ISIS Militants Go Undercover as Gay Men Tricking Homosexuals Into Execution; Photos Show Jihadi Fighters Hugging Captives Before Their Stonings
Islamic State militants have devised a twisted way of getting homosexual Shariah violators to reveal themselves for execution, as extremist fighters in Syria have reportedly been posing as homosexuals to lure gay men into opening up about their sexual preference only to arrest and execute them.
After known ISIS supporters on Twitter released photos last weekend of two gay men being hugged by ISIS militants before being stoned to death in the Syrian countryside outside Homs, the Daily Beast reported that ISIS fighters in Syria have begun the practice of entrapping gay men by using undercover operations to expose their sexuality.
The Daily Beast previously reported in March that the act of luring gay men into admitting their homosexuality by having a straight man pose as gay and set up dates to coax them into being arrested and executed was a tactic often used by the Syrian government and has now been picked up recently in the caliphate.
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"Homosexuality is anathema to the group and in recent weeks the jihadists have been seeking to entrap gays in sting operations," the report indicated. "Undercover jihadists have posed as gays themselves to catch homosexuals. Some gays have been ransomed."
As ISIS upholds a very strict brand of Shariah law that strictly forbids sexual immorality such as homosexuality and adultery, the militant group published a penal code in early April that detailed punishments for certain crimes. According to the document, homosexual acts are to be punished with "death for the penetrator and receiver."
In recent months, the militant group has released several pictures on social media showing gay men being thrown off the top of buildings and being executed in other brutal fashions.
After ISIS released photos of the two gay men, believed to be 29 and 24 years old, being stoned outside of Homs, three of the pictures showed militants giving hugs of compassion to the two gay men before they were killed, which is an odd gesture for a group notorious for its barbarism.
Abu Mohammed Hussam, an activist with the underground Syrian monitoring group called Raqqa, told the Daily Beast that releasing photos showing militants hugging those they are about to execute provides the propaganda that by murdering gay men, the militants are helping them atone for their sins.
"ISIS has never forgiven a single person," Hussam asserted. "They kill people and then say God will forgive you. They hug the men to show people who are watching that ISIS is not at fault."
The other released photos were not as loving. One photograph showed a large crowd of onlookers gathered in the rural area to watch the executions. Another picture shows the battered bodies of the gay men on the ground while militants fatally pelt them with large rocks.
ISIS' first reported executions of gay men occurred in November when two gay men were stoned in separate incidences because of their sexual preferences. One was stoned in the town of Mayadeen and the other was stoned in Deir Ezzor.
In December, ISIS released pictures showing eight ISIS militants throwing a gay man off the top of a three-story apartment complex in Wilayat al-Furat.
In January, photos were released showing militants forcing two gay men to the top of a highrise tower in the Iraqi stronghold of Mosul. The two men were pushed over the ledge and fell hundreds of feet to their death.
In February, ISIS' images emerged showing another gay man being thrown off of a tall, uncompleted building in Raqqa, Syria. After the man somehow miraculously survived his fall, a crowd gathered around him to stone him to death.
In early April, ISIS militants blindfolded a man accused of being gay and forced him to run through an open field in Sryia while executioners hurled stones at him until he died.
