Islam being like the mafia… once you’re in, you never get out.

Via Times of Israel:

Al-Qaeda fighters in Syria forced residents of 14 Druze villages located in an isolated area to convert to Islam, The Times of Israel was told Monday.

The villagers, from the northern Syrian province of Idlib, were forced by members of the al-Qaeda-affiliated Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant group, known as ISIL or ISIS, to announce that they had accepted the Islamic faith, according to Syrian opposition sources.

In recent weeks, ISIL has gained increasing control over villages in the isolated northern region.

Upon seizing them, it sent villagers messages threatening to massacre them unless they converted to Islam and announced their conversion publicly.

ISIL is considered one of the most extremist and intolerant groups currently involved in the fighting against Syrian President Bashar Assad, even in comparison to the other rebel group linked to al-Qaeda, Jabhat al-Nusra.

The group’s gains have underscored growing infighting among rebel factions seeking to oust Syrian President Bashar Assad. A recent takeover of opposition warehouses by ISIL members spurred the US and UK to announce they would suspend the nonlethal aid they had been providing to Syrian rebels.