Kidnapping infidels and releasing them for ransom or enslaving them, as well as killing them if that option is deemed most advantageous for the Muslims, is fully sanctioned in Islamic law: “As for the captives, the amir [ruler] has the choice of taking the most beneficial action of four possibilities: the first to put them to death by cutting their necks; the second, to enslave them and apply the laws of slavery regarding their sale and manumission; the third, to ransom them in exchange for goods or prisoners; and fourth, to show favor to them and pardon them. Allah, may he be exalted, says, ‘When you encounter those [infidels] who deny [the Truth=Islam] then strike [their] necks’ (Qur’an sura 47, verse 4)” — Abu’l-Hasan al-Mawardi, al-Ahkam as-Sultaniyyah (The Laws of Islamic Governance), trans. by Dr. Asadullah Yate, (London), Ta-Ha Publishers Ltd., 1996, p. 192.
More on this story. “ISIS kidnap at least 90 people from Christian villages in Syria, human rights watchdog reveals,” by Julian Robinson, MailOnline, February 24, 2015 (thanks to all who sent this in):
Islamic State militants have kidnapped at least 90 people after sweeping through Christian villages in Syria, it has been revealed.
The abductions are said to have taken place after ISIS seized two Assyrian communities from Kurdish forces in the northeast province of Hassakeh.
Dawn raids on Monday are said to have spread ‘panic’ in the villages, inhabited by the ancient Christian minority along the banks of the Khabur River near the town of Tel Hmar.
Most of the captives are said to have came from the village of Tal Shamiram, located 50 miles miles southwest of the Hassakeh provincial capital of Qamishli, with others taken from Tal Hermuz.
The kidnappings were revealed by the British-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.
The latest offensive coincides with a push by Syrian Kurds in the northeast near the Iraqi border since Sunday that had compounded losses for the militant group in Syria.
Sources are reported to have told the human rights watchdog that jihadists swooped to abduct dozens of civilians from the village of Tal Shamiram….