New Papers for the Center for Justice and Accountability on Islamic State War Crimes

I have two detailed studies recently published by the Center for Justice and Accountability on the subject of war crimes committed by the Islamic State. The papers are as follows:

1. The Islamic State and its Treatment of ‘Out-Groups’: A Comparative Analysis: Drawing on internal Islamic State documents, theological treatises and other lines of evidence, this paper presents a comparative analysis of the Islamic State’s treatment of three religious groups- the Yezidis, Christians and Shi‘a- utilising the analytical framework of in-group/out-group dynamics and how they relate to the Islamic State’s extremist worldview. The paper shows that despite the Islamic State’s hostility to the general mass of ‘outgroup’ of ‘disbelievers,’ there is not necessarily a monolithic ‘out-group’ but rather different types with some being deemed even worse than others. This differentiation then has implications for the group’s policies towards different religious groups, especially on the question of identity-based crimes such as persecution and genocide.

2. The Islamic State’s Pillage Economy: The Policy of Confiscations: Drawing primarily on internal Islamic State documents and the group’s literature, this paper seeks to explore the organisation’s confiscation of mobile and immobile property, examining the rationale and mechanisms of confiscation and also how the confiscated property was exploited.