| Summary/Abstract |
There is something nauseating about the violence of the Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham (ISIS). Its celebration of brutality – decapitating prisoners and burning them alive, crucifying and exhibiting its victims – sickens even from a distance. In June 2013, ISIS fighters executed 15-year-old street-coffee vendor Mohammad Kattaa in front of his parents in Aleppo, for using an expression they considered blasphemous. On the central square in Raqqa where ISIS had displayed its rivals’ crucified corpses, Australian fighter Khaled Sharrouf photographed his seven-year-old son holding a decapitated head, posting his child’s lost innocence on the Internet for all to see.
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