This weblog entry complements one dating from 2011, "Palestinians Attack Their Supporters." What had been a specifically abhorrent Palestinian specialty seems to be spreading, revealing yet another dimension of a sick region. (August 23, 2014)
Malcolm Kerr, president of the American University of Beirut, killed in January 1984, perhaps by Palestinians.
Malcolm Kerr.
- Christopher Stevens, the U.S. ambassador to Libya and previously a political officer at the US consulate in Jerusalem, killed in September 2012 by Libyans (not Palestinians) and much mourned by the PLO for his sympathy to them.
- Chris Stone, associate professor of Arabic and head of the Arabic Program at City University in New York as well as the Center for Arabic Study Abroad (CASA), stabbed in the neck (presumably by an Egyptian) near the U.S. Embassy in Cairo in May 2013 and survived.
- James Foley, an American journalist who converted to Islam and took the name Abu Hamza and apparently beheaded by ISIS in August 2014. (Apparently because the ISIS video does not show the murder.) His former fellow hostage, Nicolas Henin, explained Foley's views: "James got hold of a Koran in English and he was fascinated by it. There were times he read it without interruption. … He was exasperated by widespread Islamophobia, and he wanted to build bridges between the Christian and Muslim worlds."
- Alan Henning: A 47-year-old Manchester taxi driver who volunteered to drive Muslim convoys of aid in Syria to help children and had come to appreciate the Islamic faith, was apparently beheaded in September 2014 by ISIS. Shuja Shafi, secretary general of the Muslim Council of Britain, called him "a friend of Muslims [who] will be mourned by Muslims."
- Peter Kassig: He converted to Islam while held captive by ISIS (becoming Abdul Rahman Kassig). His mother Paula wore a hijab and referred to him as "our son Abdul-Rahman Kassig" but his murderer, the one known as Jihadi John, called him "Peter Kassig, a U.S. citizen … who fought against the Muslims in Iraq while serving as a soldier under the U.S. Army," refusing to acknowledge his conversion.
- Kayla Mueller: Murdered by ISIS in February 2015, her writings reveal that she was an anti-Israel fanatic, a member of International Solidarity Movement (ISM), and an apparent supporter of Iranian-style muqawama (resistance): "resistance is nestled in the cracks in the wall, resistance flows from the minaret 5 times a day and resistance sits quietly in jail knowing its time will come again. Resistance lives in the grieving mother's wails and resistance lives in the anger at the lies broadcasted across the globe. Though it is sometimes hard to see and even harder sometimes to harbor, resistance lives. Do not be fooled, resistance lives." In the assessment of Lee Kaplan, Mueller was "a tool for worldwide jihad." (February 11, 2015)
