The Islamic State, as is common for Islamic supremacists, is here enforcing piety at the point of a sword — which means that the result is not real piety and real virtue, but an empire of fear that will collapse as soon as the sword-point can somehow be evaded.
“Islamic State orders wifi cut during prayers: Syria monitor,” Reuters, December 11, 2014 (thanks to Block Ness):
BEIRUT (Reuters) – Islamic State militants have ordered shopkeepers to shut down their wireless Internet during prayer times in the eastern Syrian city of Deir al-Zor, a group monitoring the Syrian conflict said on Thursday….
The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights cited an Islamic State document obtained by activists which said: “All shopkeepers must stop broadcasting wireless Internet during prayer times.” Muslim prayers are performed five times a day.
The document was issued by the self-declared authorities of Islamic State in the city that control public behavior, according to the Observatory, which tracks the war using a network of sources on the ground.
Islamic State controls most of Deir al-Zor province as well as Raqqa province to the northwest. In Raqqa it has outlawed music and images of people being posted in public and runs nearly everything from bakeries to schools, courts and mosques….