In the next-to-last section of its 5-part report on the Islamic State (IS; the jihadist group formerly known as ISIS), VICE News has another look at sharia law in a piece called “Christians in the Caliphate”. I’m not sure why it has that title given that most of the piece is on Islam, but it’s still fascinating to look inside a sharia court and to see how the Caliphate deals with Christians (they have to pay a special “Christian tax,” and if they don’t do that or convert, it’s death to them). You can also see some young terrorists in the making.
Granted, these VICE pieces are short and don’t go into depth, but no other news organization has given us this kind of inside look at a jihadist organization as it tries to spread Islam through the world. And, of course, it’s scary.
Here’s VICE’s summary:
In part 4 of The Islamic State, VICE News visits the Sharia courts where those accused of infractions are sentenced to harsh penalties, including execution followed by public crucifixion. But the courts don’t just handle crime. Citizens can bring all manners of complaints, including family disputes, and see the Islamic State’s form of justice doled out.
With unprecedented access, VICE News reporter Medyan Dairieh also visits the section of the court specifically set up for Christians, where the Islamic State discusses its treatment of minorities, and sees a former Armenian Catholic Church that has been converted into an Islamic center.
I noticed in the video, long lines for islamic business at the courts, but curiously an empty office for the christians. Must be good to be a christian. No waiting at all.
No women either. Perhaps they do not have justiciable disputes?
No, everything is juussst fiiine for the women too. This ISIS thing is like watching a train wreck in slow motion. I’m opposed to military intervention, but the humanitarian issues are already impossible to ignore.
I noticed that throughout the series, everyone displays a blind, dogmatic insistence that this brutality is the first step in the inevitable spread of sharia throughout the world. I doubt that everyone really believes this. But if ISIS can patrol the markets and make the streets safe for people, then they can still appear to be a respectable force for good. Consider the vendors who turn to the thug to speak out on their behalf – clearly they’ve won some sort of respect, not merely fear or grudging acceptance.
Chilling. I feel sorry for the people trying to live under this regime, especially those who want to think for themselves. And frankly unless you get your kicks by carrying machine guns and bullying others, I’d bet that everyone will chafe to some extent. But when speaking out gets you crucified or beheaded, who wants to be the voice of sanity? Ugh.
It’s going their way for now and they are exultant about it. But how do they plan to live once the money runs out? What will they base their economy on?
Violence?
The money won’t run out. I’m quite certain that the Islamic State has a budget surplus.
Where is the money coming from?
Lots of places. Private donors. Looting of public property. Business taxes.
This people are kept in line by fear and oppression. The children are being brainwashed. The women are property and no-one has control over the direction of their life. Human Rights are being constantly violated by a cruel and petty power-hungry tyrant in the name of a god that doesn’t even exist.
It makes me sick. I wish I could think of something to help these people, but all effective solutions, like education, democracy and economic development, are long-term. So many of them don’t even realize there’s a different way to live.
It’s all a Zionist conspiracy though!!!!
It’s the great plan of the Jews™ to enslave the Muslims…
With Islam!!!! Of course!!!!
/snark
At 1:20 of the vid these gems are declared:
Yeah, in your dreams, motherfucker.
WOW!!! at 2 minutes in we get to see a contemporary crucifixion!
I’m so impressed…!!! My respect for Islam has doubled.
What is two times zero?
At 4:50 there is the admission that if Christians don’t pay the Infidel Tax™ then:
Nice people.
At least Christians get to pay the tax.
Jews would just get slaughtered on sight, I assume…
“At least Christians get to pay the tax.”
It struck me that their ultra-jihadist law allows for this kind of exception. It basically says, as long as you pay up, your disbelief in Allah is halal.
It’s got a lot of historical precedence. “People of the Book” can pay a tax, everyone else is out of luck.
Yes and I think “people of the book” weren’t actually infidels but I’m sure that has been reinterpreted.
“Allah” is just Arabic for “God” (or perhaps, for “god”). So some Muslims would say that Christians and Jews *do* believe in Allah. (There are Christians to this day who’s first language is Arabic, of course.
