Alwaght- According to a latest statistics issued, the European continent topped a list in the number of ISIS terrorists fighting in Iraq and Syria. Thousands of Muslim radicals are drawn to the conflict from Western nations with some estimates putting the number as high as 3000. The statistics showed that France had the largest contribution of all with 1200 terrorists during the period October 2014 until January 2015.
The statistics also show that about 5000 terrorists has joined ISIS from over eighty countries around the world under the leadership of the Abu Bakr Al-Baghdadi, bringing the total number of terrorists to 20,000 approximately in January 2015. This number was only 15,000 four months earlier according to the International Center for the Study of Radicalization and Political Violence (ICSR).
According to the study, the number of French terrorists has tripled where it is 1200 in comparison to 412 in October 2014. Germany fell in the second place where the number of exported terrorists is 600 in comparison to 240 in October 2014. The number of immigrants from UK, Belgium, New Zealand, Sweden, Finland, Denmark, and Norway to ISIS has also increased.
A study done by ICSR in November 2014 suggests that 51 percent of the victims of the ISIS attacks were civilians. In addition, based on context and location, the vast majority of victims are Muslims. In just one month, they were responsible for nearly 800 deaths each in Nigeria and Afghanistan, as well as hundreds in Yemen, Somalia and Pakistan.
ISIS violence used to be associated with mass causality bombings; however, today they are employing a much greater variety of tactics, ranging from the classical terrorism to more or less conventional operations. The last of their operations was the burning of the Jordanian F-16 air force pilot Mouath Al-Kasaesbeh alive. There was widespread shock and anger across Jordan at the brutality of the pilot's killing, which drew international condemnation.
We have one account from Ibn Al Kalanisi, the Muslim chronicler, describing hair-raising behavior of brutality about slain of thousands of Muslim men, women and children. One of the Crusaders, Raymond of Aguilers joyfully recounted: “With the fall of Baitul Maqddis and its towers one could see marvelous work. Some of the pagans were mercifully beheaded, others pierced by arrows plunged from towers, and yet others, tortured for a long time, were burned to death in searing flames. Piles of heads, hands and feet lay in the houses and streets, and men and knights were sunning to and fro over corpses.”
Obama, US president, also commented at the National Prayer Breakfast on Wednesday, and compared the barbarism of ISIS, and their “betrayal” of Islam, to the comparably heinous acts committed by the Crusaders beginning in the 11th Century.
There is a keen similarity between the two scenes, ISIS’s brutality on one hand and Crusaders brutality on the other. And this could be explained by the fact that a large portion of these terrorists originate from Europe; the main origin of Crusaders.
The International Union of Muslim Scholars deprecated the scene of torching the Muslim pilot alive by ISIS. They have described the scene as a radical tactic and that it does not adhere to the Islamic Community. The union declared that ISIS’s practices are a way of regenerating medieval practices done by crusaders against all oppositions and that these practices are forbidden in Islam. The union condemned this act as opposing to the Islamic rules with respect to the rights of war captives. The International Union of Muslim Scholars has ended its statement with inviting the Muslim nation to confront this radical thinking, to show the truth about Islam, and to thwart such organizations that are deforming and offending to the Islamic religion in the eyes of the world.
The Egyptian Sunni Dar Al-Iftaa responded to the Fatwa issued by ISIS leaders by denying the permissibility of torching the Jordanian captive alive and that Islam has nothing to do with ISIS practices. It described the scene as barbaric done by sadistic extremists. Al-Iftaa added that the terrorists have purposely ignored the teachings and rulings of Islam that has always called for mercy and saving lives. It has also refuted the false claims that the extremists has used to justify their crimes such as using the anecdote about Abu Bakr Al-Siddeeq where he burnt “Al-Fujaa Al-Salami” alive. The anecdote has a weak basis according to Al-Bukhari and others. Moreover, the Islamic teachings prohibits the act of abusing captives on any level. It has also prohibited the act of execution by burning.
Dar Al-Iftaa confirmed that the Jordanian pilot was captivated by ISIS during performing his duty toward defending his home country. He is in fact a “kidnapped captive”. Even if he is a war captive, he should be treated with “Ehsan” (kindness) according to Islamic rules. God Al-Mighty says in the Holy Quran: ” And they give food out of love for Him to the poor and the orphan and the captive. We only feed you for Allah’s sake; we desire from you neither reward nor thanks.” This kindness is illustrated with food, drink, clothes, treatment, and kind word.
However, despite these obvious teachings in Islam, the brutality and ignorance of the ISIS militants continues. Few days earlier, a video went viral on social media showing group of Kurdish Peshmarga captives in orange clothing caged waiting to be torched alive by ISIS.
It is evident that all those militants that are joining ISIS from around the European countries are only fighting by their own rules rather by the Islamic regulations.
