CAIRO — The horrific fate of a captured Jordanian pilot, burned to death by the Islamic State terrorist group, unleashed a wave of grief and rage Wednesday across the Middle East, a region long accustomed to upheavals and violence.
Political and religious leaders united in outrage and condemnation, saying the slaying of the airman goes against Islam’s teachings.
The gruesome terrorist video of the last moments in the life of Lt. Muath Al-Kaseasbeh, 26, whose F-16 crashed in Syria in December during a U.S.-led coalition raid on the terrorist group, crossed a line — beyond the beheadings of Western hostages at the hands of Islamic State terrorists.
From the world’s most prestigious seat of Sunni Islam learning, Cairo’s Al-Azhar Mosque, Grand Imam Ahmed al-Tayeb said the Islamic State terrorists deserve the Koranic punishment of death, crucifixion or the chopping off of their arms for being enemies of God and the Prophet Muhammad.
“Islam prohibits the taking of an innocent life,” al-Tayeb said. By burning the pilot to death, he added, the terrorists violated Islam’s prohibition on the immolation or mutilation of bodies.
Under many Mideast legal systems, capital punishment is usually carried out by hanging. In Iran and Pakistan, stoning to death as punishment for adultery exists in the penal code but is used rarely. Beheadings are carried out routinely in Saudi Arabia, and Gaza’s militant Hamas rulers have on occasion publicly shot to death Palestinians suspected of spying for Israel.
Burning to death as a punishment proscribed by an Islamic court — such as the self-styled tribunals set up by the Islamic State terrorists — is unheard of in the contemporary Middle East.
In Saudi Arabia, prominent cleric Sheik Salman al-Oudah on Wednesday cited a saying attributed to the prophet Muhammad, which reserves for God alone the right to punish by fire.
In Qatar, cleric Youssef al-Qaradawi — respected by Islamists — issued a five-page statement listing Koranic verses telling Muslims to not mistreat prisoners of war.
However, some sought to justify the Islamic State’s killing of the pilot. Hussein Bin Mahmoud, an Islamic State-linked theologian, claimed on one of the group’s social media forums that two of the prophet Muhammad’s revered successors ordered punishment by fire for renegades shortly after the prophet’s death.
