A squad of self-appointed Sharia cops raided a wedding reception in the al Qaeda controlled area of Syria, and during the course, reportedly detained and beat the women in attendance. The Business Standard (of New Delhi, India) reports that a number of Syrian Muslim women in the city of Deir Ezzor were privately celebrating the marriage of one of their own when members of the al Sharia Law Authority broke up the exclusively women-only celebration on the grounds that strict Islamic law was not being observed by the revelers.
The north and eastern regions of the war-torn Middle Eastern nation is firmly in the grip of the al Qaeda-allied terrorist organization ISIS (The Islamic State of Iraq and Syria), which has established its own Sharia-compliant caliphate. The citizens of Deir Ezzor, one of the largest cities in the area, have seen the strong-arm tactics of the Sharia enforcement squads in action on more than a few occasions.
In the latest case, all seventeen women in attendance were taken beaten for the crimes of “listening to loud music and not wearing Islamic dress.” One of the celebrants identified only as “Miriam” stated that one of the men began cursing at the party-goers and hitting them.
Out go the lights…
This isn’t the first time ISIS has made the headlines. As Howard Portnoy reported in February, an ISIS bomb-making class ended with a less-than-hoped-for conclusion when the instructor violated “rule No. 1 in the teaching manual for instructors of aspiring suicide bombers: Don’t give lessons with live explosives.” He and all 21 students died in the blast.
