ISIS Ruling Aims To Settle Who Can Have Sex With Female Slaves

 ISIS theologians have issued an extremely detailed ruling on when "owners" of women enslaved by the extremist group can have sex with them, in an apparent bid to curb what they called violations in the treatment of captured females.

The ruling or fatwa has the force of law and appears to go beyond the ISIS's previous known utterances on the subject, a leading ISIS scholar said. It sheds new light on how the group is trying to reinterpret centuries-old teachings to justify the sexual slavery of women in the swaths of Syria and Iraq it controls.

To read the fatwa click here: http://graphics.thomsonreuters.com/doc/slaves_fatwa.pdf

The fatwa was among a huge trove of documents captured by US Special Operations Forces during a raid targeting a top Islamic State official in Syria in May. Reuters has reviewed some of the documents, which have not been previously published.

Among the religious rulings are bans on a father and son having sex with the same female slave; and the owner of a mother and daughter having sex with both. Joint owners of a female captive are similarly enjoined from intercourse because she is viewed as "part of a joint ownership."

The United Nations and human rights groups have accused the ISIS of the systematic abduction and rape of thousands of women and girls as young as 12, especially members of the Yazidi minority in northern Iraq. Many have been given to fighters as a reward or sold as sex slaves.

Far from trying to conceal the practice, ISIS has boasted about it and established a department of "war spoils" to manage slavery. Reuters reported on the existence of the department on Monday.

In an April report, Human Rights Watch interviewed 20 female escapees who recounted how ISIS  fighters separated young women and girls from men and boys and older women. They were moved "in an organized and methodical fashion to various places in Iraq and Syria." They were then sold or given as gifts and repeatedly raped or subjected to sexual violence.

Dos And Don'ts

Fatwa No. 64, dated Jan. 29, 2015, and issued by ISIS's Committee of Research and Fatwas, appears to codify sexual relations between ISIS fighters and their female captives for the first time, going further than a pamphlet issued by the group in 2014 on how to treat slaves.

The fatwa starts with a question: "Some of the brothers have committed violations in the matter of the treatment of the female slaves. These violations are not permitted by Sharia law because these rules have not been dealt with in ages. Are there any warnings pertaining to this matter?"

It then lists 15 injunctions, which in some instances go into explicit detail. For example:

"If the owner of a female captive, who has a daughter suitable for intercourse, has sexual relations with the latter, he is not permitted to have intercourse with her mother and she is permanently off limits to him. Should he have intercourse with her mother then he is not permitted to have intercourse with her daughter and she is to be off limits to him."

ISIS's sexual exploitation of female captives has been well documented, but a leading ISIS expert at Princeton University, Cole Bunzel, who has reviewed many of the group's writings, said the fatwa went beyond what has previously been published by the militants on how to treat female slaves.

"It reveals the actual concerns of IS slave owners," he said in an email.

Still, he cautioned that not "everything dealt with in the fatwa is indicative of a relevant violation. It doesn't mean father and son were necessarily sharing a girl. They're at least being 'warned' not to. But I bet some of these violations were being committed."

The fatwa also instructs owners of female slaves to "show compassion towards her, be kind to her, not humiliate her, and not assign her work she is unable to perform." An owner should also not sell her to an individual whom he knows will mistreat her.

Professor Abdel Fattah Alawari, dean of Islamic Theology at Al-Azhar University, a 1,000-year-old Egyptian centre for Islamic learning, said ISIS "has nothing to do with Islam" and was deliberately misreading centuries-old verses and sayings that were originally designed to end, rather than encourage, slavery.

"Islam preaches freedom to slaves, not slavery. Slavery was the status quo when Islam came around," he said. "Judaism, Christianity, Greek, Roman, and Persian civilizations all practiced it and took the females of their enemies as sex slaves. So Islam found this abhorrent practice and worked to gradually remove it."

In September 2014 more than 120 Islamic scholars from around the world issued an open letter to ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi refuting the group's religious arguments to justify many of its actions. The scholars noted that the "reintroduction of slavery is forbidden in Islam."

