The Islamic State (ISIS) has listed in a document different crimes and the appropriate punishments for them.
The
horrific document sets out a list of harsh penalties for anyone who
falls foul of the terror group's strict interpretation of its own laws.
Daily Mail reports that top of the list is 'death' for anyone who insults God or his messenger or blasphemes against Islam.
Adulterers
who engage in a sexual relationship are to be stoned to death, while
couples who have an affair without sexual contact can expect the more
lenient punishment of 100 lashes and 'banishment' from the community.
Those
guilty of 'highway robbery' face crucifixion and offences such as
drinking wine or 'calumny', making slanderous comments, each attract the
punishment of 80 lashes.
Homosexuality is also to
be punished by 'death for the penetrator and the receiver' while
thieves will have their hands severed from their arms.
The
growing threat to the Islamic State from spies inside the group's
controlled territory has forced the religious leaders to impose a
summary death penalty to all those found guilty of 'spying for the
interests of the disbelievers'.
IS claims the list
of 'religious punishments' is a 'warning and deterrent' to the kufr, or
disbelievers and infidels. Many of the punishments have already been
carried out by IS.
Reports say public
crucifixions in the IS stronghold of Raqqa in northern Syria have become
common-place while pictures of stonings and gay men being thrown from
buildings have been widely circulated on social media.
The new list of religious punishments pertains to the IS-controlled province of Aleppo and claims to be based on Sharia law.
It reads: 'Therefore,
the Islamic State, believing in God - Almighty and Exalted is He - who
has sent down the Book, and regarding as kufr [disbelief] the nations
united to wage war on the Lord of the Lords, and regarding as kufr
[disbelief] the judgements / rulings put in place by those created from
the soil, pledges to God - Almighty and Exalted is He - to rule by His
Shari'a in His land among His servants even if the disbelievers hate it.
'Thus
we would like to make clear to the people the hudud [religious
punishments] of God- Almighty and Exalted is He- as a warning and
deterrent.'
The document pronounces: 'And
indeed we make the people fear their Lord and call them to enter into
His mercy by embracing His commands and adhering to His prohibition
orders for that is the best outcome in that.
'And
there is nothing better in the one judged if he does not submit to the
law of the Lord and there is nothing better for the one who judges if he
does not judge/rule his servants by the ruling of God.
'And
indeed the Islamic State will not compromise on this great attainment
for whose sake it has offered hundreds of martyrs from its pious and
pure sons, but rather it has established the law of God among its
soldiers, and it has brought judgements even of death without exception
among them.'
