In a statement circulated over the weekend on Syrian websites, the organizations accused ISIL militants of persecuting other rebel units, civilian activists and others who do not share their extremist views.

The scholars said ISIL was responsible for spreading “strife” and said the militants had no right to act like they represented the “state” that appears in the title of their organization.

“They have blocked relief and religious propagation activities on the grounds that they doubt the policy [of a given group], or accuse it of being foreign agents,” the religious groups complained.

Amnesty International on Thursday also accused the al Qaeda-linked group of abducting, torturing and killing detainees at secret prisons in areas under its control.

The rights group said detainees held by the ISIL include children as young as eight and that minors have been sentenced to severe floggings and held with adults in “cruel and inhuman conditions”.

BA/BA