Everyone knows that what the Islamic State does is egregious and unique and unprecedented, and has nothing whatsoever to do with Islam, but those who are willing to allow their balloon to land may be interested to know that there is precedent even for this in the history of the caliphate.
The last caliphate, the Ottoman Empire, drew its most formidable warriors against Christianity from among the Christians themselves. Christian fathers were forced to appear in the town squares with their sons, the strongest and brightest of whom would be seized from their parents, converted to Islam, and trained up to be part of the Empire’s crack fighting force, the janissaries. In certain areas this practice, the devshirme, became an annual event.
“Mosul: Islamic State abducts 111 children,” Asia News, July 7, 2015:
Baghdad (AsiaNews/Agencies) – Islamic State group militants abduct 111 schoolchildren in Mosul to train as terrorists, Iraq’s Arabic news channel Al Sumaria reported.
The abducted children, mostly aged between 10 and 15 years, were moved to the IS terrorist group’s educational and military centres for brainwashing, Iraqi Kurdistan Democratic Party spokesperson Saeed Mamuzini told the TV channel.
IS terrorists also detained 78 men who protested against the abduction of their children.
Since the terrorist group captured Iraq’s second city over a year ago, it has kidnapped 1,420 Iraqi children, the Kurdish official said.
In a previous statement, he said that IS terrorists had executed 15 of its own militants after facing a defeat in Bashiqa town, northeast of Mosul, adding that they were executed by children trained by the terrorist group.
Local Iraqi government and security officials also said that IS terrorists abducted 500 children in the eastern province of Diyala and western province of al-Anbar.