The Kassigs’ appeal is mostly based on an invocation of their son Abdul-Rahman Kassig’s humanitarian work among Syrians: they mention his conversion to Islam and refer to him by his Muslim name, but unlike the mother of another hostage, Shirley Sotloff, they do not presume to lecture the jihadis about Islam. The scarf that Mrs. Kassig is wearing over her head may be an oblique gesture of good will to the jihadis, but as much of her hair remains uncovered, it is unlikely to be regarded with anything but contempt.
The appeal to Abdul-Rahman Kassig’s humanitarian work is unlikely to move the jihadis. They don’t care about that at all. They only care about advancing Islam. If they decide that Abdul-Rahman Kassig’s severed head would serve Islam as a useful warning to the Infidels, then severed his head will be.
Tradewinds says
There is no compassion or mercy for “infidels” in Islam.
Don McKellar says
If only, just once, we would see one of these sad videos NOT be a plea to jihadi murderers, but instead come from people who have actually faced the facts and truth about Islam and trash liars like Cameron and May and Obama and Biden. They know that any video appeal to Islamic supremacists is always a complete waste of time. I’d love to see one of them with Koran in their hand, quoting the infamous strike the neck passage and demanding truth from the politicians on how ISIS is pure Islam, exactly as written in the Koran. Just once I’d like to see that. At least the video might serve a real purpose.
Bettina says
No can do, Don — the poor victims would then be subjected to much worse prior to being decapitated. Best to plead than to launch a verbal assault on the savage beast, when your child is in their filthy hands.
Don McKellar says
On the contrary. You are not attacking the savages at all. You are praising them, pointing out they are the most pure of moslems and are more Islamic than anybody, and it is the western politicians and their lies who are verbally assaulting them by calling them non-Islamic.
You need to put yourself in the topsy-turvy screwed-up shoes of a jihadi.
In fact, this approach might even increase the chance of freedom for the hostage — by about .001%.
Salah says
If one’s child is in the hands of these vermins, we will be confronted with two terrible choices:
1- Stand by the Truth, even if it means losing our child.
2- Obfuscate the Truth, hoping to save our loved one.
Two terrible choices, but…
“He that loveth father or mother more than me, is not worthy of me; and he that loveth son or daughter more than me, is not worthy of me.” Matthew 10:37
mortimer says
Right, Salah. We cannot judge anyone faced with such a terrible choice. May the Lord help these families.
Ashley says
Salah and Mortimer…thank you for your comments.
I will not judge a captive with a sword to his head.
I appreciate your compassion.
Mo says
@ Don McKellar
“If only, just once, we would see one of these sad videos NOT be a plea to jihadi murderers, but instead come from people who have actually faced the facts and truth about Islam and trash liars like Cameron and May and Obama and Biden. They know that any video appeal to Islamic supremacists is always a complete waste of time. I’d love to see one of them with Koran in their hand, quoting the infamous strike the neck passage and demanding truth from the politicians on how ISIS is pure Islam, exactly as written in the Koran. Just once I’d like to see that. At least the video might serve a real purpose.”
Oh, goodness, YES! I refuse to watch any videos of people groveling to these animals!
If I were to ever be in that horrible situation, I would ask my family/friends to NEVER grovel to these jihadists, but to do EXACTLY what you’ve said here!
Don McKellar says
As I said in my latest post above, it might actually INCREASE the chance of release because of the backwards logic lunacy of Islamic supremacist thinking — because you’re praising them as being supremely Islamic. These sad, groveling videos NEVER will.
carpediadem says
Now there’s an interesting section of a will –
“What to do if I am ever captured by Islamic terrorists” – very interesting indeed!
Mo says
“Now there’s an interesting section of a will –
“What to do if I am ever captured by Islamic terrorists” – very interesting indeed!”
Oh, wow. I wonder if you could actually do something in that regard?
(Who would’ve thought we’d ever have to even think of such a thing, right?)
