In The Name of Allah

"In the name of Allah, and all praise is due to Allah. Peace and blessings be upon the messenger of Allah, and upon his family and his companions. And thereafter. Note to the Philippine government and to the Canadian government: The lesson is clear. John Ridsdel has been beheaded. Now there are three remaining captives here. If you procrastinate once again [with] the negotiations, we will behead [them] all anytime."
Masked Abu Sayyaf terrorist, Jolo Island, Philippines

"My name is Kjartan. I'm a hostage on Sulu Island. I'm appealing to the Canadian government, friends, family, anybody who can possibly help us, that if the demand is not met we will be executed like our friend John was a few days ago."
Kjartan Sekkingstad, Norwegian hostage, Sulu Island, Philippines

"My name is Robert Hall. I'm here, as well. To the Philippine government: Please stop shooting at us and trying to kill us [military efforts to release the three remaining hostages from captivity by Abu Sayyaf]. These guys [Abu Sayyaf terrorists] are going to do a good job of that."
"To the Canadian government, I'm told to tell  you to meet the demand. I don't know what you're doing, but you're not doing anything for us. John has been sacrificed [beheaded], his family has been decimated, and I'm not sure why or what  you're waiting for."
John Hall, Canadian hostage, Sulu Island, Philippines

"I'm appealing to all people, all people here ... the situation right now ... I'm appealing to the Canadian government, to the Philippine government, to President Benigno Aquino. Please Aquino ..."
Marites Flor: Filipina hostage, Sulu Island, Philippines

Site INTELLIGENCE    The second video ended with a new demand for money from Abu Sayyaf or it vowed it would murder Hall, his Filipina girlfriend, Marites Flor and a Norwegian, Kjartan Sekkingstad.

Days after the shock of the beheading of a Canadian hostage, and the plight of the three other hostages taken with John Ridsdel appearing in a video, each of the three hostages forced to plead for their lives in exchange for a ransom, the scene of the actual beheading, the cold-blooded murder of a defenceless man, was released for maximum shock effect. In the knowledge that the three remaining hostages would meet the very same fate if the steep price for their survival was not met.

In the first of two videos a young man wearing a black shirt and holding a machete is seen to grasp John Ridsdel by the hair, forcing him to the ground, then proceeding methodically to murder the 68-year-old Calgarian. Three other masked men holding assault rifles stand beside the killer and the victim. The sound track on the video declaims: "John Ridsdel was beheaded on 4/25 due to non-compliance of Canadian government."

John Ridsdel's killer. @siteintelgroup

Abu Sayyaf's "final ultimatum" extracted with gory finality when the $32-million they had demanded for the release of the four captives was not paid. Toward the end of the tape after the beheading execution of the visibly desperate man who was helpless to defend himself, his captors are heard calling "God is great" in Arabic, and in the local Tausug language of the Philippine tribal Muslims. Alahu Akbar! accompanies all such great moments dedicated to Allah.

According to a local expert on the Islamist terrorist group Abu Sayyaf: "The black flags [of ISIS that the group proudly displays to show their allegiance to the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant] and the rhetoric reinforce their claims, but they are not ideologically driven. They are driven totally by criminal intent and kidnap for ransom". Mark Singer, director of business intelligence for Pacific Strategies and Assessments Inc. based in Manila may know business but he may not know Islam.

While the Philippine Islamists may not fit his definition of religious orthodoxy in Islam, the jihadis who answer Islam's injunction to the faithful to involve themselves in jihad and terror as a religion whose base is conquest-oriented, appeals to the tribal thugs who find jihad very well suited to their views of life in honour of Islam. They are, in very fact, practising Islam as it is written in the sacred texts, as it is preached by Muslim clerics.

Muslims who practise a less barbaric interpretation of Islam prefer to speak of their violent peers as not representing true Islam. And so, even in the Philippines where a vicious campaign is ongoing by Muslims against the majority Christian Catholic population, the head of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front speaks disparagingly of Abu Sayyaf, that "What they did was anti-Islam. We highly condemn it".

How anti-Islam is it? When two major Muslim countries of the Middle East, Saudi Arabia and Iran, both morbidly Islamist, practise crucifixion and beheading as methods of capital punishment for offences such as political dissent, threatening the stability of their human-rights oppressive governments, homosexuality, and worshipping an unauthorized religion?