The pilot Moaz al Kasasbeh was not responsible for the policy he was ordered to carry out. The way he was burnt to death is worse than barbarism.
It is obvious the Islamic State has only one rule of engagement, i.e. to take brutal revenge on anyone that would serve their objective. It is a clear intimidation to those pilots who are engaged in bombing IS controlled areas. In reality what they intended to achieve has backfired.
The inhuman deeds of IS are not new in Islamic history. On becoming Mughal Emperor Aurangzeb imprisoned his father Shahjehan. He beheaded his youngest brother Murad who helped him to be emperor and sent his severed head on a plate to his father in prison.
From historical perspective it is an indication of what non-Muslims, especially the Hindu majority, had to endure when there was Muslim rule in most of India.
Guru Tegh Bahadur Singh, the 9th Guru of Sikh community, put up a great resistance to Aurangzeb’s oppressive policy on both Sikhs and Hindus. Aurangzeb arrested him and asked him to convert to Islam. When the Guru refused he was beheaded. Similarly Jehangir, the grand-father of Aurangzeb, ordered Guru Arjan Singh, to write the supremacy of Islam and Prophet Muhammad in Sikh Holy scripture, the Granth Saheb.
When it was refused the Guru was arrested and boiling water was poured on him.
Dr Jatindra Saha
By email
