Islamic State punishes 94 it said violated Ramadan fast: Syria monitor

[Eugene]

Source: Reuters

World | Thu Jul 16, 2015 9:10am EDT

Islamic State punishes 94 it said violated Ramadan fast: Syria monitor

BEIRUT

Islamic State militants have punished at least 94 people including five teenagers, accusing them of violations during the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan, a rights group monitoring the Syrian conflict said on Thursday.

The people were flogged, hung up by their arms or put in metal cages by the Sunni Muslim militant group in incidents documented since the start of Ramadan last month, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.

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All victims survived the punishments which were carried out in Islamic State-held territory in Raqqa, Aleppo and Deir al-Zor provinces, the Britain-based Observatory said, citing its network of contacts on the ground.

The five teenagers were aged 13 to 16. One was put in a metal cage and the other four were hung up crucifixion-style, the Observatory's founder Rami Abdulrahman said.

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Read more: http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/07/16/mideast-crisis-syria-islamic-state-idUSKCN0PQ1EX20150716

[cbayer]

1. And no one seems to have a clue how to stop this group.

They just seem to get more and more out of control,

[DetlefK]

2. The Islamic state cannot last for cultural reasons.

They don't have teachings, they don't leave art behind. The only imprint they leave in their territory are humongous amounts of regulations how people have to live. (For example handbooks on how to treat your sex-slave.)

Once they have been driven from a village, nothing remains of them. No ideas, no inspiration, no monuments, no images, no songs, no memes. Just memories of hatred and destruction.

That's why ISIS needs foreign fighters: ISIS cannot forcefully recruit new members from the occupied territory because it has nothing spiritual to offer. (Apart from some apocalyptic belief that they are fighting the battle of the endtimes and Rome, aka the West, is the pawn of Satan in this battle.) People either join ISIS out of their own free will or not at all.

[cbayer]

4. I recently heard a story about somen who are basically enslaved by them.

It didn't sound at all like free will.

And, despite what you say, I see no evidence that they are fading.

[DetlefK]

5. Oh, they won't disappear on their own.

It's just that once they are gone, they will be gone forever. Because they don't leave cultural traces.

1. Arm the Kurds with machine-guns, grenades, RPGs and all the info we got.
2. Bomb the shit out of anything that remotely looks like anything related to cars or gas in IS-territory. (Sorry, refugees.)

The Kurds will inevitable secede from Iraq, but that would just be a correction of history: The borders of the Middle-East were drawn by colonial powers and have no ethnic meaning.

[trotsky]

6. "they don't leave cultural traces"

They don't need to, though, because the cultural traces that gave rise to them are still there. ISIL/ISIS may indeed be "vanquished" in the near future, but it's foolish to think another fundie religious group very much like them won't be able to come right back.

The holy texts guarantee it.

[trotsky]

3. Acknowledging that their motivations are primarily religious would be a great start. n/t