ISIS has invented a horrific new "contest" in which female slaves captured in war, many of them Christians, are given away as prizes to jihadist fighters who have memorized portions of the Koran.
This new, disturbing practice is called "sibya" and was announced on ISIS Twitter accounts earlier this month in honor of the beginning of Islam's month of Ramadan, which is observed by Muslims all over the world, according to the Middle East Media Research Institute and the Clarion Project.
The Twitter announcement reportedly "begins with congratulations to ISIS soldiers and departments in the province upon the beginning of the month of Ramadan," MEMRI wrote, Fox News reports. "It then announces the upcoming Koran memorization competition, at which it says participants will be tested and given prizes accordingly."
The statement lists the prizes planned for the top ten competitors, with the top three to each be awarded a female slave: 'Winner of the first place [will be granted] (sibya) [a female slave who was captured at war],'" the translation by MEMRI read.
The announcement encouraged competitors to come to one of four mosques to participate in the contest, including the "Mosques of Abu Bakr el-Sadiq, The Mosque of Osama Bin Laden, The Mosque of Abu Musab el-Zarqawi or The Mosque of el-Taqwa.
"We ask the great lord to make your life easier and to grant you with what he loves and what pleases him," the announcement concludes.
Ryan Mauro, national security analyst for the New York-based Clarion Project, told Fox News that through this "contest," ISIS wants to establish legitimacy and also demonstrate that they are the ones who most closely follow true Islam.
"By showcasing its slavery, ISIS is boasting that it practices Islam in its most literal interpretation, doesn't capitulate to public opinion and rejects modern interpretations," Mauro said. "It is also showing it has a functional Islamic educational system and therefore is a real caliphate."
Large portions of Iraq and Syria are currently under the control of the Islamic State, which has viciously purged the region of Christian and Yazidi minorities. ISIS fighters regard themselves as entitled to use captured women as sex slaves, viewing them as "spoils of war."
In September, ISIS militants abducted between 1,500 and 4,000 women and children from the Christian and Yazidi community in western Iraq, according to the U.S. State Department.
A sobering report released in November reveals that not only are the militants forcefully marrying the captured women, they are also selling girls as young as one years old into sex slavery to fund their army.
The document, issued by ISIS, shows a full list of prices as well as some basic rules for who was permitted to buy the girls and when. It also claims that anyone violating the price controls will be killed, the Iraqi News reports.
A Human Rights Watch report issued in April also documented continued organized rapes, sexual assault, and other horrific crimes against Yazidi women and girls kidnapped from their homes and held as captives in Iraq and Syria.
In its English propaganda publication, "Dabiq," ISIS earlier sought to justify its treatment of females, saying it is "Islamic" to capture and forcibly make "infidel" women sexual slaves. "Before Shaytan [Satan] reveals his doubts to the weak-minded and weak hearted, one should remember that enslaving the families of the kuffar [infidels] and taking their women as concubines is a firmly established aspect of the Shari'ah 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," the publication read.
On Tuesday, Rev. Franklin Graham condemned ISIS' treatment of female minorities and urged U.S. President Obama to take immediate action.
"These women and young girls who were captured at war face unbelievable atrocities," he wrote in a Facebook post. "Join me in praying for an end to ISIS's reign of terror in the Middle East and a halt to their expansion around the globe. President Barack Obama, why have you allowed this to continue? Why don't you support the Kurds and the Yazidis and others like them with the wherewithal to protect themselves? At this time we don't need to put more American troops in harm's way when we have people who want to fight for their own freedom. Let's help them defend themselves."
