Leena al-Qasem pleaded with her son to flee ISIS's then-stronghold of Raqqa with her. He notified ISIS authorities, who then "tried" Leena for apostasy and had her son carry out the execution.
Ali Saqr al-Qasem (son)
In January 2016, Leena al-Qasem was accused of apostasy, subjected to an ISIS “trial,” and executed by her own son.
Leena, aged 45, had asked her son, aged 20, to flee with her from the city of Raqqa, which was then an ISIS stronghold. Her son did not cooperate; instead, he reported Leena to the ISIS authorities. It was then that she was “tried” for apostasy, as this request against ISIS’s authority was apparently enough evidence that she had abandoned “true” Islam.
After Leena was found guilty, ISIS authorities determined that her son should be the one to kill her. He complied. Her execution at the hands of the son with whom she wished to flee the brutality took place outside Raqqa’s post office, where she had worked.
An estimated 74 percent of Syria’s population is Sunni Muslim, which is ethnically varied within itself. Imprecise estimates of its Christian population oscillate between 5 and 10%, which decreased drastically after the civil war. Under the Assad regime, Syria is officially secular, but Syrian codification of religion is layered with contradictions. While the Assad regime purports to be secular, the current constitution designates Islam as the state religion, and de facto blasphemy laws are in force. The current status of their enforcement and importance remains largely unclear, since the country has been wracked with extreme and persistent violence for much of the last decade, including the insurgency of ISIS, who, before their defeat, were responsible for multiple executions of accused blasphemers and "apostates."