ISIS holds Koran-memorizing contest with lure of sex slaves
Terrorists with Islamic State aren’t letting ordinary life pass them by – the group is holding a contest with prizes amid celebrations for the holy month of Ramadan. The game? Memorizing the Koran. The prize? Human sex slaves.
On the back of horrible atrocities committed on countless Kurdish and Syrian girls and young women, Islamic State (IS/ISIS, formerly ISIL) shows no signs of stopping. A further slap in the face of humanity was given when the Da’Wa and Mosques Department in Al-Baraka province in Syria got behind the idea of running the new contest, announced June 19, as Ramadan celebrations commenced, according to Middle East Media Research Institute and the Clarion Project. The two are research institutes tasked with tracking ISIS’ social media presence.
The Clarion Project has put up a translation of the text of the notice, which looks frighteningly like any other notice you’ve ever seen, except for the top three prizes – all slave girls, with a runner-up prize of 100,000 Syrian lira (approx. $462). There are a total of 10 prizes.
Contestants are asked to register with four of the mosques on the list. The prizes will be awarded at the start of Eid el-Fitr.
“We ask the great lord to make your life easier and to grant you with what he loves and what pleases him.” Signed: the Dept. of Dawa and Mosques.
Some most violent passages of the holy book were reportedly chosen for the contest.
Giving away humans as sex slaves is a custom known as ‘sybia.’
As to the origin of the ‘grand prize’, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights believes it could have come from Iraq, where 300 Yazidi girls were captured last year and reportedly sold to IS members in Syria for $1,000. Thousands more have been captured over the months, being sold into sex slavery and enduring unimaginable horrors, including daily rape and forced virginity restoration surgeries (multiple times).
According to Ryan Mauro of the Clarion Project, IS is holding the contest in a bid to show that its faith remains unshaken in a time of international condemnation, and that they take after the most literal form of Islam. “By showcasing its slavery, ISIS is boasting that it practices Islam in its most literal interpretation, doesn't capitulate to public opinion and rejects modern interpretations,” he said in an interview to Fox.
“It is also showing it has a functional Islamic educational system and therefore is a real caliphate,” he further said.
Ramadan is seen as being of key importance here, as the holy month is a time of the year Muslims are challenged with reaffirming their faith.
The news comes not too long after damning reports by the United Nations and Human Rights Watch, outlining a culture of sexual depravity, human trafficking and horrific abuses against children.