Bettina says
So the barbaric plot thickens — I never heard the media say that he is in fact a convert to islam. And I watch the news a lot. Has anyone else heard this strange info?
PRCS says
Yes,
Various newspapers.
Though not on television.
PRCS says
When I first saw this, earlier today, it was the scarf that caught my attention.
So, I did a little digging and found out that he had reverted.
Tradewinds says
You mean converted. To a barbaric mass-murder ideology masquerading as a religion.
PRCS says
No, I mean reverted; as a sarcasm.
Jackbo Godfrey says
My heart goes out to Mr. Kissig and his family. No judgment as who I am to judge what I would do, God forbid, captured by these Islamist Scum. to survive.
Note to self: stay the hell out of Muslim countries for the indefinite future . . .
Wolfgang says
I feel empathy for them, but they should know better by now, I will say they are foolish and naive and gullible, my son who is studying to be a Pastor, said to me that there is no greater sacrifice than to die for Jesus sake…….my son who I love and would lay my own life down for, tell’s me Dad don’t feel sad if I was a martyred for the Gospel of Jesus Christ, imagine that……these foolish people look unhappy because they have no hope and their son has no hope but to die without the G-d of the bible……sad to see, but predictable, both my son’s and myself know that if God forbid that we were in their son’s position, the pain would be but for a moment, then we would be in the presence of the eternal G-d of the lamb , that is REAL peace that no money on this planet can ever buy.
KrazyKafir says
I guess it’s a good thing to “deeply” instill in one’s children, honesty, common sense, and a true sense of what is right and wrong in this world. So many weak empty shells running around
ed says
dhimmi useful idiot henning converted to the death cult last year !
Pistophoclese says
Not to be doubting your statement but Where is the evidence for this?
mortimer says
Mohammed executed people merely because they were on the enemy side, rather than for fighting Muslims or resisting jihad.
They were killed because they were hostages. This is the perfect example of the ‘perfect man’ so ISIS follows it.
Will OUR POLITICIANS realize that leading Muslim theologians are not speaking out to criticize the BEHEADING OF HOSTAGES?
Why? Muslim theologians realize Mohammed may not be criticized nor his conduct! BEHEADING HOSTAGES is Mohammed’s SUNNA (perfect example).
mortimer says
“The appeal to Abdul-Rahman Kassig’s humanitarian work is unlikely to move the jihadis. They don’t care about that at all. They only care about advancing Islam.”
Exactly.
“Allah” is pure will…and beyond morality or immorality. Whatever Allah decides reasonable or not must be accepted.
Islam is a horribly cruel and totally IRRATIONAL creed. Muslims must constantly destroy their minds and consciences!
dumbledoresarmy says
Mortimer, – you wrote – “Allah” is pure will…and beyond morality or immorality. Whatever Allah decides reasonable or not must be accepted. Islam is a horribly cruel and totally IRRATIONAL creed. ”
That bit about pure amoral will, is bang on the nail.
Way back in the early 19th century a nice New England unitarian clergyman named James Freeman Clarke wrote a book of essays on comparative religion called “Ten Great Religions”.
Someone here at jihadwatch quoted something from it, and I found it via google: there’s a Project Gutenberg copy and it can all be read online for free.
http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/14674?msg=welcome_stranger
http://www.gutenberg.org/files/14674/14674-h/14674-h.htm
Now, I didn’t check out the other chapters to see what he had to say about, say, Buddhism or Christianity, but I read the chapter on Islam – “Mohammed and Islam”, chapter 11.
It is very well written and rings terribly true in light of all the things we read here at jihadwatch. Whatever else he wrote, Mr Clarke had certainly done his homework on Islam; he’d consulted a slew of scholars and he had intelligently “boiled down” what he found.
And one of the passages he cites is from a man called Palgrave, who sums up Islam as “a pantheism of force”.
In case you haven’t encountered James Freeman Clarke, here are some choice passages. (This will be a longish posting, but this material is just too good not to share; though I do recommend searching it up and “reading it all” as Mr Spencer always tells us).
