Lt. Muath Al-Kaseasbeh in a visit to Turkey.

The videotaped murder of Jordanian pilot Lt. Muath al-Kaseasbeh by “Islamic State” terrorists is one of the most gruesome atrocities that the world has witnessed since the turn of the century. 

The 26-year-old pilot was placed in a cage in an orange jump suit drenched with a flammable liquid. He was burned to death before a bulldozer leveled the cage with his burning body in it. 

This barbarism is foreign to both Islam and the Arab World. It is in violation of all moral and religious principles. No sane human being would condone this sadistic act of madness.

IS militants, who claim to follow a fundamentalist, literalist school of Islam, acknowledged in a statement that the Prophet Mohamad once said, “Only God can punish with fire”, referring to hell. However, the group added an interpretation of the hadith, claiming that the prophet was not prohibiting burning people, but promoting humbleness. The group’s justification does not make sense. However, ideas matter less to these beasts disguised as men. 

The terrorists’ brutality has nothing to do with Islam. It can only be compared to Mongols’ raid on the Middle East, when barbarian fighters murdered and destroyed with brutality to strike fear in the hearts of their opponents. 

Kaseasbeh was a Muslim. His killers were un-Islamic. His death, along with the deaths of thousands of Muslims at the hands of IS, proves that the terror group’s brutal tactics have nothing to do with Islam. According to Kurdish newspaper Rudaw News, the terrorists executed two imams and four civilians for criticizing the pilot’s murder.  

Kaseasbeh was one of the many Muslims fighting IS. On the ground, without exception, all the forces battling the terror group are Muslim: The Iraqi army, the Syrian army, the Kurdish peshmerga, the Syrian rebels, Hezbollah and many other militias and factions.

In December, IS militants used a hashtag on Twitter to gather ideas on how to kill Kaseasbeh. One sick IS supporter suggested feeding the 26-year-old to hungry alligators. No true Muslim would stand for playing with people’s lives in such a manner.

Kaseasbeh is only one of hundreds of thousands of the victims of the wars that are destroying Iraq and Syria. This violence is a result of the complicated geopolitical realities and shortcomings of the countries involved, but also the failed policies of our own government, from the invasion of Iraq to mishandling Syria’s crisis.

Our condolences to the Kaseasbeh family and all the people of Jordan.