What’s in a name? ISIS

Islamic State is currently the trending terror group causing shivers down the spines of many nationals. They are fighting America and Allies. Their vengeance is lethal. Their acts are barbaric. Their cause, to liberate the Islamic State from air strikes by America and Allies. Their retaliation has so far cost the world. Four people have been beheaded. Another is in the offing. This is really bad. Not even public outcry evokes feeling in this terror group. But the world is watching. No evil bequeathed upon mankind prospers. At some point, the world will retaliate, the repercussions will be dire.

47-year-old English aid worker Alan Henning initially held hostage is the latest victim of beheading. A graphic 71-second video titled ‘Another Message to America and its Allies’ has been released by ISIS. 

Allan Henning while going about his charity work

“I am Alan Henning. Because of our Parliament’s decision to attack the Islamic State, I as a member of the British public, will now pay the price for that decision,” a stunned looking Henning says in the video.

John the Beatle, a hooded terrorist then appears in the video and says, “The blood of David Haines was on your hands Cameron,” referring to another butchered hostage and British Prime Minister.

“Alan Henning will also be slaughtered. But his blood is on the hands of the British Parliament,” the hooded man says, pointing his knife straight at the camera.

The next shot shows the British aid worker’s handcuffed body lying in the sand – with his bloodied head placed on his lower back. This is horrific, inhuman and libelous. 

The British Prime Minister had this to say about Allan, “The fact this was a kind, gentle, compassionate and caring man who had simply gone to help others, the fact they murdered him in the way they did, shows what we are dealing with, and this is going to be our struggle there. With others, we must do everything we can to defeat this organization.”

He further said that, “What we see with this organization is there's no level of depravity to which they will not sink. No appeals made any difference.”

Previous victims were American reporter James Foley, American-Israeli journalist Steven Sotloff and British aid worker David Haines. They are heroes. Their death though unwarranted should be condemned as it disregards the tenets of humanity which is ‘the right to life.’

Peter Kassig before converted to Islam

Another American hostage Peter Kassig is perhaps next in the villainous act of beheading Americans and allied state nationals. His crime, ‘being an American.’

Kassig, 26, is a former elite US Army Ranger who was deployed to Iraq in 2007, according to a Time magazine profile published in 2013.

After leaving the military, the Indianapolis native volunteered to help Syrian refugees in a Lebanese hospital and then started an aid group he called Special Emergency Response and Assistance.

National Security Council spokesperson Caitlin Hayden confirmed that Islamic State militants had Kassig.

“We will continue to use every tool at our disposal – military, diplomatic, law enforcement and intelligence – to try to bring Peter home to his family,” Hayden said.

Everything must be done to destroy the militant organization. They engage in heinous crimes with reckless abandon. Beheading of American and British nationals is a cowardly act. These acts of beheading only shows the world they are indeed a terror group which the world needs to condemn. 

Worse is the fact that the name ISIS, now synonymous with this terror group, has had negative connotations to businesses going by the same name. 

Aaren Brent is tired of visitors asking about her store’s name or snapping pictures of the sign outside. Her venture -Isis Bridal and Formal, a small business enterprise in USA- has to ward off the bad image.

Branding experts say an unfortunate association with a name can scar a company’s reputation even if the connection is coincidental.

The business owners of some established brands only wish the Islamic State would be referred as so. The media referring to the group as ISIS is having aversive repulse action among customers. Sales have plummeted for some outlets and this may have devastating consequences to established brands.

‘What’s in a name?’ that is perhaps the question most people are asking with regard to the fact that ISIS has had rippling effects the world over. 

As world leaders fight this ragtag militant Islamist movement, avenues should be found to curtail the resurgence of these outfits that are inhuman and brutish. In this day and age, people the world over should enjoy the freedom and rights enshrined in the United Nations Charter and which are inherent among all human beings.

Let’s pray for Peter Kassig, he has dedicated a greater part of his life in serving humanity. Other foreign nationals are also held captive by this movement. They should also be in our prayers.
SITUONANE.