Source: Dawn. Com
In 2014, in a bombing raid on the militant group Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS), Jordanian air force pilot Muath al Kasasbeh crashed his plane near Raqqa in Syria. He was promptly captured and ISIS used the social media platform Twitter to crowdsource suggestions on how to execute him. Finally, they trapped him in a cage, doused it in gasoline and burned him alive.
This barbaric and graphic event was filmed and the video was widely circulated, horrifying audiences all over the world. And, as if to hammer home the stark disconnect between humanity and darkness, the video starts with the Bismillah invocation: ‘In the name of God, the Merciful and the Compassionate.’
This gruesome incident raises the obvious questions: what kind of deity would sanction such barbarism? What kind of mercy is this? Who exactly is this God?