Jihad and the West: Black Flag over Babylon

Author:Mark Silinsky [Silinsky, Mark]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Indiana University Press
Published: 2016-10-23T16:00:00+00:00

Fashion in the Islamic World

Those girls and women who escape the Caliphate cast aside their raven-colored coverings as soon as they can. This is what happened in summer 2016, when the State was driven from some Syrian towns and villages. For the first time in years, they could show their faces in the street, and they could wear whatever colors and styles of clothing they pleased.60 A nineteen-year-old northern woman freed from State-controlled Syria ripped off the khimar (a long hijab) she had been forced to wear for two years, proclaiming, “I felt liberated…. They made us wear it against our will so I removed it that way to spite them.”61

Entertainment in the Caliphate

Muslims have enjoyed music for centuries, relishing folk, religious, popular, and foreign songs. But the State outlawed most music. Soon after their conquest, State operatives confiscated or destroyed musical instruments. They also killed musicians. Some musicians have sold or hidden their instruments, too terrified to play them. A celebrated local musician, Ahmad, entertained refugees by pulling his piano in a wagon from refugee camp to refugee camp to deliver his “concerts in the ruins.”62 Some found relief, if only fleeting, in his piano playing and light-hearted singing. But the State set his prized piano on fire. He said, “They burned it on my birthday.”63

Others pay higher prices for enjoying a song. A fifteen-year-old boy was arrested in central Mosul for listening to “Western music” at his father’s grocery store. He was publicly beheaded. There are some exceptions to the ban on music. The music of Cat Stevens, Rock and Roll Hall of Famer, who became Yusuf Islam, is allowed. Nasheeds are songs that praise Allah and are sung without instrumental accompaniment.64 They are allowed, particularly if they promote the Caliphate.

Generation Caliphate—Child Care and Education in the Islamic State

They told us we want to make an army to open Rome and we will control the West and America.

—Taha Jalo Murada boy in Raqqa65

They arrive here as children and quickly turn into killing machines.

—Commentary on boys’ education in Raqqa66

The State sees today’s children as tomorrow’s iron-souled leaders. This is another parallel to the Nazi’s Hitler Youth and the Soviet’s Young Pioneers. The Caliphate grooms Generation Z to be a shock force to conquer the Middle East, North Africa, and parts of Europe. The boys are raised to obey even the harshest and most dangerous orders without hesitation.

Education for boys is very strict, particularly for those abducted from Yazidi or Christian households.67 They are taught how to behead men by first practicing on dolls. They are deprived of sleep and edible food. A boy explained, “We were given dirty food—rice and beans [and] sometimes soup, but it had worms in it.”68 They have no opportunity to fraternize without supervision.

The slightest infraction—being late for prayers, failing to handle weapons correctly—would result in a beating, as recounted by thirteen-year-old Taha, a boy who was grabbed from his Yazidi family. He was constantly terrified and beaten with sticks. Some boys of Taha’s age have been sent on suicide missions with bombs strapped around their waist.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.