From section 5: ‘religious doctrines and practices among the Mohammedans’:
“There is no recognition, in the Koran, of human brotherhood. It is a prime duty to hate infidels and make war on them. Mohammed made it a duty for Moslems to betray and kill their own brothers when they were infidels; and he was obeyed in more cases than one.”
On Sunni and Shiite:
“The two main divisions are into Sunnites and Shyites. The Persians are mostly Shyites, and refuse to receive the Sunnite traditions. They accept Ali, and denounce Omar. Terrible wars and cruelties have taken place between these sects. Only a few of the Sunnite doctors acknowledge the Shyites to be Moslems. They have a saying, “to destroy a Shyite is more acceptable than to kill seventy other infidels of whatever sort.”‘
Then, toward the end of section 5, a discussion of government in the dar al Islam, and how it follows from Islamic theological assumptions:
“Two recent travellers, Mr. Palgrave and Mr. Vambéry, have described the present state of Mohammedanism in Central Arabia and Turkistan, or Central Asia.
“Barth has described it as existing among the negroes in North Africa.
“Count Gobineau has told us of Islam as it is in Persia at the present day.
“Mr. MacFarlane, in his book “Kismet, or the Doom of Turkey,” has pointed out the gradual decay of that power, and the utter corruption of its administration.
“After reading such works as these,—and among them let us not forget Mr. Lane’s “Modern Egyptians,”—the conclusion we must inevitably come to is, that the worst Christian government, be it that of the Pope or the Czar, is very much better than the best Mohammedan government.
‘Everywhere we find arbitrary will taking the place of law.
“In most places the people have no protection for life or property, and know the government only through its tax-gatherers.
**“And all this is necessarily and logically derived from the fundamental principle of Mohammedan theology. God is pure will, not justice, not reason, not love.** [my emphasis – dda}
‘Christianity says, “God is love”; Mohammedanism says, “God is will.” Christianity says, “Trust in God”; Mohammedanism says, “Submit to God.”
‘Hence the hardness, coldness, and cruelty of the system; hence its utter inability to establish any good government.
‘According to Mr. MacFarlane, it would be a blessing to mankind to have the Turks driven out of Europe and Asia Minor, and to have Constantinople become the capital of Russia.
‘The religion of Islam is an outward form, a hard shell of authority, hollow at heart. It constantly tends to the two antagonistic but related vices of luxury and cruelty.”
More, in section 6, on the same topic:
“Mr. Palgrave, who has given the latest and best account of the condition of Central and Southern Arabia, under the great Wahhabee revival, sums up all Mohammedan theology as teaching a Divine unity of pure will.
‘God is the only force in the universe. Man is wholly passive and impotent.
**’He calls the system, “A pantheism of force.”
‘God has no rule but arbitrary will.** {my emphasis – dda}
‘He is a tremendous unsympathizing autocrat, but is yet jealous of his creatures, lest they should attribute to themselves something which belongs to him.
‘He delights in making all creatures feel that they are his slaves.**
‘This, Mr. Palgrave asserts, is the main idea of Mohammedanism, and of the Koran, and this was what lay in the mind of Mohammed.
“Of this,” says he, “we have many authentic samples: the Saheeh, the Commentaries of Beydāwee, the Mishkat-el-Mesabeeh, and fifty similar works, afford ample testimony on this point.
‘But for the benefit of my readers in general, all of whom may not have drunk equally deep at the fountain-heads of Islamitic dogma, I will subjoin a specimen, known perhaps to many Orientalists, yet too characteristic to be here omitted, a repetition of which I have endured times out of number from admiring and approving Wahhabees in Nejed.
