Military Review English Edition March-April 2016 | Page 32

(Image from ISIS video)

An image taken from a 2015 Islamic State video purportedly shows Al Farouk training camp for “cubs” [children]. The camp is in Raqqa,
Syria, according to Flashpoint Intelligence, a global security firm and NBC News consultant.

we die trying to make the religion triumphant.”3 In the
fifth edition of the magazine, the authors say that the IS
flag will expand until “it covers all western and eastern
extents of the Earth, filling the world with the truth
and justice of Islam.”4
To establish the rule of Islam both within Muslim
countries and worldwide, war will be necessary; not for
its own sake, but to ensure that the will of Allah is carried out. In volume 7 of Dabiq, this is brought home in
an article titled “Islam is the Religion of the Sword Not
Pacifism.” Its author writes, “Allah has revealed Islam to
be the religion of the sword, and evidence of this is so
profuse that only a zindiq (heretic) would argue otherwise.”5 He justifies his position by quoting a variety of
texts from the Quran: “Then, when the Sacred months
are over, kill the idolaters wherever you find them, take
them [as captives], besiege them, and lie in wait for
them” (9:5); “Fight those among the People of the Book
[ Jews and Christians] who do not believe in Allah and
the Last Day ...” (9:29); “O Prophet, fight the unbelievers and their hypocrites and be stern with them. Their
abode is Hell, and what a terrible fate” (9:73). Other
texts from the Quran also reinforce the point.
On the basis of those texts, members of IS are free
to kill anyone who does not follow their own interpretation of Islam and those of other faiths. It is possible,
therefore, to kill Shia Muslims, known by members
30

of IS as Rafidah (those who reject [true Islam]). For
example, twenty-five were killed in an attack on a Shia
mosque in Kuwait City in June 2015. Elsewhere, a
gunman linked to IS killed five Shia Muslims in Saudi
Arabia during its Ashura festival the following October,
and more than forty were killed in a suicide bombing in
Beirut in November of the same year.
People of other faiths are also persecuted. Christians
are told to convert to Islam or pay a special tax known
as jizya; thousands of Christians in Iraq have fled their
homes as a result. In February 2015, IS posted one of
its grisly videos online: twenty-one members of the
Egyptian Coptic Church, dressed in orange coveralls,
were led along a beach in Libya by members of IS
dressed in black. The video showed their theatrically
staged beheadings.

Beheading and the Use of Child
Soldiers
Beheading seems to be one of IS’s favorite methods
of killing. It is favored, first, because it puts fear into
those who oppose it; hence, we read of the Iraqi army
simply melting away when IS took over parts of northern Iraq. Second, it is favored because it is sanctioned
by verses in the Quran: “Strike [those who disbelieve]
upon their necks and strike every fingertip of theirs”
(8:12); “When you meet the unbelievers, strike their
March-April 2016  MILITARY REVIEW