An Opportunity Created by Absolute Evil
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| Source: IS youtube release (top), family (bottom) |
By: Jabbar Fazeli, MD
IS evil knows no religious boundaries
The "Islamic state" released their most evil video to date this week showing the burning of the captured Jordanian pilot, Moaz al-Kasasbeh. They portrayed this barbaric and cruel act as an Islamic sharia sentence of a criminal. The 22 minutes video carried a message of righteousness, and justified the burning alive of another Muslim by the usual two wrongs make a right argument. It conveyed a cavalier attitude toward human suffering, and the brutal taking of a life without any second thoughts.
I apologize for the gruesome nature of the images used here, but there is no other way to expose this evil without showing what they actually did. I didn't have the heart to subject you to the moving images of Moaz being burnt alive. His clothes doused with gasoline, the anticipation, the helpless reaction as the fire approached, the struggle, the walking around while on fire in a cage, the melting of the skin as Moaz kneels and waits for death to come. It finally does, and not a moment too soon. RIP.
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| Source: Al-Arabia |
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| Source: Egyptian Channel |
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| Source: Egyptian Channel |
From this moment on, there is nothing else required to prove to any Muslim that IS is based on pure evil, not religion. No more partially right, sometimes right arguments. They are simply evil that passes candies to children once in a while, only to lure them into the abyss.
If you feel compelled to see the video for yourself, you can find an edited short version at https://www.lebwindow.net/131605. Muslims around the world should watch it and know that this is our cancer, even if we have nothing to do with it.
This evil is committed in the name of everyone with a Muslim heritage, regardless of sect or where they happen to live. This is not a Sunni crime, this is not a Wahhabi crime, this is a crime committed in the name of all Muslims for the world to see.
Yet, how many demonstrations , outside of Jordan, were there in the Muslim and Arab would? Maybe they would have been demonstrations in Pakistan if the story line was "Muslim pilot burnt alive while holding a burning Quran".
How could some Jordanian still sympathize with IS?
Before this execution, the Jordanian pilot's influential clan publicly demanded that the government make any deal necessary with IS to secure his release. The public pressure was so enormous that the Jordanians, in an unprecedented move, offered to free a convicted female terrorist on death row, in exchange for Moaz's release. The rest is history.
What is not emphasized in the media is that the Kasasbeh clan also called for an end to the Jordanian participation in the war against IS, even as their son fought IS and was being held by IS. This illustrate the shakiness of the resolve within the Arab world, and specifically Jordan, to fight IS.
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| Arabic Caption: Why wasn't the Jordanian Pilot downed over Palestine? |
In the aftermath of this blatant assault directed at the Jordanian nation as a whole, there are still some Jordanian voices that publicly ask "why are we in this fight?", or blaming the Jordanian government for not acting in a "timely manner" to meet the demands of the terrorists. That's the same argument that some Pakistanis made after the Taliban ruthlessly killed innocent school children en mass. The apologists in the Muslim world always find a way to justify evil by blaming the victim for provoking the murders or not doing enough to appease them.
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| Arabic Caption: "Jordanian politicians hold their government responsible for the burning of Al-Kasabeh" |
Jordanian government use of media and lessons learned
To their credit, the Jordanian TV showed the video of the burning pilot in a loop, and every Jordanian with access to TV watched it, over and over again. The public reaction was so great that Jordanians felt compelled to come to the airport to support their King as he cut his trip to the U.S. Short and ordered the execution of IS prisoners in death row. Other Arab networks simply showed still images like the ones shown here, maybe that explains the relatively muted public reaction in the rest of the Arab world so far.
Before this killing, the big elephant in the room was the Dilemma Jordan faced in selling the fight against IS to their people. How do you convince the conservative segment of the Muslim Jordanian society to fight a group that raises a flag containing the name of God and the prophet Mohammad?
The answer is now clear. You wait for them to do something stupid, like burning alive a member of one of Jordan's most influential clans, then put it on TV and make every Jordanian watch it over and over again.
Extremists shoot themselves in the foot sooner or later, as they always overreach and commit acts outside acceptable norms, even by Middle Eastern standards. They will keep doing that without fail. All Arab and Muslim nations need to do is expose it when it happens and let the illiterate supporters turn against them. The educated strata have to endure more displays of gratuitous violence in order to allow the least educated supporters of Islamists to see the evil they support with their own eyes to believe it.
When 911 happened, the Muslim world saw burning towers, but they didn't see the images of people jumping to their deaths from the burning towers. Now we know why they needed to see those tastefully edited images. For an average Jordanian Islamist, the images of falling bodies was the differences between a "courageous" attack against a hated enemy, and a cruel act of terrorism against innocent civilians. Seeing is believing, especially for the backward segments of Muslim societies with little real education.
Jordanian Response-- Big and immediate, otherwise it's useless
This brutal killing, as sad as it was, is also a rare opportunity for Jordan's to act despite the Islamist sympathizers and apologists. The government will have the support of the Islamists within the Kasasbeh clan who are less interested in religion and more interested in taking revenge now. That will secure badly needed tribal support, despite the power of the Muslim brotherhood in Jordan, and the significant support for the militants.
IS is betting that this would never happen, but I hope that Jordan would mobilize its entire Air force to bomb IS positions in Syria around the clock in response to what they did to their Moaz. The pilots may carry cyanide capsules this time around and feel that they are fighting for a cause worth risking their lives for, not just a mission ordered by their western allies.
The internal support for the Islamists in some parts of the Jordanian society won't be eclipsed by today's public anger forever, so if the Jordanians wait a month or two to bomb IS, the move won't be as popular, and it may not have the same transformative impact in the Jordanian society. The response needs to be big and immediate. Such action won't destroy IS, but it will serve a larger purpose.
