A prominent jihadi preacher has lashed out against Islamic State (Isis) militants for burning to death a Jordanian pilot, saying the killing was “not acceptable in any religion”.
Abu Muhammad al-Maqdsi spoke to the Jordanian TV station Roya on Friday, a day after he was released from more than three months of detention in Jordan.
Maqdisi, a Palestinian-born preacher who is seen as a spiritual mentor of al-Qaida, was detained last year and denounced Isis publicly for creating its so-called caliphate. He was detained again last October, allegedly for using the internet to publish jihadi literature.
The cleric said in the TV interview that burning the pilot “is not acceptable by any religion and by anyone”. Jordanians have been outraged by the killing of the downed pilot, Muadh al-Kasasbeh, who was burned alive on camera while locked in a metal cage.
Fighter jets pounded Isis targets in Syria on Thursday, before flying over Kasasbeh’s hometown. A statement from the Jordanian armed forces said the jets destroyed ammunition depots and training camps run by Isis.
“It’s actually the beginning of our retaliation over this horrific and brutal murder of our brave young pilot, but it’s not the beginning of our fight against terrorism and extremism,” Jordan’s foreign minister, Nasser Judeh, said in an interview with CNN.
“We’re going after them with everything that we have,” he added.
