ERBIL, Kurdistan Region – In recent days, the Islamic State, or ISIS, has blown up the biggest mosque in the occupied city of Mosul’s western Badoush neighborhood and reiterated its ban on the shaving of beards, a source inside Mosul and a Kurdish official have told Rudaw.
According to Ismat Rajab, a Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) official based in Mosul but now in Duhok, the jihadists destroyed the Badoush mosque because it reportedly had a grave that went against the ultra-conservative ideology of the Islamic State.
A ban on shaving, issued earlier this year by ISIS clerics, was stressed again during Friday prayers.
“Yesterday, in all Mosul mosques, preachers threatened men that if they shaves their beards they would be punished because it is against the Islamic Sharia law,” a Ruday source inside said.
In early March, it was reported that ISIS militants used explosives to demolish the much-loved 19th century Hamo mosque, deeming it sacrilegious.
Mosul fell in early June after the rapid capitulation by the Iraqi military, whose members reportedly abandoned their posts as the jihadists advanced.
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