ISIL militants deserve crucifixion: al-Azhar

Rasa - The Grand Sheikh of Al-Azhar, Ahmed al-Tayeb, said the killers themselves deserved to be "killed, crucified or to have their limbs amputated."

News ID: 2094

Date: 04 February 2015 - 19:49

RNA - Shia and Sunni scholars from around the Muslim world denounce ISIL over the burning of the Jordanian pilot alive saying the action was considered an abomination under Islam, no matter the justification.

Egypt's top Muslim authority, the 1,000 year old Al-Azhar university revered by Sunni Muslims around the world, issued a statement expressing "deep anger over the lowly terrorist act" by what it called a "Satanic, terrorist" group.

On Tuesday, ISIL released a video online showing the terrorists setting alight Moaz al-Kassasbeh, who had been taken hostage in December 2014 after his F-16 jet crashed while flying over northern Syria on a mission against the terrorists.

The Grand Sheikh of Al-Azhar, Ahmed al-Tayeb, said the killers themselves deserved to be "killed, crucified or to have their limbs amputated."

He further stressed in a statement that in Islam “killing of the innocent human soul ... mutilating the human soul by burning or in any other way even during wars against an enemy that attacks you” are forbidden.

Senior clerics across the Islamic world also argued that inflicting death by fire was always banned under Islam.

"The Prophet, peace be upon him, advised against burning people with fire," Sheikh Hussein bin Shu'ayb, head of the religious affairs department in southern Yemen, told Reuters in Aden.

Saudi cleric Salman al-Odah wrote on his Twitter account: "Burning is an abominable crime rejected by Islamic law regardless of its causes."

"It is rejected whether it falls on an individual or a group or a people. Only God tortures by fire," he added.

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