The Islamic State has reached a new low in its abominable acts as the group has announced the giving away of female slaves, including Yazidi and Christian women captured in war, as contest prizes to fighters who demonstrate mastery of the Koran, authorities in the region disclosed recently.
In another outrageous move, the extremist group is forcing young boys to fight each other in a giant steel ring.
ISIS' Da'wa and Mosques Department in Al-Baraka province in Syria has started a contest in celebration of the start of the holy month of Ramadan, in which captured female slaves will be given away as prizes, called "sibya," Fox News reported.
The contest was announced on June 19 on the accounts of ISIS on Twitter, according to think tanks that monitor the social media accounts linked to the extremist group.
An announcement on Twitter "begins with congratulations to ISIS soldiers and departments in the province upon the beginning of the month of Ramadan," according to the Middle East Media Research Institute, one of the two think tanks.
"It then announces the upcoming Koran memorization competition, at which it says participants will be tested and given prizes accordingly."
ISIS timed the announcement with the start of Ramadan last June 18, when Muslims renew their faith each year.
"Memorising the Koran is a considered a pious and worthy thing to do and many memorisation competitions are held around the world, especially during Ramadan," the New York-based Clarion Project reported. "It is believed to be the month during which Mohammed received the Koran."
The announcement lists prizes for the 10 best competitors of the Koran memorisation contest, with each of the top three set to receive a female slave.
"Winner of the first place [will be granted] (sibya) [a female slave who was captured at war]," the Middle East Media Research Institute said based on a translated copy of an ISIS announcement of the contest.
The contest is meant to show that ISIS members are the one who most closely follow "true" Islam and that the ISIS is a "legitimate" state, according to the institute, adding that it demonstrates that ISIS fighters study the Koran and that the group is not moved by the denouncement of the international community.
"By showcasing its slavery, ISIS is boasting that it practices Islam in its most literal interpretation, doesn't capitulate to public opinion and rejects modern interpretations," said Ryan Mauro, a national security analyst for the Clarion Project. "It is also showing it has a functional Islamic educational system and therefore is a real caliphate."
Competitors are told to come to one of the following mosques: The Mosque of Abu Bakr el-Sadiq, The Mosque of Osama Bin Laden, The Mosque of Abu Musab el-Zarqawi, or The Mosque of el-Taqwa.
The UK-based monitoring group Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported last year that ISIS forced 300 Yazidi girls and women captured in Iraq to shift to Islam and were sold to ISIS fighters in Syria for $1,000 each.
In November, the group released a menu of women and children for sale, with those who are in ages 40 and 50 peddled for only $40, girls between 10 and 20 years old auctioned for $129 each, and children under 10 given higher price tags.
Yazidi women and girls have been abducted from their homes and held as slaves by ISIS, abused through organised rapes, sexual assault, and other crimes, reported the Human Rights Watch in April.
Girls and women were also traded for as little as a pack of cigarettes, the United Nation envoy on sexual violence reported in June.
In a related development, ISIS has also forced young boys to wrestle with each other in a steel cage, training them as the group's next generation of killers, the Daily Mail wrote.
A seven-minute propaganda video released on social media showed young boys being yelled at by an armed commander to further goad their fighting.
The same soldier beats them with a stick as they go through an assault course.
The video also shows masked boys breaking tiles using only their heads, performing acrobatic fighting moves, and crawling through metal tubes while jihadists fire live rounds over their heads.
The same fanatical soldier beats them with a stick as they move through an assault course and walks across their aligned stomachs as they lay on the floor.
The video, believed to be filmed in an ISIS base in Iraq, is meant to draw foreign fighters to join the militants.
"Mothers elsewhere could be vulnerable, thinking their child could be a failure in Britain—or join ISIS and become a warrior," said Professor Anthony Glees, director of Buckingham University's Centre of Security and Intelligence Studies.
"This is sickening glorification of the brutalisation of kids for ISIS. It is designed to appeal to mothers and fathers but children are also the target."
