The Islamic State of Iraq and Syria have reportedly put to trial one of their clerics after he voiced objections to the immolation of Jordanian pilot, Lt. Mouath-al-Kasaesbeh last week.
According to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, top clerics in the ISIS met on Friday in what they called the "Aleppo state" and decided to put one of their judges on trial for objecting to the decision to burn al-Kasaesbeh alive.
The isolated judge is a Saudi national, SOHR revealed, and had suggested that the ISIS should put to trial the perpetrators of the Jordanian pilot's burning.
ISIS released a 22-minute video showing the trial and the subsequent immolation of captured pilot al-Kasaesbeh last week Tuesday. Since its release, the video has gained condemnation not only from Western parties, but also from top clerics in the Islamic world, including the Grand Sheikh of al-Azhar, a senior figure in Sunni Islam.
The Sheikh told Reuters that the perpetrators of the pilot's murder should be "killed, crucified or to have their limbs amputated" for burning the Jordanian pilot alive, while Iyad Madani of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation told the Washington Post that the burning was an "affront to Islam" and "utterly disregards the rights of prisoners Islam has decreed."
ISIS immediately posted on Twitter a religious edict that allegedly justified their actions towards the young Jordanian pilot, claiming that Islam allowed burning as a punishment for "infidels."
William Braniff, executive director of the National Consortium for the Study of Terrorism and Responses to Terrorism at Maryland University, told VICE News that the Islamic State is inclined to "do what they want to do, as opposed to what Islam wants them to do."
In an interview with Christine Amanpour of CNN, former ISIS captive Didier Francois revealed that ISIS was more into "hammering what they were believing than teaching [captives] about the Koran."
Despite the condemnation, Iraqi top official Hishan al-Hashimi told the Washington Post that the ISIS "gained more than it lost" as the video turned attention away from their defeats in Kobani in Syria and Diyali in Iraq.
