Members of an al Qaeda-linked group in Syria executed a 15-year-old boy in front of his parents after kidnapping and torturing him for making disrespectful statements about Islam’s Prophet Muhammad, a human rights group in the region claimed.
Mohammad Qataa was seized Saturday in Aleppo by gunmen with the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria — formerly known as the Nusra Front — after he was overheard saying during an argument with another, “Even if the Prophet Muhammad comes down [from heaven], I will not become a believer,” according to Reuters.
The captors displayed the bloody and beaten boy to a crowd on Sunday, issuing a warning to those who might similarly speak of the prophet before shooting the teen.
“[They] fired two bullets from an automatic rifle in view of the crowd and in front of the boy’s mother and father, and got into a car and left,” the Observatory for Human Rights said.
A photo from the rights groups showed the boy with a bloodied jaw and a bullet wound in the neck, Reuters reported.
• Cheryl K. Chumley can be reached at cchumley@washingtontimes.com.
Please read our comment policy before commenting.