Muslims around the world are advocating for the life of British aid worker Alan Henning, who is being held hostage and whose life is threatened by the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS) terrorist organization.
A tweet late Saturday night on the Twitter social networking site encapsulated the myriad responses to rumors that Henning may have already been executed by the group:
“ISIS threatening to kill Alan Henning, a man who’s done more benefit for the Ummah than majority of the Muslims fact!”
Unconfirmed reports had trickled out from Raqqa, Syria, that ISIS had beheaded Henning on Saturday, but the source of the rumors was not clear. No official announcement was made by the terrorist group.
A report was posted by a Syrian advocacy organization in Raqqa on Facebook, saying “some troops from ISIS drove another captive in orange uniform like the US and British reporters were dressed to the hill across from the site where they beheaded James Foley… a man holding a knife was along with him. We believe it’s the same person who executed the reporters before.
“ISIS beheaded this captive at 7:50 am and many cars went with them; one of the cars was carrying a big TV camera in it. ISIS closed all the roads leading to Deir Ezzor, the north, the south and the one which leads to the desert before and during the beheading – around 30 cars surrounded the hill where this captive was beheaded, three cameras were rolling on the surrounding areas…
“We noticed a Nissan red station and a black 4×4…in this black car there was another captive who was protected with many ISIS troops.”
On the Twitter social networking site, angry rumors continued to fly.
“I’m sure it’ll be confirmed soon enough. Betrayed by the very people he tried to help,” wrote one person in a bitter tweet on the Twitter social networking site Saturday night.
“Betrayed by who?” responded another, clearly upset. “They are not Muslims, stop associating them with us.”
Many Muslim groups have made it a point to dissociate themselves from ISIS and to underline their view that the terrorist group has “nothing to do with Islam.”
A group of 49 hostages from Turkey’s Consulate in Mosul was forced by their ISIS captors to watch videos of the beheading of two Americans and one British citizen during the 101 they were held.
The hostages were returned to Turkey via Syria on Saturday by Turkish intelligence agents through a special arrangement with the Iraqis.
Rescued Turkish Consul General of Mosul Ozturk Yilmaz told journalists, “They made us watch the beheadings. There is no reason to kill like this, not for any religion or political thought.” He denounced the killing of James Foley, Steven Sotloff (a dual American-Israeli citizen) and David Haines (a UK citizen) as “cruelty.”