Black Flags: The Rise of ISIS

by Joby Warrick

Sabha was particularly struck by the tenderness Zarqawi displayed toward the most fragile of the inmates, the double-amputee named Eid Jahaline, the unlucky bomber who flubbed the attack on the pornographic cinema. Jahaline, who suffered from a psychological disorder in addition to his physical disfigurement, had always bunked with the other Islamist inmates in spite of extreme disabilities. Zarqawi appointed himself as the man’s personal valet, and assisted him with his bathing, changing, and feeding. Most days, he would simply scoop up the legless man in his arms and carry him to the toilet. Sabha suspected that the daily ritual had as much to do with Zarqawi’s peculiar sense of propriety as with genuine compassion for his comrade. Under the Islamists’ strict moral code, exposing the man’s naked body to others would constitute both a humiliation and a sin.

There's more to this than simply helping the man.