A lthough it was expected that ISIL would eventually kill the Jordanian pilot Lt Maaz Al Kassasbeh, no amount of gruesome potential scenarios could have prepared the world to the harrowing video released on Tuesday showing the hostage in a cage, being burnt alive.
Initial shock soon turned to outrage across the region, especially in Jordan, where the news seemed to galvanise the population behind their leadership.
In an opinion article for the Jordanian daily Al Ghad, the columnist Jumana Ghunaimat said: “The terrorists did it, giving us further proof that the war against them is a paramount necessity.”
But the question to ask now is: what position could be expected from Jordan and Jordanians in the aftermath of such a crime?
“Maaz has united us all the day he was taken hostage, and today too, after his martyrdom, he will continue to unite us,” the writer said.
“Now the terrorist group can be certain beyond the shadow of a doubt that this calamity only makes us stronger and ever more persistent to continue the war on ISIL and other terrorist, criminal groups,” she added.
Writing in the same publication, the columnist Muwafaq Malkawi noted that from the start, the terrorists’ plan was to create general turmoil in Jordan in an attempt to produce sedition and eat away at popular support for the Jordanian armed forces.
But, the writer said, their plans failed miserably, as in the first hours following the announcement of Lt Al Kassasbeh’s execution, Jordanians stood together calling for retaliation and denouncing ISIL’s ideology.
“This is an acknowledgement that this is indeed our war and we must wage it to drive these predators out of their burrows lest they get disillusioned and attempt to get closer to our borders,” he stressed.
“It is a military, cultural and social war to remove terrorism from our midst and repolish the image of Islam.”
The writer went on to suggest that the growing atrocity of the methods used by ISIL to execute hostages could be seen as an indication that the terrorists are in a difficult situation and have been deeply effected by the international coalition’s air strikes. The group’s mounting brutality is meant as deterrence, the writer noted.
In the Jordanian daily Al Rai, the columnist Saleh Al Qallab addressed fellow Jordanians urging them to exercise the highest degree of caution and alertness against the “agents of darkness” who would attempt to exploit their pain to stab Jordan in the back.
“Fellow Jordanians, we are all Maaz Al Kassassbeh,” he urged. “Let us foil the schemes of those that target our homeland, our children, our solidarity, our stability and our achievements. Fellow Jordanians, let us all unite under the command of our leader King Abdullah bin Al Hussain.”
For his part, the columnist Mohammed Hassan Al Tal wrote in the Jordanian newspaper Addustour that the barbaric nature of the crime reveals how resentful ISIL is against life in general and how potentially dangerous it can be.
“This isn’t Jordan’s first direct encounter with terrorists. The war on terrorism is our war, for it has placed our country on its agenda for decades,” he said.
“But what concerns us the most today is our unity and solidarity. Our morale, too, must not waver, for the higher the price we pay in this holy war, the more adamant we shall be to see our quest through in defence of our religion, nation, security and stability.”
* Translated by Racha Makarem
rmakarem@thenational.ae