Privacy Advocates Celebrate The End Of The NSA’s Phone Record Collection Program

The NSA shut down its bulk phone record collection program yesterday, more than two years since former NSA contractor Edward Snowden exposed the program to journalists and prompted a global debate about surveillance technology.

The program has been marked to sunset since Congress passed the USA Freedom Actearlier this year. But in light of the terror attacks that rocked Paris earlier this month, many hawkish lawmakers have attempted to hold off on shutting it down.

The Office of the Director of National Intelligence announced on Sunday that the program shut down as scheduled.

As the program came to a halt, privacy advocates took a victory lap on Monday. Here are those hot takes.

Senator Ron Wyden of Oregon wrote:

“This program’s very existence was concealed from the American public for over a decade.  Across two administrations, senior officials from US intelligence agencies and the Justice Department repeatedly made false and misleading statements that concealed the truth about what they were doing.  These officials relied on a secret body of law to justify the mass surveillance of the American people. Fortunately, in America sooner or later the truth always comes out.  When Americans found out about this secret, unconstitutional surveillance two years ago, they were rightfully outraged.  And they made their voices heard.  The result was historic reform legislation that required the government to shut this program down.”

Senator Mike Lee said:

“Today both the safety and Constitutional rights of American citizens are more secure thanks to the USA Freedom Act. Not only did the USA Freedom Act strengthen the Fourth Amendment rights of all Americans by ending the bulk collection of personal data, but it also better ensured national security by closing a loophole that prevented the government from tracking foreign terrorists once they entered the United States.”

Members of the House of Representatives also reiterated their support of the law. Bob Goodlatte, John Conyers, Jim Sensenbrenner and Jerrold Nadler issued the following statement:

“The implementation of the USA Freedom Act represents government at its best: it is the product of a robust public debate and intense bipartisan negotiations dedicated to finding a way to protect our Constitutional rights while enhancing the safety of our country. The bipartisan law ends the bulk collection of telephone metadata once and for all, enhances civil liberties protections, increases transparency for both American businesses and the government, and provides national security officials targeted tools to keep America safe.”

The implementation of the Freedom Act highlights that in a government marked by gridlock, there have been many major policy decisions that impact the tech industry from Washington this year. After little happened for the industry last year, 2015 brought significant reforms to the government surveillance and made net neutrality the law of the land.

Why Investing In Self Education Is A Good Idea

Investing in self education- sounds like one of those looks-good-only-in-the-book quotes, right? Benjamin Franklin had once said- An investment in knowledge always pays in your best interest.

You have heard and seen people investing in real estate and mutual funds. However, investing in self education is something that many of us are unaware about. Let’s take a look at the benefits it brings you…

– Secured: Once invested, nobody can take it from you. It also opens gate for a secure retirement.

– Earnings: We all know that once learnt, knowledge brings you dividend for the rest of your life. Infact, this is one of those, which brings you high return on not-so-big investment.

– Raises your esteem: As you don’t have to depend on anybody else for financing your education, it creates confidence and security around money.

The investment is self education requires time, effort and money. I am guessing that is one of the biggest reasons as to why doesn’t everyone master these essential skills for investing and developing financial literacy.

Financing your education is one of the greatest bargains of your life, especially if you start off at an early age. It costs little, risks nothing and gives you huge returns all your life. Is it not the best investment you’ve heard of?

We live in a fast changing, rapidly adaptive world. Things that weren’t possible yesterday, are on a high today. But to be on a look out for such opportunities, requires you to keep learning, especially updating yourself on new way of doing things.

All you need to do is put out the effort and a lifetime of benefits is yours for the taking. Afterall a little extra effort put in now, for a lifetime of financial security sounds better and more reliable than avoidance now and a lifetime of financial stress, does it not?

When And How To Pick Your Next Launch Country

International expansion is a challenge any globally ambitious company will face — some sooner than others.

As a long-time investor in both the U.S. and Europe, I often get asked by the venture community about the difference between the two. In my opinion, one of the key elements is the market fragmentation, which is something that European companies tend to come up against sooner than their U.S. counterparts.