The Jordanian governments needs to look past the usual Muslim brotherhood politics and ask itself, what would Israel do if an Israeli pilot was burnt alive by IS?
The King would be more popular than ever if he acts courageously and decisively now, but will he? If he doesn't take the risk now, he risks more later. The public anger directed against IS today can easily revert back to the boogeyman, the USA, and the King tomorrow.
It would be refreshing to witness the sense of purpose and comradely that a massive Jordanian military action would trigger in this conservative society. I wonder if it could finally make the people feel that this is their war, not America's war. Jordan can cease the moment, and other Arab societies can follow their example in how to deal with extremists who hijacked their religion.
History has shown us that the leaders in the Middle East never miss an opportunity to miss an opportunity. As such, we are destined to watch these critical chapters of history repeat themselves over and over again without being taken advantage of.
Arab and Muslim rulers are more apt to be preoccupied with protecting their existence, and invariably take the easy middle of the road option. They rarely take the decisive actions history demands. I hope King Hussein will prove me wrong, and doesn't stop at just a promise of "increasing" involvement in the anti-IS coalition.
The King may have struggled to explain to some Jordanian why he was fighting IS before, but today he is given an opportunity to say " We fight because they burnt our son alive". This week no other explanation is required, except these words and this fallen patriot.
Video links:
The King of Jordan has vowed to burn ISIS/ISIL into the ground. This is the only way to deal with vermin like them.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the comment.
DeleteLets hope he follows through with this threat.
This opens the previously impossible possibility of Jordanian ground troops attacking Raqqa and shortening the war.
Jordanian ground troops on Syrian territory while the Jordanian government continues to support anti-Assad rebels? I don't think that's going to happen. Jordan ending support for the rebels in Syria? That's not going to happen either. Jordan supporting the FSA against Isis is possible though.
Delete"Arabs and muslims" are actually already pretty much involved and fighting on virtually all fronts possible bar the Kurdish one, would it be in Iraq and Syria at the moment, and even scoring critical victories in part due to Coalition airstrikes. I don't think they waited for that particularly graphic and publicized tragedy to realize they have to act against that evil, considering they and their wives, elders and children have been dying in terrible suffering by the thousands everywhere ISIS or Al-Nusra are successful. Technically they have been the most numerous and onging victims of that latest stain on te middle-east so it's only fair their fighters get involved. I will not even wander into debating all the proxy battles being exerced around it. And I would not quote Israel as an example to follow considering their machiavelistic relationship with Nusra in the Golan area documented by the UN itself. Plus they have yet to react to the killing of two of its soldiers in a retaliatory Hezbollah attack.
DeleteThe syrians might complain about jortdanian groups taking out the IS in Raqqa, just like they complained about coalition airstrikes over syria, but who cares. They have no power to stop it and they have no power to do the job themselves. They're strategy is to complain, for the record, while at the same time being happy that others are doing their bidding.
DeleteThey might complain in public, nonetheless their troops are the ones fighting hard on the ground and from the air too, and advancing slowly but surely in both ISIS-led and Nusra-led territory, along with their allies. And your response adressed none of the points I made earlier. Coalition strikes have been totally coordinated with the SAA while American officials as well as Syrians both deny it for obvious political reasons, that's why not a single syrian army soldier has been mistakenly hit so far at least officially. And they too, complain all the time, day and night, about Iranian and Hezbollah involvement while they are de-facto entirely happy that their men have been doing their bidding on the ground while no American or Gulf troops are at direct risk of dying in the process nor need to be engaged on the front lines, allowing their action to be restrained to the air, the safest by nature bar rare occurences such as this terribly sad and horrible episode. That rationale of yours indeed goes both ways. Not the same can be said about he IDF regularly hitting exclusively SAA positions hard and leaving Nusra and IS forces unscathed every time, notably on the Golan but also around Damascus, for the record.
DeleteIts a good question though:Why wasn't the Jordanian Pilot downed over Palestine?,instead he was bombing his fellow muslims in a neighboring muslim nation,not to mention the fact that his own government was actively supporting a terrorist insurgency aimed with overthrowing the legitimate government of that nation,they have certainly helped to bring isis the opportunities it needed to carve out its "caliphate",of course the same holds true for isis rather than defending muslims living under oppression in palestine it prefers to kill its fellow muslims both in its conquest of its "caliphate" and those who would not accept its barbaric medieval wahabist definition of islam,and then finally you have the west,it was their attempt to destroy syria,in the hope of hurting iran and weakening the resistance axis,that brought this entire tragedy about and allowed isis to achieve all that it has,it was the wests support for the house of saud and its turning of a blind eye to its export of its poisonous medieval version of islam all over the islamic world.Sadly so long as the west continues to support its arab despots and israel and tries to dominate the region there will be no lack of support for isis.I think the best thing that can be said about the west and its arab vassals vs isis is this:A plague on both your houses!
ReplyDeleteTheir actions have had some effect:
ReplyDelete"The United Arab Emirates has suspended all combat air missions over Syria because U.S. search-and-rescue teams were unable to reach and rescue a Jordanian pilot who was burned to death in an ISIS video released this week, senior U.S. defense and military officials told NBC News on Wednesday."
http://www.nbcnews.com/storyline/isis-terror/uae-suspends-syrian-airstrikes-over-lack-rescue-resources-n300381
Very true.
Deletethis shows the amount of risk arab pilots and governments willing to take fighting a fight that the perceive as not theirs. US pilots didn't stop flying because search and rescue is inadequate to save everyone all the time.