Additionally, Islam retcons Jesus, Moses (and Noah and Adam, if I recall) into pre-prophets (my term) of Islam, so Muslims can say that Christians and Jews are “partially right”. This closeness makes for “exceptions” – though it varies from movement to movement where these go – if anywhere. Of course it correlates with extremism in general to ignore this tradition, such as it is. Us who are not theists at all are in the worst situation, unfortunately, from what I can tell.
Given your hatred of Christians, I would have thought you’d be a fan of these assholes.
To the extent religion is like a virus in the mind, watching the people in this video is like observing late-stage rabies.
Chilling.
My thoughts exactly.
And the saddest to watch are the countless infected children… I wonder if they still could be helped somehow, when rescued from the hands of the ISIS jihadists, or is it too late for that now, as their brains have already been permanently damaged?
“We aim to satisfy God, that’s why we don’t care about international standards.”
And that, ladies and gentlemen, explains the willingness of true compromise for the sake of maximizing universal well-being.
the american christian dominionists are jealous.
Does anybody know what Reza Aslan thinks about all this, is he condemning the formation of the Islamic State, or planning to join the ISIS like thousands of other muslims from around the world?
Yeah, where is Aslan? What’s the matter, Reza? ISIS got your tongue?
This is what I tweeted to him:
Not surprisingly the first twitter comment I found from Mr. Aslan on this topic is
Which hints that he probably does not view ISIS as pursuing legitimate Islamic goals.
They call it a “positive intervention” at the beginning of the video. It’s like something out of 1984…
Talk about “big government”. The state is right there in every aspect of your life. Now THAT is big government!
I fail to see how the world will deal with this religious totalitarianism short of just killing many of the men.
Sequel to “I’ll give you an offer you can’t refuse”.
Seems to confirm the thought that religious fundamentalism is the most hallucinatory of all drugs!
I’ve seen all five parts of this documentary and I literally can’t remember seeing a single female face. This is spine-chilling stuff.
The most frustrating aspect of it all is that the liberal world refuses to accept that any kind of tipping point has been reached, and the only criticism of Islam is coming from revolting right-wing rags and their conservative mouthpieces – people who in many cases are politically closer to I.S.I.S. than they are to their left wing liberal colleagues.
I really think there needs to be a rebalancing of the debate – a lot more criticism from the left and a lot less from the right. The average muslim can dismiss the latter as tendentious and implicitly racist, but it’s a lot harder to dismiss criticism when it comes from a friend.
That was the irony Sam Harris pointed out. Of course he was blasted from the Left for it.
Females aren’t really allowed to participate in public life. Ideally, they are to stay in the house and if going out, are accompanied by a male (even if it’s her male child). Awful. I’m sure many of the women are afraid to leave the house.
This is slavery, pure and simple.
UK muslims, supported by many from the left, were out in force in London last weekend. They were protesting about the Israeli ‘genocide’ of the palestinians. Not a hint of a protest about the barbarism of ISIS and other muslim terror organisations. We’ve also had Glasgow city council flying (or at least they planned to fly) the Palestinian flag.
I woman I know is a very left, very vocal peace activist. Her feeds are constant bemoaning the fate of the Palestinians and the atrocities against them (like their leaders are pure innocence).
Not wishing to involve in a big discussion, I’ve not asked about ISIS but it’s quite likely to be ‘this was caused by Western foreign policy’
There are some areas (certainly not all) where the right is more clear eyed than the left.
correct email address supplied this time…oops.
It’s interesting to contemplate on this post and the one immediately preceding it. Could there be stories that better demonstrate the contradictions of the human race?
On the one hand, a group of people who have come together to construct a probe and send it on a journey of millions miles to meet, with pinpoint accuracy, a comet that has travelled through space for billions of years. It staggers the mind (or mine), at any rate) and yet there are so many endeavours like it such as HST, Curiosity, Huygens, Cassini etc…
On the other, a group of people who think that they know what some invisible magic man in the sky wants us all to think and say and do and who will intimidate, torture, maim and kill to impose their mediaeval beliefs on the entire world should they get the opportunity.
Explain to me again how science and religion are compatible…