Eccles Lad Alan Henning Murdered

Head Severed in Horrific Execution!

 

DESPITE appeals from the family of Alan Henning, and Muslims in this country, was killed by his  Islamic State captors yesterday.  A video showed Alan kneeling in the desert in a jump suit.

 

The taxi driver from Salford was delivering aid to Syria last December when he was kidnapped.  It seems that two sharia courts in the north of Syria had also demanded his release.

 

Earlier this week Mrs Barbara Henning had asked for 'mercy' for her husband, saying his family was continuing their attempts to communicate with the group.  She said she had received an audio message of her husband pleading for his life.  Mrs Henning had said some people thought her husband was in the wrong place at the wrong time, but she said:  'He was in the right place doing the right thing.'



Dr Shuja Shafi, secretary general of the Muslim Council of Britain, tweeted:
'Saddened by reported murder of Alan Henning. A despicable and offensive act. He helped Muslims. My thoughts and prayers with his family.'

Mohammed Shafiq, chief executive of the Ramadhan Foundation, said:
'This barbaric killing is an attack against all decent people around the world.'

 

The suspicion is that the killing is an attempt to provoke the western powers into making a greater effort to defeat Islamic State, and to draw the west into a Holy War.  The urge the do something is powerful when such obscene acts are committed.  But it is difficult to see that any action by Britain will help resolve the situation, and the present involvement by the UK has been described as largely cosmetic.

 

Local people interviewed this morning were calling for action to tackle the situation but more involvement in either Iraq or Syria may easily encourage more support for Islamic State throughout the world.  The best that can be expected is that the Kurds and others forces in the region can get their act together to defeat Islamic State.