While both the U.S. and Europe are consumer markets of more than 300 million people, grasping this potential in Europe is more challenging — and few companies have managed to do it successfully, given the region’s many diverse, distinct markets. As a result, I’m going to talk about international expansion using European examples and context for this piece — hopefully with takeaways that are universally relevant.

Can you go big without going home? Sure you can — if you give enough thought to the dynamics of expansion, starting with when and where to go next.

Is There Such A Thing As The “Right Time” To Launch In A New Country?

The first question the founding team of a consumer service needs to address concerns the timing of the launch in a new country. At McKinsey, and in most books on strategy, you will read that you can only replicate something successful, so you need to wait until your home country is cranking before starting abroad.

This is sound judgment. Unfortunately, it does not play out very well in the startup world. Why? Because by the time you have proven your model is a success in your home country, you already have other startups doing the same model in other key European markets, and competition gets fierce.

On the other hand, if you do a full roll-out with something that is not working or tuned enough, you will waste a lot of resources, which can sink the company.

So when is the right time? Every company will have a different answer. In my view, given the current competitive environment, the sooner the better. However, it is critical to do it gradually and in a controlled manner.

Here’s how I advise startups to approach expansion:

Nail your MVP (Minimum Viable Product) first. You need to have a service with a clear value proposition that works in different markets. You don’t need bells and whistles, just something simple but effective.

Field test your product with a meaningful amount of customers — typically a few thousands or tens of thousands. This should give you a good idea of what to expect.

Complete your initial marketing playbook. You need to have identified acquisition channels (SEM, Facebook, offline…) at a reasonable cost with payback typically in less than nine months. Make sure your approach is scalable.

How To Pick Your Next Country?

Once you’re clear on the ideal time to launch in your next country, the question becomes “where to go next?”

While every business and situation are different, the following three elements should always be considered when choosing your next market:

Market Potential: The “market potential” is a mix of different elements that must be weighted specifically for each business. It includes the market size, of course, but also the competitive dynamics, your network in the country (or your investor network) and the similarity with your home country. For example, in my experience, what works in France tends to also work well in Italy and Spain, but the U.K. can be an outlier.

Cash Requirements: Be clever with your resources. It is very important to assess your cost of capital and how much burn you can afford. If you raised €20 million in your Series A, you can take more risks and launch abroad sooner than if you raised €3-4 million. Picking a large market is attractive, but if it requires a level of investment that would reduce your runway considerably, you may be better off picking a smaller market. I have seen too many companies go big, burn big and then have to retrench, which is not a good position to be in.

Human Capital: Money is not everything; it is reasonably easy to get. The real challenge of international expansion lies in finding the right team, both at HQ to support the local launch and locally to scale the activity.

I typically encourage companies to start their expansion with one country and digest it to the point where it is scaling before launching a new one. It does not mean you need to wait a couple of years — a few months may be enough.

You can then accelerate the number of launches over time if you are successful. It’s key to remember that most technology markets are winner-takes-all — or at least takes most. It is, therefore, much better to be the leader in three countries than No. 5 in 10 countries.

Also, the more countries you support, the higher your cash burn and the fewer resources you can allocate to win in a given market — this is something that needs constant evaluation.

In summary, taking a thoughtful and considered approach to scaling internationally is key — and the sooner the better. First-mover advantage can offer a decisive advantage over competitors — and accelerate a company’s ability to become the global category leader early on.

While there may not necessarily be a perfect time for launching in a new market, preparing your business for expansion early on will support your continued success in a world where scaling internationally fast has become a requirement for any founder with global ambition.

Hacking Collective Anonymous Declares Total War On ISIS Following Paris Terror Attacks

The hacking group Anonymous on Sunday declared “total war” against the Islamic State, the terror organization that claimed responsibility for the attacks on Friday that killed 132 Parisians.

Anonymous also posted a video, confirming the message was in response to the events in Paris.

According to the same Twitter account, the group began taking down websites associated with ISIS this morning.

