ISIS Crucifies Prisoners In Horrific Public Execution Display For Video

ISIS’ (Islamic State of Iraq and Syria) propaganda videos of its many heinous executions have littered the internet for the past few years, but one particular method of killing — crucifixion — has been a recurring theme throughout. Given that the extremists view Christianity, the religion where the sign of the crucifix (or cross) is a symbol, as an apostate belief and have declared jihad against Western nations (where Christianity is the major religion), the propaganda videos are a tool used to both horrify and to proselytize. Last week, ISIS released another 30-minute video that berated the West, depicted ISIS fighters in various battle scenes, and showed prisoners being executed by crucifixion.

The Daily Star reported that simply crucifying the prisoners for their supposed crimes against the Islamic State (fighting in the war against ISIS, spying, collaborating with the enemy, fleeing ISIS territory, desertion, rebellion, breaking sharia law as interpreted by the Islamic State) was not enough for the purposes of those filming the ISIS video. Believed to have been recorded in a Syrian city, the prisoners, dressed in bright orange jumpsuits, were taken to a very public — and very busy — section of the city before being lashed to crosses for pedestrians and motorists to see.

Being left to slowly die in the hot Syrian sun would have been a severe punishment, but ISIS has made a habit of delivering atrocity after atrocity (many times via video) upon those they execute. In the latest graphic video, a prisoner is tied to a wooden cross and then summarily shot in the head. Another, helplessly tethered, is repeatedly stabbed by an ISIS extremist. All the while, the heinous acts, not to mention the crucified corpses left following said acts, were on display to passersby in vehicles and on foot.

News of ISIS is often commingled with horrific tales of civilian slaughter and harsh civil penalties and punishments. As the Inquisitr has reported, the Islamic State seems to have taken to the idea of attempting to create execution methods that are more horrifying than the previous methods used. Shortly after the crucifixion video was released, ISIS posted another video. Just eight minutes long, the extremists included footage of the beheading of two men and a third being blown apart — the trio said to be members of the New Syrian Army — with an artillery gun. That method of execution followed reports of executions where captives and prisoners were put to death in various gruesome ways, including being hung on meat hooks and butchered in a slaughterhouse, put to death with welding tools, being chopped in half with a chainsaw, and being lowered into vats of burning tar or a pool of nitric acid.

ISIS, which has used the internet and social media to recruit and terrorize for years, apparently is of the belief that generations of people worldwide, in order to be terrified, must be confronted with images that are more shocking than what can readily be seen in cinemas and on television. And if that is truly the case, they have wholeheartedly embraced the challenge.

But crucifixions have been an ongoing method of execution that is directed at a specific audience. Christians.

And there is history behind the crucifixions, history that goes back to the days of the Crusades, when Christians went to the Holy Land (a section of the Middle East now associated with the modern states of Israel, Lebanon, and Jordan) to liberate Jerusalem and the area where Jesus Christ, the Christian messiah, reportedly lived his life. The city of Jerusalem traded hands a few times, switching back-and-forth from Christian rule to Muslim rule over the centuries. And ISIS uses this form of traditional historic animosity to further its goals, to recruit, and to instill terror in the minds of Christians and/or Westerners.

In October, 2016, ISIS extremists in the Syrian city of Aleppo reportedly attempted to convert Syrian Christians but were rebuffed. According to the Mirror, twelve people were crucified, including a 12-year-old boy and two women. The boy allegedly had his fingertips severed and was crucified in front of his father, a preacher, who was forced to watch until he, too, was crucified.

The crucifixions have taken place at least since the Islamic State declared itself in 2014. In June, 2014, CNN reported that at least nine men had been crucified in several Syrian towns, their dead bodies put on public display. According to human rights sources, ISIS typically shot the men in the head first.

[Featured Image by CHOATphotographer/Shutterstock]