Christians in Raqqa, Syria asked to pay nearly 38 pounds of gold for "safety"

[ExMilitary]

Muslims that have read the Quran and are following Muhammad's words.

http://www.wnd.com/2014/02/islamists-pay-gold-or-die-christians/

WASHNGTON – The Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, or ISIS, considered to be the most ruthless of the Sunni Islamic militant groups fighting in Syria, has ordered a Christian community in Raqqa, Syria, to pay nearly 38 pounds of gold as a “guarantee of their safety.”

The announcement was posted on an ISIS website.

The requirement is part of the implementation of a form of Islamic law, or Shariah, in areas under ISIS control.

Each ounce would cost, at Feb. 26 rates, about $1,330, making the total needed for the required 600-plus ounces of gold more than $800,000.

Raqqa, or ar-Raqqah, is a city in north central Syria with a population of some 300,000 people, of which less than 1 percent, or 3,000, are Christian. That means each Christian then would be required to come up with more than $260 in gold.

Prior to issuing the demand for the gold, sources say the Christians had met with ISIS fighters who offered three choices: Convert to Islam, accept ISIS conditions or reject their control and possibly be killed.

“If they reject, they are subject to being legitimate targets, and nothing will remain between them and ISIS other than the sword,” a separate ISIS statement said.

Prior to ISIS taking over Raqqa, many Christians fled the city.

In addition to the statement, ISIS also issued a video in Arabic.

In the video, ISIS said it would require the Christian community to pay 17 kilograms of gold as “jizya,” or a tax on non-Muslims, who also “must refrain from any public expression of their religion in exchange for a guarantee of their safety,” according to the English-subtitled video.

“The group made this announcement over the Internet,” the video said, adding that the Christians are prohibited from renovating their churches, ringing church bells and praying in public. The video also said ISIS forbade Christians from possessing weapons and selling pork or alcohol to Muslims.

The city, seized by ISIS last year, was the first provincial capital to fall into the hands of the Islamic militants.

According to al-Monitor, a Washington-based website covering news of the Middle East, the ISIS-controlled city has women lining up for as much as seven hours in front of a bakery for bread.

“A masked gunman organized the line. The bakery used to be for both men and women, but ISIS banned the sexes from mixing and assigned two bakeries for women and one for men from among the government bakeries,” the report said.

Women now are required to wear the hijab, or veil, while standing in line.

In other instances, residents are subject to constant intimidation from ISIS fighters who are forcing inhabitants who own more than one home to turn over the keys of their unused homes.

“Would you allow your jihadist brother to live in the street?” the ISIS fighters ask.

The report said that the ISIS fighters in Raqqa are not engaging in any military action against the regime of Syrian President of Bashar al-Assad. Instead, they occupy the Internet cafes in the city and are engaging other jihadist groups whom ISIS believes are not strict enough under Shariah.

[PeteWaldo]

I thought this important enough to be an independent thread. Sometimes I merge them later.

Mafai style Islamic jizya "protection" money. That is, protection from the very persons that are extorting the money, for protection from themselves.

[ExMilitary]

Syrian extremists amputated a man’s hand and live-tweeted it

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/worldviews/wp/2014/02/28/syrian-extremists-amputated-a-mans-hand-and-live-tweeted-it/

The extremist Syrian group deemed too radical even for al-Qaeda performed what may have been a Twitter first Friday: live-tweeting the amputation of a hand.  The amputation took place in the remote rural town of Maskanah in the northern province of Aleppo, according to a series of tweets posted by the account of a supporter of the extremist Islamic State of Iraq and Syria. The first showed a photograph of a blindfolded man having his arm positioned on a table by fighters as a masked man wielding a sword waits nearby. Another man, wearing a white robe of the kind favored in Arab Gulf countries, is reading a statement. A caption states that the blindfolded man is a thief who had asked to have his hand cut off "in order to cleanse his sins." A second photograph was taken just as the sword is about to strike the hand while a burly fighter restrains the victim. A third picture posted an hour later is too graphic to show here. The man appears to be passed out, with his bloodied arm and his severed hand resting on the table. Fresh slashes in the wood suggest it took four swipes of the sword to cut the hand off.

[UPDATE: The Twitter account that posted the photos, @reyadiraq, has been suspended. We've reached out to Twitter for comment on why. A screengrab of the first photo is at the top of this post. The account had about 96,000 followers and more than 20,000 tweets before suspension.]

ISIS evolved from the al-Qaeda-affiliated Islamic State of Iraq, which U.S. forces battled to contain before they withdrew in 2011. The group's attempts to impose strict interpretations of Islamic law on the parts of rebel-held northern Syria under its control have earned it many enemies.  Mainstream Free Syrian Army fighters declared war on the group in January and ejected its fighters from several locations. Earlier this month, al-Qaeda's central command issued a statement dissociating the organization from ISIS, suggesting its methods were too harsh even for al-Qaeda to stomach. On Tuesday, al-Qaeda's official Syrian affiliate, Jabhat al-Nusra, gave ISIS an ultimatum threatening war unless ISIS submits to arbitration of its disputes with other rebels. Under pressure, ISIS on Friday pulled out from the northern town of Azaz. A video posted on YouTube showed scenes of celebration among residents.

[PeteWaldo]

This YouTube is 6 years old, and begins by detailing a bit more civilized of a procedure, being performed in Nigeria. While it doesn't show the actual cutting off it shows the guy's hand getting prepped for it.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6fbXvq_ZIbw

[PeteWaldo]

Follow up on the OP:

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-26366197

"'Risking the sword'

The directive from ISIS, citing the Islamic concept of "dhimma", requires Christians in the city to pay tax of around half an ounce (14g) of pure gold in exchange for their safety.
BBC map of Raqqa and Damascus in Syria

It says Christians must not make renovations to churches, display crosses or other religious symbols outside churches, ring church bells or pray in public.

Christians must not carry arms, and must follow other rules imposed by ISIS (also known as ISIL) on their daily lives.

The statement said the group had met Christian representatives and offered them three choices - they could convert to Islam, accept ISIS' conditions, or reject their control and risk being killed.

"If they reject, they are subject to being legitimate targets, and nothing will remain between them and ISIS other than the sword," the statement said.

A group of 20 Christian leaders chose to accept the new set of rules, ISIS said."