Part of me died when I saw this cruel killing - Sunday Times - Times Online

Part of me died when I saw this cruel killing - Sunday Times - Times Online

When I saw this article, I feel so much hurt and I want to cry for the sake of the family. However, this reporter's life and death is not in vain. She is the true martyr, and not those who blew up the Golden Mosque, or who have blown themselves up in the belief that they gain glory and eternal life. For these people there can only be eternal damnation, for those who killed this journalist are the wicked who are so aptly described in the Scriptures.

The story of the torture and death of Atwar Bahjat is probably one of the most sickening of stories that has ever been released. It is a story that was captured on a mobile telephone that was held by her captors. The battle fatigues of her tormentors were meant to implicate the Iraqi National Guard, and there has been a story that the Shi'ite Badr Brigade were responsible for her death. However, the nature of the torture and the manner in which her head was chopped off links her death to the orders of Zarqawi.

I am blogging this story here because I want my readers to read about the brutality of Al Qaeda, and how they are killing Muslims, including women. This Muslim woman was a very devout Muslim. She was half Sunni and half Shi'ite. When she was kidnapped and tortured, she had appealed to the crowd that surrounded her crew, but no one present would help when the truck containing two men pulled up and took Atwar away.

Atwar's death, as it was recorded on the cell phone, was very slow. She was seen to be stripped semi naked with blood trickling down her body. A man, who was the butcher, took a knife and he slowly slit her throat. Then, he stood aside as another man stamped on Atwar's stomach to make sure that the blood spurted forth. The butcher then finished the job of cutting off Atwar's head and placing it on top of her trunk. This form of murder is the hallmark of the butchers of Al Qaeda. They used the uniforms of the National Guard to disguise who they really were, and then they attempted to set up the Badr Band to make it look as though they had participated in her murder.

If the details of this woman's death is not enough, the writer in this Times story also details how Atwar's body had been bored by a drill. Her arms and legs had the holes of a drill and yes it is hard to imagine the torture that she endured before she was martyred.

This brave journalist was friendly with the Badr band, and I doubt that they would have been responsible for her kidnap and martyrdom. She reported the events in Iraq in a fair manner and she had been living with the threats on her life for some time before these monsters finally rounded her up and then tortured and murdered her for telling the truth about what was really happening in Iraq.

What really stands out here is that the people who were with Atwar as she attempted to report on the blowing up of the Golden Mosque were not prepared to help this woman escape from the men who had come to kill her. Was someone in that group complicit by informing of her presence in the area?

The level of the brutality against this innocent woman, and then the attempt to murder her family as they attended her funeral indicates that the forces behind this martyrdom belong to the culture of death.

In the long run we should be praising the work of this brave Muslim woman who was humiliated by her torturers as they stripped her naked and did indescribable deeds against her body. Her humiliation though, is akin to the humiliation that was endured by Jesus, and even though she is a Muslim, this devout woman will find herself being rewarded in Heaven. What she went through prior to her most disguting and painful death was sufficient for her to have gained Eternal Life. She gave her life for the sake of her country, and for this Atwar will be remembered and honoured.