‘”Accordingly, when God—so runs the tradition,—I had better said the blasphemy—resolved to create the human race, he took into his hands a mass of earth, the same whence all mankind were to be formed, and in which they after a manner pre-existed; and, having then divided the clod into two equal portions, he threw the one half into hell, saying, ‘These to eternal fire, and I care not’; and projected the other half into heaven, adding, ‘And these to paradise, and I care not.’…
“”The Wahhabee reformer,” continues Mr. Palgrave, “formed the design of putting back the hour-hand of Islam to its starting-point; and so far he did well, for that hand was from the first meant to be fixed. Islam is in its essence stationary, and was framed thus to remain.
“Sterile like its God, lifeless like its First Principle and Supreme Original, in all that constitutes true life,—for life is love, participation, and progress, and of these the Koranic Deity has none,—it justly repudiates all change, all advance, all development.
“To borrow the forcible words of Lord Houghton, the ‘written book’ is the ‘dead man’s hand,’ stiff and motionless; whatever savors of vitality is by that alone convicted of heresy and defection…
‘
And finally, in section 7, Mr Clarke observes:
“The merits and demerits, the good and evil, of Mohammedanism are to be found in this, its central idea concerning God.
” It has taught submission, obedience, patience; but it has fostered a wilful individualism.
” It has made social life lower. Its governments are not governments.
” Its virtues are stoical.
” It makes life barren and empty. It encourages a savage pride and cruelty. It makes men tyrants or slaves, women puppets, religion the submission to an infinite despotism.” END
gerard says
These people cannot be “appealed” to.
They can only be defeated.
You cannot debate with the likes of Hitler.
Churchill knew this.
Reagan knew it.
Everyone will see it finally.
Hopefully not too late!
KrazyKafir says
I wonder what percentage of converts to the death cult are liberal, and what percent are conservative, or libertarian? I’m guessing 90% are, liberal.
Wellington says
While acknowledging the pain and grief these parents are going through, nonetheless their plea is pathetic to the point of obsequiousness and rooted in ignorance. Anyone doubting me here or thinking I’m too harsh, then just imagine American or British parents during WWII making the same plea to the Nazis or the Japanese because their son was captured while working in the field for the Red Cross—-and with the mother wearing a swastika, or a headdress depicting the Rising Sun, instead of some Muslim head covering.
gerard says
They have been lied to day after day by the Media and Government. They are victims of “This has nothing to do with Islam” propaganda. I know you are well aware of this Wellington but I think it’s worth repeating for the record. And repeating. And repeating…
voegelinian says
They’re not victims. They are free, relatively intelligent Westerners. Don’t let them off the hook for their PC MC.
gerard says
You’re taking a hard line voegelinian …
I would not commend their PC but I also know they have been lied to and are still being lied to daily. You and I and other JW readers have somehow managed to see through the lie. Many remain deceived. The tragedy here is that most likely this appeal will fall on deaf ears. The mother in this vid does however mention that their son’s fellow captive was released…
don vito says
Do I detect a tinge of Malcolm x strategy in your comment? Interesting!
voegelinian says
The problem of Westerners being (more or less) as myopic as these parents is a massive problem, affecting millions. They can’t all be sheep being led by the nose by our Dastardly Elites. You must have a dim view of your fellow Western citizens.
Ashley says
“While acknowledging the pain and grief these parents are going through…”
Wellington, at the expense of coming across as willfully ignorant, I cannot get beyond your opening…
My heart shatters for those beheaded before the camera, and their loved ones. Yes…perhaps these are propaganda “suicide martyrs” happily volunteering to advance the ISIS cause by sacrificing their very heads for the greater “good” of instilling terror and outrage. I don’t know.
I can’t speak ill of the dead, especially those snuffed out while the video camera rolls capturing the horrific beheading. I know these were journalists and humanitarian aid workers. I’m NOT convinced they were true converts to Islam…
Call me weak. Call me a shit. Call me what you will. But if it was my child next up on the chopping block, I would do what I needed to do to save my kid…including betraying my own true beliefs and broadcasting a video to appease my kid’s captors.
