Moaz al Kasasbeh in video showing him burnt to death (IS)

Islamic State have released a statement entitled Moaz al Kasasbeh in which they state their reasoning behind the horrific burning alive of the Jordanian pilot filmed on video from al-Furqan media outlet. Al- Kasasbeh was captured by IS when his plane went down near Raqqa, Syria in December 2014, see article on following link,

https://activist1.wordpress.com/2015/02/04/fighting-fire-with-fire-is-burn-jordanian-pilot-alive-in-video-release/

The actions of IS received widespread condemnation from around the world including a call from Grand Imam Ahmed al-Tayeb, Al Azhar institute, Cairo that Islamic State extremists be “killed, or crucified, or their hands and legs cut off.” However the video of Al-Kasasbeh’s killing was also greeted with excitement, cheering and shouts of “Allahu Akbar” when shown on a large screen to a public audience on IS own territory. The event was filmed in a follow-up video entitled, “Muslims’ Joy at Burning of Jordanian Pilot”. One young child around 8 years old stated, “if he was here, I’d burn him by my hand. I wish to capture pilots and burn them.” Although the thought of a child viewing this video horrifies many, the tragedy is, children from the region see such terrible images of people burning live right in front of them when their homes come under fierce air bombardment.

The news also broke media barriers. While most press were selective on images they chose with carefully edited clips to depict the killing not wanting to give IS publicity, Fox News decided to show the 22 minute video in its entirety defending their decision. They posted a statement which read,

“Warning, extremely graphic video: ISIS burns hostage alive and stated, “After careful consideration, we decided that giving readers of FoxNews.com the option to see for themselves the barbarity of ISIS outweighed legitimate concerns about the graphic nature of the video. Online users can choose to view or not view this disturbing content.”

Activists on social media reacted by detailing many other abuses and violations of human rights by US and allies. They tweeted a long list of postings detailing the “industrialized incineration” of civilians coming from a number of states, detailing death by napalm and flamethrower (US) white phosphorous (Israel) burning by drone (US, Israel, UK) incineration by barrel bombs (Assad regime) and so on. See article,

“Six live cremations the west wants you to ignore”

http://www.countercurrents.org/barsocchini040215.htm

The video had some repercussions for Coalition Forces in that The United Arab Emirates chose to suspend its air attacks against the Islamic State in Syria, raising concerns that “search and rescue” may not be adequate in the event of a plane going down. UAE also questioned the role of Iran in the war against ISIS which can be read on following Guardian link,

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/feb/04/uae-united-arab-emirates-isis-air-attacks-pilot

Today on Twitter several postings appeared showing Coalition pilots with a price tag on their heads, one showed a group all male photo while another showed a female pilot with the words,

“DEAD or ALIVE Country : UAE Crime : Bombing, burning and killing Muslims in IRAQ and SYRIA Price: 100 Gold Dinar”

Below is the full statement from IS

Moaz Al-Kasasbeh

• The Islamic State captured Moaz the Jordanian pilot on December 24th 2014 after shooting down his F-16 fighter jet from the skies of al-Raqqah (Syria). What was his jet doing in the skies of al-Raqqah?

• Moaz was part of the American-Arab-Iranian (Shia) coalition who was bombing innocent Muslim civilians in Syria and Iraq day and night. There have been more than 3000 tonnes of bombsthrown upon Muslims since the coalition against the Islamic State.

• The Islamic State decided to lock Moaz in a cage (representing a building), burn him alive, and then throw concrete bricks on his dead body (similar to how a person is burnt from an airstrike and the building falls on his body)), as a Qisaas (retribution punishment) for what he did to the Muslims in al-Raqqah.

No matter how much empathy one may feel for Moaz, he allied with disbelievers to kill Muslims while he had the choice to live safely in Jordan with his family.

This is what made him face the death he faced. The Islamic State is giving a clear warning to the Arabs’ and the world in general – that if you kill Muslims and fight the Islamic State – you will get a death similar to how you gave it to the Muslims.

وَإِنْ عَاقَبْتُمْ فَعَاقِبُوا بِمِثْلِ مَا عُوقِبْتُم بِهِ ۖ

And if you punish [an enemy, O believers], punish with an equivalent of that with which you were harmed. (Quran 16:126)

—-

During the time of the Sahaba and the Ridda (apostate Arab tribes):

END

Links

“Hell, fire and Arabia”

http://blog.haykal.sg/arabia/62-hell-fire-and-arabia

Carol Anne Grayson is an independent writer/researcher on global health/human rights/WOT and is Executive Producer of the Oscar nominated, Incident in New Baghdad. She is a Registered Mental Nurse with a Masters in Gender Culture and Development. Carol was awarded the ESRC, Michael Young Prize for Research 2009, and the COTT ‘Action = Life’ Human Rights Award’ for “upholding truth and justice”. She is also a survivor of US “collateral damage”.