Islamic State Slaves 2014: ISIS Helps Expand Modern Slavery

Girls and young women in Iraq captured by Islamic State group militants have been separated from their families, forced into marriages and sexually abused under a growing system of slavery, according to media reports. The practice suggests that the militant group also known as ISIS is seeking to carry out modern-day slavery at a time when forced labor, debt bondage, trafficking and forced marriages are on the rise internationally.

In October, ISIS justified its use of women as sex slaves in its online magazine with claims that taking the women of "infidels" was permitted under Sharia law. "One should remember that enslaving the families of the kuffar -- the infidels -- and taking their women as concubines is a firmly established aspect of the Shariah, or Islamic law," the missive read.

Middle East scholars, however, argue that Shariah law suggests slavery is unethical. "There is not one single verse suggesting that the practice should continue. Further, the Quran makes no mention of slave markets or slave trading, and it repeatedly exhorts believers to free their slaves as an exemplification of their piety and belief in God," wrote Bernard Freamon, a professor of human trafficking at Seton Hall University School of Law in New Jersey, who also specializes in Islamic Legal History, for CNN.