The Arab Spring and "the War on Terror"

[AVFCforever1991]

Which is the greater threat to the western world? IS or Ebola?

(Genuine question btw)

 

Black eyed ghost children.

[TrentVilla]

RIP Alan Henning.

 

Really sad news.

[PaulC]

Yes just an aid worker, done no harm to anybody. It sickens me! RIP

Edited October 3, 2014 by PaulC

[donnie]

Reading he was only in Syria for half and hour before being kidnapped. Cant help thinking one of the party he was with tipped them off about him. What was he thinking going to a country like that leaving his family behind especially over Christmas??

[Avfc96]

RIP Alan. All he was trying to do was help those most at need. Sickening. 

[coda]

There was an inevitability about that news but it has sickened me. Poor bloke.

[trekka]

That poor man who only wanted to do good.  My thoughts are with his friends and family.  A really sad time. 

[sharkyvilla]

words removed

[islingtonclaret]

They are animals from the 12th century.

Speak out, Islam. This is disgusting.

[peterms]

Rubbish stat time: in GW1 the RAF had 37 combat squadrons available, today they have 7 - total. Yet some people think defence cuts are a great idea, until you actually need defence assets.

This is the most infuriating thing. When you get people, understandably saying" we must do something in Libya to protect those poor innocent..."/ "we must do something in Iraq to stop IS from..." or "we must stop Assad in Syria from..."

 

Yet at the same time they are "Defence cuts necessary/Military Equipment suppliers evil and so on"

 

i.e. Morally we must help these people and morally we must get rid of (most of) our Military capability and defence spending - total opposite desires from the same people on different days.

 

At least have a bit of consistency - if you call for the de-arming, don't then demand that the military or Gov't takes immediate action to stop whatever atrocity offends you on any particular day.

Consistency is not the problem. It is there.

Those of us who call for cuts in defence spending are more than happy to see what remains of the armed forces carry out rescue missions, humanitarian tasks etc.

What we don't want is groups of boys playing out their video game neuroses on other people.

Which is what seeks to be happening.

[omariqy]

Alan Henning went on a convoy to Syria with family friends of mine. A very good person just trying to help. Horrific thing was that apparently he was very interested in Islam and was considering converting apparently

[Dodgyknees]

Deeply upsetting.

Too much death, too much hatred. So wrong.

[islingtonclaret]

Alan Henning went on a convoy to Syria with family friends of mine. A very good person just trying to help. Horrific thing was that apparently he was very interested in Islam and was considering converting apparently

Goes to show that IS are enemies of everyone. Turkey, Hezbollah, Lebanon, the Syrian regime, the opponents of the Syrian regime, Kurds, the West, UAE, Saudi Arabia, Russia, people who want to report on their activities, people who want to help refugees, Qatar, al-Qaida and al-Nusra for stealing their thunder, Christians, Shia Muslims who are regarded as heathens, Sunni Muslims who do not share Takfirism ideology...

 

They do not give a shit.

[GENTLEMAN]

RIP Alan.

[ismail-villa]

RIP Alan. Such a shame to lose what seems like an incredible person. Thoughts are with their family, let's hope those bastards who did it get the shit beaten out of them. Ending it quickly isn't enough

[Guest av1]

They are animals from the 12th century.

Speak out, Islam. This is disgusting.

 

 

Sadly they more interested in how KFC kill there chickens.

[Dodgyknees]

 

They are animals from the 12th century.

Speak out, Islam. This is disgusting.

 

 

Sadly they more interested in how KFC kill there chickens.

 

 

Maybe that might be what the Daily Mail tells you, but I know Muslims who are absolutely disgusted by this.

 

Quite rightly too.

[AVFCforever1991]

http://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2014/oct/04/alan-henning-repeated-calls-isis-syria-murder-briton

 

 

 

Repeated calls from all communities to spare Alan Henning fall on deaf ears

Nick Clegg and Ed Miliband among those to pay tribute, while the Muslim Council declares his killers have ‘no regard for Islam’

 

Recent appeals for mercy for British aid worker Alan Henning appeared to have fallen on deaf ears as a video was released on Friday night purportedly showing his murder by Islamic State (Isis) militants.

 

Muslim clerics, Henning’s Syrian aid convoy colleagues and his wife Barbara had all pleaded in vain for his life after he appeared at the end of the video depicting the murder of David Haines. In it, Haines’s killer said Henning faced a similar fate and so it has proven, despite warnings that his murder had no Quranic justification.

 

Before his death, Barbara Henning described her husband, who joined a Muslim charity to help those in need in Syria, as “a peaceful, selfless man”.

 

In a statement released through the Foreign Office on 23 September, the Henning family said they had tried to contact his captors, but had no response. “I and people representing me continue to reach out to those holding Alan,” his wife said.

 

“Islamic State continue to ignore our pleas to open dialogue. I have seen Muslims across the globe question Islamic State over Alan’s fate. The voices of the people have spoken out loud and clear. He was working with Muslims to help the most vulnerable within Syria. Nothing has changed.”

 

In an earlier statement on 20 September, which was also released through the Foreign Office, she asked his captors to spare him, saying he had “left his family and his job as a taxi driver in the UK to drive in a convoy all the way to Syria with his Muslim colleagues and friends to help those most in need”.

