Facing Internal Criticism for Pilot’s Death, ISIS Executes 7

Saturday, 7 February 2015

Facing Internal Criticism for Pilot’s Death, ISIS Executes 7

Published Friday, February 6, 2015

A Saudi cleric with the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) jihadist group has been removed from his post after objecting to the burning alive of a captured Jordanian pilot, a monitor said Friday.

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the cleric, known by the nom-de-guerre Abu Musab al-Jazrawi, raised objections about the way pilot Moaz al-Kassasbeh was killed during a Thursday meeting.

"He raised objections during the weekly meeting that takes place between clerics and IS leaders in the Aleppo area," Observatory director Rami Abdel Rahman said, using another acronym for ISIS.

"He said the way Kassasbeh had been killed violated religious traditions," Abdel Rahman added.

Kassasbeh was captured by ISIS in December after his plane went down over Syria as he participated in the US-led coalition fighting the jihadist group.

A video purporting to show him being burned alive inside a cage emerged on Tuesday, though Jordanian state television said the execution was carried out weeks earlier.

Abdel Rahman said Jazrawi was removed from his post after the criticism, and could also face a religious tribunal and possible punishment.

The monitor also reported that ISIS executed one of its Sharia judges in ISIS-held al-Bab city in the Aleppo governorate in a meeting of ISIS emirs after his objection to the execution method.

Moreover, Kurdish broadcaster Rudaw reported that ISIS executed two clerics and beheaded four civilians in Mosul for objecting the death of the Jordanian pilot.

"ISIS executed the imam of Nabi Yunis mosque, Sheikh Abdullah Fahad, and the Imam of Kabir Mosque, Sheikh Ayoub Abdul Wahab in Mosul," a security source told Rudaw.

Meanwhile, Abu Mohammed al-Maqdisi, a former al-Qaeda preacher, slammed ISIS militants for the way they killed the Jordanian pilot, saying it was "not acceptable in any religion," Associated Press reported.

Maqdisi’s comments came a day after he was released from a Jordanian jail after three months in detention for criticizing the Kingdom’s participation in the anti-ISIS coalition.

ISIS and its supporters have sought to produce religious justifications for the horrific method by which they killed Kassasbeh, but ordinary Muslims and Islamic scholars have fiercely criticized the execution.

For its part, the Hashemite kingdom hanged two Iraqi jihadists on Wednesday, including a female militant, a move that was immediately criticized by human rights groups.

Since ISIS emerged in its current form in 2013, it has captured large swathes of territory in both Syria and Iraq.

It has since declared an Islamic "caliphate" in territory under its control, and gained a reputation for brutality, including executions and torture.

(AFP, Al-Akhbar)