Jordanian Pilot mudered by ISIS

Recently started reading publications on cause of intifadas. In turn, this lead to other books. Hussein of Jordan was against western intervention of Iraq who invaded poor little Kuwait for doing what UAE is doing now - over producing oil. I also recently read that the Middle East is now the last place where history is being created. Wonder what would happen if they were left to fight it out themselves.

Very apt, fools do indeed rush in.

This problem is going to get worse. We have now seem the takeover of the Yemen by Houshi rebels, so that's another Middle Eastern state that's about to blow apart.

Bush and Blair did indeed trigger this but I wonder if it would have happened anyway, though perhaps later and without the hatred of the west that we are seeing now?

celticrose. Bush and Blair, but Bush in particular caused the chaos in the middle east by his complete failure to have any properly thought out end game for rebuilding Irag as a functioning democracy, taking into account the deep divisions between Sunni and Shia.

To coin a phrase 'Fools rushed in, where angels feared to tread.' and we are reaping the whirlwind, to mix my metaphors!

Flick. Weren't we supposed to win hearts and minds in the other sandpit of the 'Stan - and Iraq, even.

Pity that UAE - despite all their billions from oil - won't commit their troops anywhere in the kingdom. Although, it appears they have now sent a Sqn of fighter pilots to Jordan. Still, I suppose the cost of maintaining the world's largest Fine Art museum keeps mounting what with their recent purchase. And they do have a very, very large royal family to upkeep. What was the number of princes at the recent service - 5000 plus. I must admit I wasn't paying that much attention.

Soon. Wiki is quite innocent in giving information - at least it is not graphic. RIP Mu'ath. Respect to parents and family.

I saw that too Iam. They are lower than many animals.

Yes I saw that news report Iam64 the beautiful young girl looked so close to tears when she was talking didn't she? So sad. I thought she summed it up well when she said that it was all about power over women. Not wanting women to have any control over their life, not allowing them to go to school and being sexually "used" from childhood. Are these men really so mentally backward? Or do they really fear women?

I think there are people who get pleasure out of hurting others. Some mentally and others physically.

It is surely more than simply getting pleasure from evil acts, and power is certainly the key. It would seem that the perpetrator of such acts becomes increasingly convinced of his own innate superiority and the concomitant inferiority of his victims with each act of humiliation, degradation, aggression, violence, torture and murder. As those who disagree with him are thus "proved" to be inferior, the savagery escalates and, as he continues to commit atrocities with no adverse outcome to him, he begins to believe himself invincible.

I suspect Jing has hit the nail on the head "it's about the pathetic nature of the individuals. Getting pleasure from evil acts"

Did anyone see Channel 4 news last night. There was an excellent report about the treatment of the Yizidi tribe by IS. Several young women agreed to be interviewed about their experience of being taken and used as sex slaves by IS fighters. IS has now told it's fighters to take women aged 9 upwards as brides. The Yizidi women described rape of young girls, aged 7 as well as repeated sexual abuse of themselves.

These people behave in such brutal, barbaric and cruel ways I find it hard to believe or comprehend.

And it's about the pathetic nature of the individuals. Getting pleasure from evil acts.

It's not about religion! It's about power.

You can find it in the Bible too. An eye for an eye, Sodom and Gomorrah and plenty more. I don't think that in the 21st Century any civilized nation/people take it literally whatever their religious faith is. The interpretation of these thugs treatment of women is totally against Islamic law. Historically Islam has regarded women far move favourably than any other religion including Christianity, so no, these specimen's parading as human beings are just evil devils, and use the Koran as an excuse for their barbarity.

At random...

Quran (8:12) - "I will cast terror into the hearts of those who disbelieve. Therefore strike off their heads and strike off every fingertip of them"

(33:60-62)If the hypocrites, and those in whose hearts is a disease*, and the alarmists in the city do not cease, We verily shall urge thee on against them, then they will be your neighbors in it but a little while. Accursed, they will be seized wherever found and slain with a (fierce) slaughter.

*Christians and Jews

There have been quite a few Koran quotations on the web recently that do appear to do just that... so yes.

Are you saying that the Koran says to do what IS is doing?

How is it not about religion? What else is it about? The dastardly things people do are all there in their various Holy Books... their user manuals.

I agree, it's not about religion, or only very loosely! It is all about power, control by terror, and horrifying other people till we all become like rabbits in the headlights. These specimens are vile evil thugs, attracting, like the Nazis, the scum of the earth into their ranks. They use the scriptures to justify their actions, and pick out bits of the Koran to use for this justification. Just like the Bible, it's all there to be interpreted one way or the other depending who is doing the interpreting!

I don't think it is about religion. That's just the excuse. This is about a group of thugs who want to impose their power over others. Like rapists, not being about sex it is all imposing your will over others. There have always been and will always be people like this. Pure wickedness.

It is about religion and religion, certainly here, is about the power to make everyone believe as you do and punish the heretics. The pilot may have been a Sunni but he was working for the those opposed to IS so in their eyes was a heretic, and, to IS, there is now worse crime than that. That is why he suffered a more terrible death than beheading.

But it isn't about religion is it it's about power. The poor pilot was a Sunni as are presumably the Islamic state butchers. At least in the Middle Ages you could buy a bag of gunpowder to assure a quick death when you were burned at the stake. The pilot had been to Mecca . Perhaps murdering someone who has been to Mecca is worth a few demerits in the Islamic paradise. I was fascinated to see the King of Jordan off to see the sorrowing father while the pilots wife was protesting in the streets,

There is very interesting item on the BBC web site discussing IS funding.
Oil is significant, but not that significant in their funding
www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-30315092

IS is routed in the internecine strife between the Shia and Sunni sects of Islam. The following link is to a long BBC article that gives a history of the development of the group and suggestions of how it an be undermined. It says:

^The most effective means to degrade IS is to dismantle its social base by winning over hearts and minds, a difficult and prolonged task, and to resolve the Syria conflict that has given IS motivation, resources and a safe haven.

There is no simple or quick solution to rid the Middle East of IS because it is a manifestation of the breakdown of state institutions, dismal socio-economic conditions and the spread of sectarian fires in the region. IS is a creature of accumulated grievances and of ideological and social polarisation and mobilisation a decade in the making.^

www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-30681224

I think the media too often presents us with a too simplistic view of groups like IS. We have to understand why such a brutal and nihilist sect built up such a following among the people in the areas where it operates and remedy the problems there. The foreign fighters are only a very small part of their support, but good for media coverage.

As soon as oil enters the equation all kinds of questionable political compromises happen.

Yes, Absent oil is a major source of IS funding - now how can they do that .... this bunch of 20-something disaffected brigands?

Oil is an internationally-traded commodity, subjected to strict price controls and output ..... who is doing the dealing?

Fear and horror are powerful tools for controlling others and IS is media savvy so successfully spreads the fear far and wide. Its brutal actions are in themselves nothing new; its the immediacy and extent of knowing about them that horrifies and shocks.

IS is also exceptionally well funded – for a terrorist organisation, although not for the state it aspires to be. Oil is a major source of its funding and I would guess that there are also other sources. Cutting off or at least severely reducing the money supply would surely be a better, if less dramatic tactic than military action.

Totally agree TerryB with your postings.
I despair.