The executions of Islamic terrorist group ISIS is continuing as 17 men were crucified for refusing to submit to the terrorist group’s “caliphate.”
The terrorists released a group of photos on a social media site showing the murders of the men. One showed two men being thrown off a tall building. Others showed the brutal crucifixion process.
The videos and photos posted by the group are intended to have “Muslims come watch the application of the law.”
In addition to the men, a woman was shown being stoned to death on accusations of adultery in a wooded area hidden from public view.
“The Islamic State group has executed 16 men in Deir Ezzor and one more in Raqa, to send a message to all their opponents after recent assassinations of 12 Syrian, Iraqi and Algerian jihadists,” said Syrian Observatory for Human Rights Director Rami Abdel Rahman. “ISIS is sending a message to all people living under its control, to say: ‘This is what will happen to any opponent.'”
A British group that has been monitoring the violence connected to the Syrian civil war says they have proof the terrorists leading ISIS ordered almost 1,900 executions during a six-month period that ended December 27th.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights says that since the group declared their “caliphate” in Syria the terror group has killed at least 1,175 people in summary executions.
The group admits that the number could be much higher because they have reports of thousands missing including over 1,000 men from a single tribe.
The data includes deaths in the provinces of Deir Ezzor, al- Raqqa, al- Hasakah, Aleppo, Homs and Hama.
U.S. officials say the continued airstrikes against ISIS have weakened the group and has demoralized the group’s forces. The terrorists recently lost a town in the northern part of Iraq to fighters from the Kurds.
The Pakistani police have summarily executed a Christian Pastor.
Zafar Bhatti had been imprisoned since 2012 on charges that he has committed blasphemy for preaching Jesus was the only way. The men had long been receiving death threats from fellow prisoners and guards because of their Christian faith.
“This is a barbaric act,” Xavier Williams of Life for All told The Express Tribune. “There had been threats. The court should have instructed police to ensure Bhatti’s safety.”
The country passed a blasphemy law claiming that it would be a tool to stop religious intolerance in the country. However, Muslims have used the law as a way to take religious minorities to jail them, force them to convert to Islam or kill them.
“Unfortunately, pressure from Islamic radical groups and general discrimination against Christians in Pakistan has transformed trial courts into little more than rubber stamps for blasphemy accusations brought against Christians, regardless of the evidence brought to bear in the case,” William Stark of the International Christian Concern said. “Also, little is done to ensure the safety of those merely accused of blasphemy, leading to the deaths of at least 48 people, many of whom could have been proven innocent.”
This is the second major incident involving Christians accused of blasphemy in Pakistan. A Christian couple was sentenced to death in April for sending text messages that were called blasphemous by the court. However, the couple has been proven to be illiterate, so they could not send text messages. The death sentence is still in effect.
President Obama held a press conference to address the beheading of an American journalist by the Islamic terrorist group ISIS and made an unusually strong denouncement of an Islamic group.
“The United States of America will continue to do what we must do to protect our people. We will be vigilant and we will be relentless. When people harm Americans, anywhere, we do what’s necessary to see that justice is done. And we act against ISIL, standing alongside others,” President Obama said, referring to the group by their previous name, Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant.
The President went on to denounce the group has not being a religious group at all because of their extreme views and actions.
“No just God would stand for what they did yesterday, and for what they do every single day,” the President said. “ISIL has no ideology of any value to human beings. Their ideology is bankrupt. They may claim out of expediency that they are at war with the United States or the West, but the fact is they terrorize their neighbors and offer them nothing but an endless slavery to their empty vision, and the collapse of any definition of civilized behavior.”
The President ordered the U.S. military to continue to conduct air strikes against positions of the terrorists in northern Iraq. After the President’s address, the military carried out a series of strikes against terror positions near the country’s biggest dam to help support Iraqi and Kurdish troops who recaptured the dam earlier this week.
The President also spoke of the victim of the killing, photojournalist James Foley.
“Jim Foley’s life stands in stark contrast to his killers,” President Obama said.
A Christian husband and wife in Pakistan have been sentenced to death because they allegedly sent a text message with a comment that was insulting to the prophet Mohammed.
Shafqat Emmanuel and Shagufta Kausar from Gojra were sentenced after what has been described as a manipulation of the legal system to benefit a Muslim leader.
Maulvi Mohammed Hussain, a Muslim leader from a mosque in the couple’s home city, complained last year that Emmanuel had used his wife’s phone to send a message that insulted the prophet. Kausar, who did not send or receive the message, was sentenced to death because it was her phone.
The couple’s lawyer, Nadeem Hassan, said that the Islamists brought in a fake SIM card from a phone and claimed it came from the woman’s cell. However, Hassan said the “evidence” was just part of a well-orchestrated plot on the part of the Muslims.
“The complainant was involved in a dispute with the pair and had made a threat with the full knowledge that they would face the death penalty,” he said.
The area of Pakistan where the case was brought is notorious for Muslim residents claiming Christians insulted the prophet as a way to have them killed so their possessions and homes can be taken.
North Korea is preparing to execute 33 people for being Christians.
The official charge from the government is “attempting to overthrow the government.” In reality, the group was working with a South Korean Baptist missionary to set up underground churches.
Missionary Kim Jung-wook has been jailed and tortured for a year because of his attempts to start underground churches in North Korea. He was presented at a press conference last week where he apologized for his “anti-state crimes” and appealed for his release.
He was also forced to say that South Korea Intelligence services had provided him with information and equipment. The South Korean government said they had no involvement with Kim Jung-wook.
North Korean officials say the 33 people involved with Kim Jung-wook were planning to build a church on the site of a massive statue of North Korea’s founder after they overthrew the government.
Kim Jong-un has been on a murderous rampage including members of his government. His top deputy disappeared last week and some people have speculated that the North Korean leader has killed him.
The government of North Korea has murdered Christians for possessing a Bible.
A South Korean newspaper reports that the people labeled criminals by the North Korean government for owning a Bible were killed in public execution events arranged by Kim Jong-un’s government.
A source said in the city of Wonsan, those being executed were tied to stakes in a local stadium and shot to death with machine guns while over 10,000 residents were forced by military forces to watch. He said the bodies were so riddled with machine gun bullets that identities could not be determined.
Relatives or accomplices of those murdered were taken to prison camps.
Some North Korean experts say the executions are an effort by the government to quell any possible opposition.
The United Nations is reporting that on the heels of the Houla massacre observers have found 13 shooting victims apparently executed outside the city of Deir al-Zour.
The men were found with their hands bound behind their backs with most shot in the head. UN leadership in the country is characterizing the actions as an “appalling and inexcusable act.” Continue reading →