Anonymous also retweeted a link to the following message from the hacktivist group Binary Sec:

“We as a collective will bring an end to your reign of terror. We will no longer turn a blind eye to your cruel and inhumane acts of terrorism towards all other religions that are not Islam. We’ve watched you behead innocent people, kidnap and murder children, and then launch terrorist attacks in France. This will NOT BE TOLERATED ANY LONGER. We here at BinarySec live for the sole purpose of bringing down All ISIS Propaganda ONE website and/or person at a time. ISIS… Your Jihad is coming to an abrupt end . We here at BinarySec will be one of the driving forces to your end and that’s a promise. ISIS… The War Is On.”

This is not the first time that Anonymous has taken on ISIS. Foreign Policy Magazine reports that the conflict between hackers that identify with Anonymous and ISIS has waged online for more than a year. A tipping point that forced many hackers to join the cause were the attacks on the Charlie Hebdo newspaper and kosher market in Paris earlier this year.

According to the FP report from last week, hackers have taken 149 Islamic State-linked websites offline and flagged roughly 101,000 Twitter accounts and 5,900 propaganda videos.

The remaining question is whether or not these hackers aiming to achieve social good are helping or harming state-driven attempts to take out the terror group. Technology companies have said in the past that government intelligence agencies ask them not to take down ISIS-related content because, when using the legal avenues at hand, they are able to more effectively track these groups.

France retaliates with 'massive' airstrike against ISIS in Syria

France launched "massive" air strikes on the Islamic State group's de-facto capital in Syria Sunday night, destroying a jihadi training camp and a munitions dump in the city of Raqqa, where Iraqi intelligence officials say the attacks on Paris were planned.

Twelve aircraft including 10 fighter jets dropped a total of 20 bombs in the biggest air strikes since France extended its bombing campaign against the extremist group to Syria in September, a Defense Ministry statement said. The jets launched from sites in Jordan and the Persian Gulf, in coordination with U.S. forces.

A spokesman for France's defense minister told CNN that the airstrikes also hit an ISIS command center and a recruitment center.

Iraqi intelligence told the Associated Press on Sunday that it had warned Western coalition members of imminent attacks by ISIS only a day before the Paris assaults.

The news agency cited Iraqi intelligence as saying they had sent a dispatch about the group's leader, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, ordering an attack on coalition countries fighting against them in Iraq and Syria, as well as on Iran and Russia, "through bombings or assassinations or hostage taking in the coming days."

It also said that the Paris attacks were centrally planned in Raqqa, where the attackers were trained specifically for the operation.

Additional reporting by Mashable. Have something to add to this story? Share it in the comments.

How to show support for France and Lebanon on your Facebook profile

In the aftermath of the Paris terrorist attacks Friday that left at least 129 dead, Facebook helped users express their sympathy for those affected by activating a tool that superimposed the French flag over their profile photo with one click.

The filter has proved popular, and news feeds have been filling up with the red, white and blue of the flag, but some are questioning Facebook's selective show of support.

France was not the only country where tragedy has occurred in recent days. On Thursday, a double suicide attack rocked the Lebanese capital of Beirut leaving more than 30 dead. On Twitter, some have begun questioning why Facebook is actively encouraging users to show their support for France but not for Lebanon.

Although not native to Facebook's website, for those users interested in supporting additional countries in crisis, an easy-to-use alternative exists.

If you'd like to change your Facebook or Twitter profile picture to support both France and Lebanon, or any other country where violence and terror is disrupting the lives of citizens, you can use the LunaPic tool.

1. Simply choose the desired flag overlay

2. Upload your profile photo

3. You can show support for two countries at once

4. Then save and upload to social media

In what has been considered further evidence of double standards on the part of Facebook, the company activated its "safety check" feature in Paris — a tool that lets users in disaster areas notify friends they're safe — but did not in the Lebanese capital. Paris was the first time "safety check" has been activated in circumstances other than a natural disaster.

The company's CEO Mark Zuckerberg, in apparent response to the criticism, has said in a Facebook post "safety check" will be activated "for more human disasters going forward."

In response to Mashable's request for comment about why the flag tool was not also created for Lebanon, a Facebook spokesperson said: "We're offering our community the chance to change their profile pictures to show support for France and the people of Paris."

Have something to add to this story? Share it in the comments.