Kenji Goto RIP

It's difficult to find more things to say in response to the abominable murder of Kenji Goto which have not already been said in response to the equally abominable murders of David Haines and Alan Henning

Shoichi Yukawa, the father of another Japanese hostage who was executed last week, praised Goto for trying to rescue his son:

"I just have no words. It's utterly heartbreaking," he said.

"People killing other people - it's so deplorable. How can this be happening?"

I am completely convinced of what the Prophet Mohammed would have said about these murders, and which verse of the Qu'ran applies to them.

The prophet Mohammed said that “Whoever kills a person who has a truce with the Muslims will never smell the fragrance of Paradise.”

and the Qu'ran says (5:33)

"the taking of one innocent life is like taking all of Mankind... and the saving of one life is like saving all of Mankind" - Holy Qur'an, 5:33.

Kenji Goto was no more an enemy of the Muslim people than David Haines or Alan Henning had been. The British hostages murdered by DAESH were trying to take food, water, and medical equipment to sick and suffering muslim children: Kenji Goto was trying to negotiate the peaceful release of another hostage.

All three voluntarily and knowingly put their lives at risk to help others. It should have been obvious to anyone remotely sane that none of these three brave men intended any harm to anyone and that they were exactly the sort of person who the Prophet's instruction not to kill those who are at peace with Islam which I quoted above was meant to protect.

Kenji Goto, like the previous hostages murdered by DAESH (which calls itself "Islamic State," a title I refuse to recognise) will be remembered as a great human being. I hope he will be remembered as such and as a brave and brilliant journalist when the names of the sick barbarians who killed him are long forgotten.

Rest in Peace

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