ISIS: Enslaving, raping 'unbelieving' women, girls is OK

A slave caught by Muslim Barbary pirates painted by Ernest Normand (1859–1923)

Islamic Rape of Slaves

ISIS slavery is nothing new. Islamic slavery 

has existed since day one.

(CNN) -- Can you take non-Muslim women and children captive? Yes, says ISIS.

Can you have sex with them, even prepubescent girls? Yes, according to the Islamist extremist group.

Can you sell them or give them as gifts to others? The answer is yes, once again.

People in Mosul -- the Iraqi city now under control of the group calling itself the Islamic State -- got these and other messages loud and clear after sunset prayers Friday, when armed men handed out a color-printed pamphlet "Question and Answers on Female Slaves and their Freedom," three residents told CNN.

"People started gathering in small groups chattering about this (document)," said one of the men, whom CNN didn't name for security reasons. "Most are shocked, but (we) cannot do much about it."

Much of the pamphlet talks about ISIS' policy on having sexual intercourse with a female slave, something that the group cites the Quran to justify.

Hundreds of thousands of Europeans were captured by Muslim Barbary pirates and sold as slaves in North Africa and the Ottoman Empire between the 16th and 19th centuries.

"If she was a virgin, he (the owner) can have intercourse with her immediately after the ownership is fulfilled," ISIS explains. "If she was not a virgin, her uterus must be purified (wait for her period to be sure she is not pregnant.)"

There are other rules as well, like that two men who co-own a captive can't both have sex with her and that a man can't have intercourse with his wife's slave.

As to girls: "It is permissible to have intercourse with the female slave who hasn't reached puberty if she is fit for intercourse," the document reads. "However, if she is not fit for intercourse, he (the owner ) can only enjoy her without intercourse."

The Q&A is clear that, young and old, the captors have full control of their captives.

As such, the ISIS document claims, "It is permissible to buy, sell or give as a gift female captives and slaves, for they are merely property."

In response to the question of whether a female slave can buy her freedom, the answer is, "Yes she can."

The document also says that freeing a slave is something a sinner who has committed an act like unintentional murder or perjury can do for his sin to be forgiven. Alternative actions are fasting for two consecutive months or feeding hungry people.

The pamphlet sets a few other guidelines, such as that a captive mother can't be separated from her young children and that an impregnated captive cannot be sold. Beating a female slave for discipline is OK, but beating her for pleasure or as a form of torture is not.

Muslim Turkish Slavery
In the devşirme, which connotes "blood tax" or "child collection", young Christian boys from the Balkans and Anatoliawere taken from their homes and families, converted to Islam, and enlisted into the most famous branch of the Kapıkulu, the Janissaries, of the Ottoman army.

The Slave Market (c. 1884), painting by Jean-Léon Gerome.