Islamic State religious police have beaten musicians and broken their instruments because the keyboards they were playing was ruled ‘un-Islamic’, the Daily Mail reports.
The pictures show police hitting the men across the back and legs with a wooden stick in a public square after the electronic musical device was ruled ‘offensive to Muslims’.
And another image shows both keyboards after they have been smashed, alongside what appears to be a lute – a popular instrument in medieval European courts.
The raids by the IS fanatics were thought to have taken place in Bujaq, a few miles east of Aleppo in Syria.
Text published alongside the images posted on the internet say the heretical musicians were punished with 90 lashes alongside a man caught impersonating a ‘hisbah’ – a local official or village elder.
Corporal punishment is common in the ‘Caliphate’ where people trapped by the fundamentalist Jihadis are forced to live their life according to Sharia Law.
The post which was said to have been uploaded by ISIL’s information office in Aleppo also details how a man caught smuggling cigarettes was punished with 50 lashes; just over half the amount the keyboard players received.
It is not just the lash which is used in state issued punishments. Thieves are regularly pictured having their hands or arms amputated and adulterers have been executed.
But it is not just keyboard players and lutes which have fallen foul of the religious police: ISIL militants have reportedly captured at least 15 pigeon breeders in Iraq after deciding that it is against the Islamic religion to keep the birds.
A farmer in the troubled country, Abu Abdullah, said six gunmen forced their way into his home earlier this week, dragging away his 21-year-old son.
Mr Abdullah, 52, said he was standing beside his son when ISIS militants stormed the family home and kidnapped the boy, who is one of 5 young men aged between 16 and 22 have been captured by the extremists for breeding the birds which is a popular hobby in the region.
But the Muslim fundamentalists disapprove of the pastime because it distracts from worshipping Allah.
There are reports that three of those held by the militants in the eastern province of Diyala have been killed, according to a security official.
When the farmer asked why they were taking his son by force, they replied, “He is not following the real Islam, he must be punished for being a pigeon breeder. This habit is taking him away from worshipping Allah.”
“’I begged them again to know where are they taking him, what are they going to do to him,'” Mr Abdullah said. “‘They said, ‘he is going to be taken to be judged according to the Islamic Sharia”.”
‘They pushed me, and when my son tried to stop them from pushing me they beat him. Then they put him inside the car and left.”
The militants also scoured the house for the birds, with any they found being shoved into a bag and burned alive.
And the Iraqi farmer fears a similar terrible fate awaits his son for as long as the group controls his homeland.
“We are helpless and hopeless. I know they will kill him sooner or later,” he said.
“I’m waiting for someone to tell me he was killed, and the only thing I will do is take his body and bury it.”
The range of ‘crimes’ for which people are being murdered by ISIL extremists is wide and varied. Only last week it was revealed 13 teenage boys were executed for watching a football match.
The teenagers who were watching the game on television in the Iraqi city of Mosul were founded up and publicly executed by firing squad, according to anti-ISIS activist group Raqqa is Being Slaughtered Silently.
COMMENTS
Please let us know if you're having issues with commenting.