IS goes full-hipster.

Via RFEL:

The Islamic State (IS) group has reportedly issued a decree ordering all men in the Iraqi city of Mosul to grow beards on the grounds that the shaving of facial hair is haram (forbidden) under Shari’a law.

A report of the new IS decree in Mosul was posted on the Mosul Eye Facebook page on April 28. Mosul Eye is the pseudonym of a local historian who has been secretly documenting IS’s activities in Mosul since the militants overran the city in June 2014. While it is not possible to verify the blogger’s identity, Iraq watchers believe the accounts are credible.

Mosul Eye also posted a photograph of a leaflet that the account says IS has distributed in Mosul. The leaflets explain the Shari’a law basis for the IS edict to grow beards.

Those who fail to comply with the order to grow facial hair will be subject to punishment, Mosul Eye said.

IS militants have reportedly issued similar bans on shaving beards in other parts of Iraq and Syria, also based on the group’s radical interpretation of Shari’a law.