Hostage-taking is sanctioned in Islamic law and subject to particular rules: “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)” — Al-Mawardi, al-Ahkam as-Sultaniyyah (The Laws of Islamic Governance).
“Police rescue 259 from Ibadan house of horror,” Punch, November 5, 2019 (thanks to The Religion of Peace):
Personnel of the Oyo State Police Command, on Monday, stormed an illegal detention centre at a mosque in the Ojoo area of Ibadan, and rescued 259 persons being held hostage there.
The victims were made up of 191 males, 34 females, 11 children, and 23 sick persons.
It was gathered that the victims had been in chains for between two and 10 years.
The police arrested nine suspects during the raid, including the owner of the centre.
PUNCH Metro findings showed that many such centres had been in existence in the city for several years, with clerics using them as corrective homes for recalcitrant persons.
The state Commissioner of Police, Shina Olukolu, who led the police team to the centre, said a 17-year-old escapee from a holding facility in another part of Ibadan hinted the command about the existence of the centre.
The commissioner stated that the escapee mentioned the Oloore mosque in Ojoo as another facility used for holding the victims against their will.
According to him, on arrival at the mosque, the victims recounted their harrowing experience, stating that some of them had been held hostage for up to 10 years.
Olukolu said, “The young man said the victims were being maltreated and were poorly fed; being treated like slaves and engaged in forced labour; and oftentimes, their deaths were not reported to anybody…