Rape jihad

Rape jihad (Arabic: تحرش جنسي, taharrush jinsi; sexual harassment) refers to the organized abduction, rape, and/or enslavement of non-Muslim women or children by Islamic extremists. The term was used as early as 2004 in descriptions of Darfur and Beslan, and has since been applied to more recent incidents.

The largest recent case of rape jihad in Europe was the 2015 New Year's Eve assaults in Cologne, Germany.

Justification

Disparaging attitudes toward non-Muslim women and girls are promoted in some mosques and sexual predation of them is supported in religious texts as a form of sexual slavery sanctioned in Quranic scriptures, such as suras 4:24 and 33:50, in which sex is permitted with "Ma malakat aymanukum" (captive women).

In its digital magazine, Dabiq, the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) explicitly claimed religious justification for enslaving Yazidi women (see section following). Specifically, ISIL argued that the Yazidi were idol worshipers and appealed to the shariah practice of spoils of war. ISIL asserts that certain Hadith and Quranic verses support their right to enslave and rape captive non-Muslim women. ISIL appealed to apocalyptic beliefs and "claimed justification by a Hadith that they interpret as portraying the revival of slavery as a precursor to the end of the world." According to Dabiq, "enslaving the families of the kuffar and taking their women as concubines is a firmly established aspect of the Sharia’s that if one were to deny or mock, he would be denying or mocking the verses of the Qur'an and the narration of the Prophet … and thereby apostatizing from Islam." In late 2014 ISIL released a pamphlet that focused on the treatment of female slaves. It says fighters are allowed to have sex with adolescent girls and to beat slaves as discipline. The pamphlet's guidelines also allow fighters to trade slaves, including for sex, as long as they have not been impregnated by their owner.

Rape in war

Main articles: Jihadism and Wartime sexual violence

History

Main article: History of rape

Rape has accompanied warfare in virtually every known historical era. Mass rape of both women or youths regardless of gender was among the punitive measures that might be taken against captured towns by Greek, Persian, or Roman troops. Female slavery and war rapes were also common during the medieval Arab slave trade, where prisoners of war captured in battle from non-Arab lands often ended up as concubine slaves (who are considered free when their master dies). During the Islamic Golden Age, some Muslim jurists writing on military jurisprudence advocated severe penalties for rebels who use "stealth attacks" and practise abductions, poisoning of water wells, arson, attacks against wayfarers and travellers, assaults under the cover of night and rape.

The Lieber Code of 1863 codified the protection of civilians and stated that "all rape...[is] prohibited under the penalty of death" and subsequent laws of war and humanitarian law have made maltreatment of civilians criminal. Slavery was formally abolished in nearly all countries by the mid 20th century, though in the 21st century some Muslim scholars have expressed concern at a "worrying trend" of conservative Salafi Islamic scholars "reopening" the issue of slavery after its "closing" earlier in the 20th century when Muslim countries banned slavery and "most Muslim scholars" found the practice "inconsistent with Qur'anic morality."

Siege of Vienna

During the Siege of Vienna of 1683, men were slaughtered by the Ottoman Turks, and women raped.

ISIL

Main articles: Sinjar massacre, Persecution of Yazidis by ISIL, and Sexual violence in the Iraqi insurgency

In 2014, the ISIL raided Yazidi settlements in Iraq, massacring the men and selling the women into sexual slavery.

Boko Haram

Main article: Chibok schoolgirls kidnapping

In April 2014, during a raid on Chibok, Boko Haram, an Islamic Jihadist and terrorist organization based in northeast Nigeria, took prisoner several hundred Christian schoolgirls, who, after efforts to secure their release were ineffective, were sold in slave auctions to prospective husbands and forcibly converted to Islam. In May, a video in which Boko Haram leader Abubakar Shekau claimed responsibility for the kidnappings emerged; he claimed, "Allah instructed me to sell them...I will carry out his instructions." and "Slavery is allowed in my religion, and I shall capture people and make them slaves." He said the girls should not have been in school and instead should have been married since girls as young as nine are suitable for marriage.

Darfur

Main article: Rape during the Darfur genocide

Throughout the ongoing genocide in the Darfur war in Sudan, there has been a systematic campaign of rape, which has been used as a weapon of war, in the ethnic cleansing of black Africans from the region. The majority of rapes have been carried out by the Sudanese government forces and the Janjaweed ("evil men on horseback") paramilitary groups. The actions of the Janjaweed have been described as genocidal rape, with not just women, but children also being raped, as well as babies being bludgeoned to death and the sexual mutilation of victims being commonplace.

Child sexual exploitation

Main articles: Commercial sexual exploitation of children, Child sexual abuse, and Child grooming

UK grooming cases

Main articles: Rotherham child sexual exploitation scandal, Rochdale sex trafficking gang, Derby sex gang, Oxford sex gang, Bristol sex gang, Telford sex gang, and Peterborough sex abuse case

Widespread organized child sexual abuse took place in many places throughout England, dating from 1997, in which it was conservatively estimated that 1,400 children had been sexually abused in the city, predominantly by gangs of British-Pakistani men. Abuses described included abduction, rape, torture and sex trafficking of children.

See also

• Love jihad
• Sexual jihad
• Nikah Misyar