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From the Liveblog of Wednesday, February 4, 2015

Sunni school calls for crucifying IS members

4 February 2015, 2:07 pm Edit

Al-Azhar, Sunni Islam’s most prestigious center of learning, calls for the killing and crucifixion of terrorists from the Islamic State group, expressing outrage over their murder of a Jordanian pilot.

In a statement after the burning alive of Lt. Moaz Kasasbeh, the Cairo-based authority’s head, Ahmed al-Tayib expresses his “strong dismay at this cowardly act.”

Tayib says this “requires the punishment mentioned in the Koran for these corrupt oppressors who fight against God and his prophet: killing, crucifixion or chopping of the limbs.”

The Islamic State group in a video on Tuesday claimed the gruesome killing of Kasasbeh, who was captured in Syria when his plane went down in December.

Ahmed el-Tayeb, the grand Sheik of Cairo's Al-Azhar, in a photo from 2011 [photo credit: AP]

Ahmed el-Tayib, the grand Sheik of Cairo’s Al-Azhar, in a photo from 2011 [photo credit: AP]

— AFP