Islamic State promises sex slaves to young boys who can memorize the Koran

The Islamic State recently held a "Koran-memorizing" competition in northern Syria where some of the top prizes are Yazidi women who were captured almost a year ago, just another instance of the group's clever strategy for turning the youth of the areas they control into extremists.

LOS ANGELES, CA (Catholic Online) - The competition was held in the northern Syrian state, now called Barakah under Islamic State occupation, and will be held by several Islamic State mosques ran in Syria, including one called the Osama bin Laden mosque. The contest will be finished after seven days, on June 27 in celebration of Ramadan.

Cash prizes are also to be distributed for the fourth and fifth place finishers, and was advertised in a pamphlet from the Islamic State's publishing arm which also took time to congratulate the militants on recent victories in Syria and Iraq.

The prizes for first and second place were described as sabieahs, which is an Arabic word for female servant but can also mean sex slave. The Yazidi women who the Islamic State captured in mid-2014 have often been used as sex slaves and rewards by the group.

Those who have survived and managed to escape report being raped and forces to convert to Islam and living the harsh life of a slave.

This insidious competition is aimed at younger Syrians who live under the yoke of the Islamic State, converting them to the group's radicalized and militant beliefs, and turning them into a fresh source of fighters and insurgents.

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