"And I have found both freedom and safety in my madness, the freedom of loneliness and the safety from being understood, for those who understand us enslave something in us. But let me not be too proud of my safety. Even a Thief in a jail is safe from another thief. "

Khalil Gibran (How I Became a Madman)

Lübnan Marunîleri / Yasin Atlıoğlu

NEWS AND ARTICLES / HABERLER VE MAKALELER

Wednesday, November 27, 2013

Al-Qaeda's brutal tactics in Syria forces out moderates- BBC News

"I was handcuffed, blindfolded when I was taken to their base. Like the six other detainees with me, we were whipped 70 times every day."
"We were mostly accused of setting up 'Sahwa' - Awakening Councils - against the state."
Mohammed's horrific tale of torture from Syria might not sound that unusual if the "state" his captors' were referring to was the government of President Bashar al-Assad.
But they were from the self-proclaimed Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIS), an al-Qaeda affiliate that has become an equally feared force in rebel-held areas.
'New dictatorship'
Mohammed, an engineer in his early 50s who is the father of four children, joined the peaceful protest movement against Mr Assad when the uprising in Syria began in 2011.
When Raqqa province fell under rebel control, he helped set up a local council to provide basic services in the absence of the state.
But little did they know that it would not take long for a new dictatorship to replace the one from which they had freed themselves.
On 9 July 2013 - the first day of the Islamic holy month of Ramadan - Mohammed and six other members of the council in the border town of Tal Abyad were detained by members of ISIS, who handcuffed and blindfolded them and took them to the city of Raqqa.
Over the next 33 days, Mohammed was tortured on a daily basis by the jihadists.