The barbarous murder by the so-called Islamic State of a captured Jordanian pilot has shocked and horrified a watching world that thought that it had become inured to the extent of the terrorists' sheer savagery. Flight Lieutenant Moaz Al-Kasasbeh had been captured after his plane was shot down over IS territory. As with their past doomed hostages, the terrorists played with Kasasbeh like a helpless mouse. They demanded the release of a failed suicide bomber, Sajida Al-Rishawi captured by the Jordanians following a mass 2005 suicide bombing attack in Amman which slaughtered 60 people. In return the terrorists promised not to kill Kasasbeh. Despite the hope that this raised among the pilot's family and friends, there were few who believed that the IS offer was remotely genuine. It cared nothing for the fate of Rishawi, who after all was in reality a dead woman walking. Had she succeeded in her mission, she would already be dead. But it suited the terrorists to revive the memory of the brutal Al-Qaeda attack a decade ago. In the disgusting 20-minute video the terrorists have published of Kasasbeh's murder, the young pilot is shown enclosed in a cage where the ground has been soaked with petrol. The orange Gitmo-style top and trousers he wears are also petrol-soaked. The camera dwells on the depraved spectacle as the Jordanian burns to death. The universal condemnation of this heinous act has dwelt much upon the new lows to which this already manically vicious bunch of thugs has sunk. For those of us in the Muslim world, the revulsion we feel is the greater for the blasphemous IS claim that these sick crimes are being carried out in the name of Islam. However, while these killers may be ignorant bigots, they are not stupid. Their leaders must be looking today at the worldwide reaction of repulsion and anger and congratulating themselves on another publicity job well done. Over and above their merciless assault on any whom they consider do not share their demented world view, IS needs to keep the pot boiling, needs to keep its bloodstained name and its inhuman deeds before an appalled world. What will the next awful murder be - pulling someone apart with tanks, setting wild animals on to a victim? We have already seen a sweet-looking boy, not much more than 10 years old, shooting three kneeling victims in the head. So pure is the evil in which they wrap themselves, no action can be too awful, if it serves to scream at the international community: “Here we are! Look how terrible we are! Look how we acknowledge no limits to the bestiality that we are prepared to commit to ensure that you do not ignore us”. And, of course, there are young dupes worldwide who are impressed by the unflinching awfulness of IS. But if these heartbreaking videos inspire youthful idiots, they also inspire a deep and white hot anger in decent people. This fury transcends any terror that IS may be hoping to kindle. Indeed, completely the opposite is true. No civilized society can tolerate the continued existence of such psychopaths. They want to be hated and hated they truly are. It will take time, but they will be hunted down like the wild dogs they are and when they are caught, they will deserve no mercy.
