My husband and I were leaving church. He was driving. I got out my iPhone to call a friend about plans for the evening, and a local newsfeed I subscribe to flashed the message across the screen.
ISIS had murdered another helpless prisoner.
It was the beginning of my Sabbath, so I didn’t click on the link or look at the video or read about it.
Until this morning.
I’ve now watched the video and read a few reactions.
It’s getting harder and harder to write about these murders, but I feel I owe it to the victims. It’s the least I can do for them, to do my little part to make sure that they are not seen only as victims of satanic brutality, but that they are also remembered for the fine men they were.
David Cawthorne Haines worked in security for organizations such as ACTED and NonViolent Peace Force. Acted has a strict policy of “political and religious impartiality.” Both organizations are non-violent, humanitarian organizations engaged in trying to help people, including Muslims, in the parts of the world that ISIS is ravaging.
The video that ISIS released is heavily edited, but it appears that Mr Haines departed from the standard script of denouncing his home country and instead blamed ISIS (“the Islamic State” is the term he used) for his death. I’ve wondered about the reasons behind the condemnations the two American journalists made.
I assumed that they were probably doing it under some sort of coercion, but I don’t know this. I do know that I accept without judgement just about anything anyone does when they are the helpless prisoner of people in the grip of satan. People who condemn the two American journalists for their final speeches need to get real. They have no idea what they are talking about.
However, if Mr Haines did indeed condemn his captors before his murder, I am glad, and I admire him for doing it.
ISIS is murdering men who are examples of the best friends that Islamic people have in this world. James Foley and Steven Sotloff ultimately gave their lives in the cause of telling the truth about what is happening in that part of the world. They were the voice for the ordinary people on the ground.
David Cawthorne Haines was there to help organizations that provide humanitarian aid and strive to end the violence that is destroying people’s lives.
ISIS is not murdering the enemies of Islam in these videos. It is murdering Islam’s friends.
There isn’t any great surprise in this. ISIS is a band of murderers. They are not interested in furthering the welfare of Muslims. David Haines was interested in helping Muslims; as was James Foley and Steven Sotloff. David Haines was working for organizations composed of incredibly brave people who were trying to aid and empower the people of that region of the world to build real lives for themselves.
I’ve read that these videos of beheadings, as well as the gruesome photos that ISIS sends out over the web, are resulting in an influx of Muslims from America, Britain, Australia and other places, all volunteering to join in the killing. Evidently, these people find the videos “inspiring.”
What sort of devil-driven person would find these videos “inspiring” and want to go and do likewise? I think I answered my own question when I asked it. ISIS is satanic, right down to the ground. The people who join it are led by the father of lies and the darkness.
We deal with flesh and blood people. Hitler was not an evil god. He was a human being who died from a bullet to the brain. The same is true of Osama bin Laden. But both Hitler and Osama bin Laden (as well as Pol Pot, Idi Amin, Stalin, the murderers in Rwanda, and their bush league cousins, Ted Bundy, John Wayne Gacy and Dennis Lynn Rader) were and are the disciples of satan.
As is ISIS and its followers.
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