Am I proud to say such a thing? NO. But at least I’m being honest.
voegelinian says
The only thing amiss in Ashley’s responses to these beheadings is an interesting psychological phenomenon Lawrence Auster noticed about what he termed “liberals” — a tendency to mute their anger at atrocities like this and allow the countervailing emotion of sadness dominate.
Wolfgang says
disgusting…….you would betray your own beliefs ?…….you write like you are a weak person morally. Nothing more needs to be said does it ?
Beagle says
Agreed. Perhaps worst of all as RS noted at the top, this appeasement does not go nearly far enough. So perhaps the next video will feature a henna bearded father flanked by his silent wife in a niqab quoting Al Tawba 6 in an effort to free their son, but still in futility.
Better to keep one’s silent dignity than this depressing parade of videos.
Marie Harf,
This is what losing looks like. Get it now?
abad says
Apparently his parents are bleeding-heart liberals who refused to disown their son for converting to Islam. See why we need to make it illegal to convert to Islam? This moron is showing sympathy for the devil (I can hear the Rolling Stones right now…)
duh_swami says
Disown their son? You sound like someone who has no children and is probably not married.
Davegreybeard says
They are casualties of the War we are in – all of them.
It is one thing to convert to Islam of one’s’ own free will, but quite another while being held captive by murderous Jihadis.
And I sympathize with the parents of this unfortunate man.
Having said all that, I do feel a cold anger toward those (mostly) Liberal fools who have aided our Muslim enemies by shouting down those of us who attempted to speak the truth all these years. I have two sisters that belong to that willfully ignorant group.
gerard says
Bill Maher and Ben Affleck Battle Over Radical Islam
Tradewinds says
I have lost so much respect for Affleck over this. I really enjoyed “Argo” and after directing and starring in that film he should know something about Islam. Imagine calling Maher a “racist” for his spot-on observations about Islam. How stupid – oh Ben you’re stupid! Maher is right.
profitsbeard says
Converts can be turned into insta-martyrs… since any means, even killing, is pleasing to Allah …to further the Caliphate.
Even using a new Muslim on a “mission” they do not fully understand. [“Operation Headhunter”.]
Paradise will soothe their suffering.
Right, Jihadis?
Davegreybeard says
Sometimes I think God gave us Zombie movies to prepare us for dealing with Islamozombies.
The similarities are really quite striking.
Philip Smeeton says
Laws have to be implemented to make Islam, being a Muslim, illegal in our countries. In other words cut off al lties with Muslim countries and deport to a Muslim country anyone that refuses to renounce Islam.
duh_swami says
The concept of mercy exists in Islam, but few pay any attention to it. Asking ISIS for mercy is like asking a dog not to chew a bone. Most likely this solder has already tasted the mercy of ISIS by regular beatings and other abuses.
Tradewinds says
Where? Do you mean something like, “if they convert to Islam let them go?” So, the only mercy shown captives is if they convert to Islam.
DiMu says
Eventually these monsters will either be killed or captured and killed, and if we can determine their identities, those who survive will be hounded for the rest of their lives, like other war criminals. No doubt some will survive by switching sides when the other Muslims get their act together. I’m shocked that Iran hasn’t sent in all their terrorist forces already. I guess they’re waiting for the USA to do their work for them.
Meanwhile there is absolutely no hope for anyone they capture. If they kill female Sunni doctors because they are not completely covered – making it impossible for the doctors to work – what can we expect?
The tragedy is that they were not born monsters. It is Islam that has destroyed their normal humanity, thus turning them into vermin.
Jack Gordon says
It’s disheartening to see grown adults grovel before human detritus like the thugs in Islamic State for any reason. You wonder if things would have turned out differently had these and other parents over the years spent some time teaching their sons and daughters about the puss-ridden pestilence that is Mohammedanism. Perhaps their children would have chosen other destinations. No one sane thinks of traveling to North Korea; it should be equally unthinkable to travel in lands plagued by the teachings of the Great Desert Pervert.