Herve Gourdel was beheaded just after the Islamic State called for attacks “especially” against the “spiteful and filthy French.” The Soldiers of the Caliphate in Nigeria unaccountably misunderstand Islam in the same way as the Islamic State does, and sympathize with it.
“Beheading of Frenchman in Algeria won’t deter France, Hollande says,” by Kim Willsher, Los Angeles Times, September 24, 2014 (thanks to Darcy):
French President Francois Hollande said Wednesday that the decapitation of a French tourist by extremists in Algeria would not cause his country to abandon military action against Islamic State.
Hollande, speaking at the United Nations, said France would continue fighting terrorism despite the killing of Herve Gourdel, whose execution was shown on a video titled “Bloody message to the French government,” released by a group linked to Islamic State, according to the SITE Intelligence Group and Agence France-Presse news agency.
“The perpetrators of this odious crime must be punished,” Hollande said at the annual meeting of the U.N. General Assembly in New York.
Gourdel, 55, from the Mediterranean city of Nice, was abducted Sunday while vacationing in Algeria. A mountain guide and photographer, he was walking in the mountainous region of Kabylie when he was kidnapped.
The group called Jund Khilafah, or Soldiers of the Caliphate, had threatened to execute him within 48 hours unless France ceased airstrikes on Islamic State positions in Iraq. France joined the United States in airstrikes in Iraq last week, though it so far has not taken part in attacks on militant positions in Syria launched early Tuesday by the United States and five Arab allies.
The video released Wednesday showed Gourdel with four masked militants who read a statement in Arabic, criticizing the French intervention in Iraq.
After pushing him onto his side and appearing to hold him down, one of the men holds up a severed head.
“This is why the Soldiers of the Caliphate in Algeria have decided to punish France, by executing this man, and to defend our beloved Islamic State,” says one of the killers to the camera.
The killing came three days after an Islamic State leader urged people all over the world to attack citizens of Western states, including the U.S., France and “their allies.”
“If you can kill a disbelieving American or European — especially the spiteful and filthy French — or an Australian, or a Canadian, or any other disbeliever from the disbelievers waging war, including the citizens of the countries that entered into a coalition against the Islamic State, then … kill him in any manner,” wrote Abu Muhammad Adnani, an Islamic State spokesman….