to him, ‘May Allah disgrace you!’ On that the Prophet said, ‘Do not say so, for you are helping Satan to overpower him.’”
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Slanderers will likewise get eighty lashes: “And those who accuse chaste women and then do not produce four witnesses—lash them with eighty lashes and do not accept from them testimony ever after. And those are the defiantly disobedient” (Qur’an 24:4).

Those caught spying for the unbelievers will be put to death: “Let not believers take disbelievers as allies rather than believers. And whoever does that has nothing with Allah, except when taking precaution against them in prudence. And Allah warns you of Himself, and to Allah is the destination” (Qur’an 3:28).

Apostates will also be put to death: “They wish you would disbelieve as they disbelieved so you would be alike. So do not take from among them allies until they emigrate for the cause of Allah. But if they turn away, then seize them and kill them wherever you find them and take not from among them any ally or helper” (Qur’an 4:89).
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Punishment by Fire

On February 3, 2015, the Islamic State released a video showing the burning alive of the Jordanian pilot Muath al-Kaseasbeh—and brought upon itself a new chorus of condemnation. The Saudi Muslim cleric Salman Al-Odah wrote: “Burning is an abominable crime rejected by Islamic law regardless of its causes. It is rejected whether it falls on an individual or a group or a people. Only God tortures by fire.”
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Indeed, there is a hadith to this effect:

           
Narrated ‘Ikrima: Some Zanadiqa (atheists) were brought to ‘Ali and he burnt them. The news of this event, reached Ibn ‘Abbas who said, “If I had been in his place, I would not have burnt them, as Allah’s Apostle forbade it, saying, ‘Do not punish anybody with Allah’s punishment (fire).’ I would have killed them according to the statement of Allah’s Apostle, ‘Whoever changed his Islamic religion, then kill him.’”
⁴⁷

But as is so often the case with hadith, there is also a contradictory one (likely because these sayings were fabricated by competing factions among Muslims and have little historical value). In the contradictory hadith, Muhammad is depicted as saying that those who don’t answer the call to prayer should be set on fire, along with their houses: “Certainly I decided to order the Mu’adh-dhin (call-maker) to pronounce Iqama (the second call to Islamic prayer) and order a man to lead the prayer and then take a fire
flame to burn all those who had not left their houses so far for the prayer along with their houses.”
⁴⁸

The clerics who condemned the burning alive of al-Kaseasbeh also did not mention this story from Muhammad’s conquest of Khaybar:

           
Kinana b. al-Rabi’, who had the custody of the treasure of B. al-Nadir, was brought to the apostle who asked him about it. He denied that he knew where it was. A Jew came . . . to the apostle and said that he had seen Kinana going round a certain ruin every morning early. When the apostle said to Kinana, “Do you know that if we find you have it I shall kill you?” he said Yes. The apostle gave orders that the ruin was to be excavated and some of the treasure was found. When he asked him about the rest he refused to produce it, so the apostle gave orders to al-Zubayr b. al-Awwam, “Torture him until you extract what he has,” so he kindled a fire with flint and steel on his chest until he was nearly dead. Then the apostle delivered him to Muhammad b. Maslama and he struck off his head, in revenge for his brother Mahmud.
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And ISIS had a Qur’anic justification for the immolation of the Jordanian pilot, as well: “AND IF YOU PUNISH (AN ENEMY), PUNISH WITH AN EQUIVALENT OF THAT WITH WHICH YOU WERE HARMED.” That verse is a call out in the feature on the burning of the pilot in the March 2015 issue of the Islamic State’s slick online English-language propaganda magazine
Dabiq.
As the article explained,

           
In burning the crusader pilot alive and burying him under a pile of debris, the Islamic State carried out a just form of retaliation for his involvement in the crusader bombing campaign which
continues to result in the killing of countless Muslims who, as a result of these airstrikes, are burned alive and buried under mountains of debris. . . . This āyāh [the verse of the Qur’an in the call out, quoted above] sufficiently demonstrates the shar’
validity [the rightness in Islamic law] of burning someone alive in a case of qisās (retribution). . . . in addition to the aforementioned āyah from Sūrat An-Nahl [the book of the Qur’an titled “The Bee,”] the fuqahā’ used as evidence for these exceptions the following āyah [verse of the Qur’an] from Sūrat Al-Baqarah [another book of the Qur’an, titled “The Cow”]. {So whoever has assaulted you, then assault him in the same way that he has assaulted you} [Al-Baqarah: 194].