The insanity and brutality of al-Qaeda

The Weekly Standard – In mid-May, Iraqi security forces began to crack down on Al Qaeda in Iraq (AQI) in a Sunni area of Mosul that the U.S. military had described as AQI’s last major urban stronghold. As AQI melted away in response to these operations, we gained a glimpse of the brutal and bizarre governance that the terrorist group had imposed. Most notably, AFP reports that the group banned the display of tomatoes and cucumbers side-by-side because they regarded this as “sexually provocative.” AQI also banned a local Iraqi bread known as “sammoun” on the grounds that it did not exist during Prophet Muhammad’s time.

(As my colleague Steve Schippert of ThreatsWatch noted in an e-mail, neither AK-47s nor explosives–two AQI staples–existed in Muhammad’s time either.) The use of ice was similarly banned because Muhammad did not have ice. Under AQI’s rule, barbers were not allowed to use electric razors, as AFP notes: Barber Atta Sadoun, 29, is back in business. “They threatened to kill me if I used an electric shaving machine,” he said adding that Al-Qaeda had also decreed that men’s facial hair should not be removed. He was forced to place a sign outside his salon saying he was using only scissors and no electric shaver. Several of his colleagues had been killed because they had failed to comply, he said.