Isis has reached new depths of depravity. But there is a brutal logic behind it

The video showing the burning alive of the captive Jordanian pilot Muadh al-Kasasbeh prompted revulsion around the world. Here, the author of an acclaimed new book on the rise of Isis examines the ideology that is driving the jihadi movement to ever more brutal killings



■ Murder in public is the new signature of the Isis conflict

The burning to death in a locked cage of captured Jordanian pilot Muadh al- Kasasbeh by Islamic State (Isis), a film of which has surfaced online, was barbarous even by its own brutal standards.

The group struggled to justify the live immolation of a Muslim prisoner with the ease it did in previous cases of heinous crimes. In a written fatwa about two weeks before the video, Isis-affiliated clerics cited differences of opinion over the issue among Sunni Islam’s four schools of jurisprudence. In the end, the Isis clerics ruled that immolation is “forbidden in principle” but “permissible in cases of reciprocity”.

Related: Murder in public is the signature of the Isis conflict | Jason Burke

Related: Why would anyone be party to Isis’ sick and sadistic videos? | Catherine Bennett

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Source Network Front | The Guardian http://ift.tt/1zuitay

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