 

In her first comments on his plight since he appeared in an Isis video , she said: “When he was taken, he was driving an ambulance full of food and water to be handed out to anyone in need. His purpose for being there was no more and no less. This was an act of sheer compassion.”Before Henning’s murder, Ustadh Abu Eesa, the Manchester-based director of Prophetic Guidance, promised to “personally vouch” for Henning if Isis would agree to spare his life. In threatening it, he said, the militants were defacing the religion of Islam.

 

There was a similar warning from Imam Shakeel Begg, of Lewisham Islamic Centre, who said there was no justification in Islamic law for the militants continuing to hold him and still less for murdering him. Kasim Jameel, one of the organisers of the Syrian aid convoy that Henning joined in December 2013, said Henning was “full of compassion” and that he was praying for his safe release.

 

Appealing to Isis before they carried out Henning’s murder, he said: “I could tell a lot of stories about the good that Alan has done and about how, as a non-Muslim, he has helped Muslims who have suffered in the conflict. He is motivated to help others – not just by helping the convoy but by loads of other things as well.

 

“He is the nicest of nice guys who has done so much to help other people. He is just a normal bloke, an everyday taxi driver who wanted to do good. We are thinking about him all the time and praying that he will be allowed home to his family.”

 

But his words, like those of Islamic scholars and Henning’s wife, were paid no heed. Henning was kidnapped soon after crossing into Syria on his second trip to help those affected by the country’s bloody civil war. According to other members of the convoy, armed men appeared as they unloaded supplies at a warehouse only a few miles over the border and took Henning away.

 

According to reports, he believed that his status as an aid worker would save his life and told fellow hostages not to worry about him.

 

Dutch journalist Harald Doornbos interviewed a hostage held alongside Henning who was later by the Free Syrian Army. Doornbos said: “He rather naively, maybe, thought it was all going to be OK, that it was some kind of misunderstanding because Henning was an aid worker helping Syrian refugees.”

 

His family held out the hope that, as a humanitarian who tried to help Muslims and non-Muslims alike, he would be shown mercy. But, like the families of the Americans James Foley and Stephen Sotloff and of fellow Briton David Haines before them, that hope was brutally taken from them on Friday.

 

The murder was met with widespread condemnation. British Muslims said it showed the Isis jihadists who killed him had “no regard for Islam”.

 

Dr Shuja Shafi, secretary general of the Muslim Council of Britain, said: “This reported murder is a despicable and offensive act, coming as it does on the eve of the Muslim festival of Eid al-Adha.

 

“It is quite clear that the murderers of Alan Henning have no regard for Islam, or for the Muslims around the world who pleaded for his life. Alan was a friend of Muslims and he will be mourned by Muslims. Alan Henning’s murderers have clearly gone against that spirit of Islam. Our thoughts and prayers go out to his family.”

 

The deputy prime minister, Nick Clegg, said : “My sincere condolences go to Alan Henning’s family. The barbaric actions of Isil (Isis) are held in complete contempt and we are resolved to defeat this evil. Alan Henning was a man moved to selflessly help those most in need and we should remember that above all else at this difficult time.”

 

The Labour leader, Ed Miliband, said: “The murder of Alan Henning by Isil is appalling and barbaric. He was an aid worker, helping those in need. Those who killed him have revealed only their lack of humanity and brutality. My thoughts and deepest condolences are with his wife Barbara, his children and all those who knew him. We will do everything we can to support the efforts of the government to bring those guilty of this terrible act to justice.”

 

Respect party MP George Galloway described the killing as “a depraved Satanic act committed by devils in human form”. He wrote on Twitter: “It is a desecration of all that is holy.”

 

Tory MP Mark Pritchard said: “If Isis think the British people will be cowed, they are gravely mistaken. For every act of brutality, they birth greater national resilience.”

 

Labour’s Fiona Mactaggart – who did not vote in last week’s Commons decision to join US-led air strikes against Isis positions in Iraq – said the murder made her question her decision. “The vile murderers of Isil make me almost wish I voted to bomb in Iraq last week. I want to avenge the death of Alan Henning. I despise them,” she said.

 

The video of Henning’s murder emerged a week after the House of Commons overwhelmingly backed the deployment of British military forces to bomb Isis positions in Iraq.

 

With Labour support, MPs voted by a majority of 481 to endorse joining the US-led coalition confronting the extremists – although extending the mission into Syria is yet to be debated. ”RAF jets began bombing missions at the weekend and Cameron earlier announced the deployment of two more Tornado fighter bombers as he visited the Cyprus base from where they are operating.

 

The two additional GR4s lift the number to eight engaged in raids to support local ground forces, especially Kurdish Peshmerga forces.

 

In the latest video, Henning’s captors force the aid worker to directly attribute his death to “parliament’s decision to attack the Islamic State”.

 

And on the day the footage was posted, prime minister David Cameron warned British troops preparing to wind down their mission in Afghanistan that they face a generation long fight against Islamist extremism.

 

Edited October 4, 2014 by AVFCforever1991

[AVFCforever1991]

 

 

 

So it turns out there are Muslims who condemn these acts and are against ISIS, who knew.......

Edited October 4, 2014 by AVFCforever1991

[Dodgyknees]

^ Great replies.