Oh, great: Shariah law spreads in Syria

Why not toss some U.S. weapons in the mix?

(Buck Sexton/TheBlaze)

The BBC has the disturbing details of a young boy's brutal murder at the hands of emboldened radicals:

He was 14 years old, but with no schooling possible because of the war he was usually to be found on the busy main thoroughfare through Shaar, selling the thick, sweet coffee they prefer here.

One day last month, someone asked him for a free cup. "Not even if the Prophet himself returns," he had replied, laughing. That remark was a death sentence.

It was overheard by three armed men. They dragged him to a car and took him away. Half-an-hour later, a badly beaten Mohammed was dumped back in the road by his cart.

The men, showing no fear that anyone would question what they were doing, summoned a crowd with shouts of "Oh People of Aleppo. Oh people of Shaar." Their bellows alerted Mohammed's mother.

Recalling what happened next, she buries her face in her hands and weeps.

"One of them shouted: 'Whoever insults the Prophet will be killed according to Sharia'," she told me.

"I ran down barefoot to the streets. I heard the first shot. I fell to the ground when I got there.

"One of them shot him again and kicked him. He shot him for a third time and stamped on him.

"I said: 'Why are you killing him? He's still a child!' The man shouted: 'He is not a Muslim - leave!'"

This sad story is one of the many implications of expanded rebel control throughout the country, the locals explain:

"We have no freedom left," says Mohammed's older brother, Fouad.

"We had it when the rebels first took over in Aleppo but now we have nothing. What we have instead are countless [Sharia] committees, each following its own interpretation of religion." [...]

"We did not hope for what we have come to today," said Lyas Kadouni, an activist interviewed by BBC Arabic.

"The names of [rebel] brigades tell you how people think now - names like 'Lovers of the Prophet Brigade' and so on. It is not necessary to throw religion into every corner of your life. This is killing our revolution."