Queen Rania of Jordan publicly consoled the family of Lt. Muath al-Kasasbeh, the fighter pilot captured and later immolated by Islamic State militants, during a Friday rally in the city of Amman.
The queen embraced the pilot's tearful wife, Anwar al-Tarawneh, amidst a crowd of thousands,
reported The Associated Press.
Jordanians took to the streets this week to honor and mourn Kasasbeh, as well as support King Abdullah II, who has carried out a number of airstrikes on the Islamic State in retaliation for murdering the pilot. He was seen being burned alive in a video released by ISIS this week.
Jordan has been an ally of the U.S. and the international anti-terror coalition since the 2003 invasion of Iraq, acting as a base of operations and contributing its own military forces at times. Kasasbeh was on a mission in Syria when his plane was downed, and he was taken prisoner.
Abdullah ordered two Islamic State prisoners be hanged in response to Kasasbeh's killing, and said Jordan's revenge "will be harsh because this terrorist organization is not only fighting us, but also fighting Islam and its pure values."
While U.S. and Jordanian officials believe Kasasbeh was killed last month, the militants did not release the video of his death until this week. The video, which depicts the pilot being burned alive in a cage, set off a debate in the Islamic world, with many clerics saying that the burning of bodies — alive or dead — is prohibited within the faith.
The Washington Post reported that Islamic State clerics issued a fatwa to justify the killing in response to criticism from other Muslims.
"[T]he Islamic State pointed to the example of Khaled bin al-Walid, Muhammad’s commander-in-chief, who burned 'apostates' and that it also pointed to specific Islamic scholars who justified the use of immolation, such as al-Hafidh bin Hajar, a prominent Sunni scholar from the medieval era," The Post reported.
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