Ayham Hussein, a 15-year-old boy from Mosul, Iraq, was executed by the Islamic State (ISIS) in 2016 for the “crime” of listening to music during prayer time. Hussein was arrested by ISIS's religious police after being caught with a portable CD player. In a swift trial by an Islamic State court, he was found guilty of violating the group's strict religious code. His punishment was execution by beheading, carried out in front of a large crowd in Mosul, a city then under isis control.

The public beheading of a child, especially for something as innocuous as listening to music, highlights the brutal enforcement of ISIS’s extremist interpretation of Islamic law. Under ISIS's rule, music was banned, and any form of expression or action deemed contrary to its ideology was met with severe punishment. This tragic incident is emblematic of the harsh life people, particularly children and youth, endured under ISIS's occupation, where even small acts of defiance could result in extreme consequences.

Such incidents generated international outrage, further exposing the inhumanity of ISIS’s rule, which regularly employed public executions, fear, and violence to maintain control over territories. Hussein’s death is a stark reminder of the dangers faced by civilians living under extremist regimes.

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