On Feb. 4, 2015, ISIS militants executed captive Jordanian pilot Moaz Kasasbeh by burning him alive. ISIS captured Kasasbeh in December 2014 after his plane crashed in northern Syria. Jordan - along with Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates - began partnering with the United States in September 2014 in its air campaign against ISIS in Syria. The pilot’s execution drew condemnation across the Islamist spectrum. The Grand Mufti of Saudi Arabia stated that “only God burns with fire.” A range of Islamist parties across the Middle East spoke out as well. Ennahda, the leading Islamist party in Tunisia, rejected the execution as a “heinous crime.”

While executions by hanging, beheading, and other methods are legal in many parts of the Middle East, even many hardline clerics and officials rejected burning alive as an illegitimate Islamic punishment. Abu Sayyaf, a leader in Jordan’s Salafist jihadist movement, said “even in the heat of battle, a prisoner of war is given good treatment."

The following are quotes from Muslim clerics, Islamist groups, and Middle Eastern officials on Kasasbeh’s execution.

Clerics and Scholars
 

Grand Mufti of Saudi Arabia

“The killers of Muath al Kasasbeh have no religion...This group [ISIS] , are Kharijites. They claim to be Muslims. Their claim is invalid and they are enemies of Islam.”

He pointed out that burning someone alive is forbidden in Islam, adding that “Only God burns with fire.”
  – Feb. 5, 2015, according to the press

Saudi cleric Salman al Odah

"Burning is an abominable crime rejected by Islamic law regardless of its causes...Only God punishes by fire."
  – Feb. 3, 2015 via Twitter

Iyad Madani, the leader of the 57-nation, Saudi-based Organization of Islamic Cooperation

“[The attack] utterly disregards the rights of prisoners Islam has decreed, as well as the human moral standards for war and treatment of prisoners.”

It is sad to see "the depth of malaise" in parts of the Middle East, along with the "intellectual decay, the political fragmentation and the abuse of Islam, the great religion of mercy."
  – Feb. 4, 2015, according to the press

Grand Sheikh of Al Azhar Ahmed al Tayeb

“Islam prohibits the taking of an innocent life.”
 – Feb. 4, 2015, according to the press

“This vile terrorist act requires punishment as cited by the Quran for oppressors and spoilers on earth who fight God and his prophet, that they be killed, or crucified, or their hands and legs cut off.”
– Feb. 4, 2015, in a statement issued by Al Azhar

Qatari cleric Youssef al-Qaradawi 

The international community's "laxity" toward Syrian President Bashar Assad “created these extremist groups and provided them with a fertile environment."
 – Feb. 4, 2015, according to the press

Algerian cleric El-Hadi Shalaby

"What hurts me as a Muslim is that they [ISIS militants] do all this in the name of Islam.”

“The Muslim faith is utterly foreign to these practices.”
 – Feb. 4, 2015, according to the press

Jordanian Salafist cleric Abu Sayaf

“[The execution] weakens the popularity of the Islamic State because we look at Islam as a religion of mercy and tolerance. Even in the heat of battle, a prisoner of war is given good treatment.”

“Even if the Islamic State says Moaz had bombed and burned and killed us, and we punished him in the way he did to us, we say, OK, but why film the video in this shocking way? This method has turned society against them.”
  – Feb. 4, 2015, according to the press

Islamist Groups
 

Ennahda (Tunisia)

“Ennahda condemns the abominable execution of captive Jordanian pilot Moaz al Kasasbeh by ISIS."

#حركة_النهضة تدين جريمة الإعدام النكراء التي قام بها "#داعش" في حق الطيار الأردني الأسير #معاذ_الكساسبة http://t.co/m27nR35wzq #Ennahdha

— حزب حركة النهضة (@NahdhaTunisie) February 5, 2015

“The Ennahda movement:

• Condemns the heinous crime carried out by ISIS against the captive Jordanian pilot. It condemns the burning of his body alive expresses its solidarity with his family during this tough time.
• Confirms the bankruptcy of the terrorist organization ISIS and confirms its criminal inconsistency with the Islamic religion that is based on eminence and mercy. Islam is a religion that respects the rights and dignity of humans alive or dead.
• Confirms that moderation, freedom, social justice, and particularly the value of democracy are the real features of Islam, in contrast to extremism and terrorism.”

 – Feb. 5, 2015, in a statement

Al Wefaq (Bahrain)

“This heinous and evil crime confirms that terrorism has no religion and no identity.”
 – Feb. 3, 2015, in a statement

Al Asalah (Bahrain)

"Islam is innocent from such henious crimes,  and we ask the Almighty to have mercy on this young Muslim, and pray for his parents and family and the people of Jordan in their time of grief. "
 – Feb. 4, 2015, in a statement

Hezbollah (Lebanon)

Hezbollah "condemns this brutal and heinous crime committed by ISIS."

“It has become necessary for many states to reconsider the policies adopted, that support terrorist groups in Syria and Iraq, that have committed massacres, and that are implemented to tarnish the image of Islam and Muslims and keep them away from religion through the adoption of a strange and reprehensible fatwas.”
 – Feb. 4, 2015, in a statement

Government Officials
 

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan

“I condemn the killing of the pilot by ISIS, and offer my condolences to his family and Jordanians.”
 – Feb. 4, 2015, according to the press

The killing was an “act of savagery.”

"There is no such thing in our religion ... and they have nothing to do with Islam.”
 – Feb. 4, 2015, according to the press

United Arab Emirates Foreign Minister Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed Al Nahyan

“This heinous and obscene act represents a brutal escalation by the terrorist group, whose evil objectives have become apparent.”
 – Feb. 4, 2015, according to the press

“During these sad and painful times, we as a civilized international community have to continue our campaign against terrorism.”
 – Feb. 4, 2015, according to the press

Head of the Department of Religious Affairs in Southern Yemen, Sheikh Hussein bin Shu’ayb

“The Prophet, peace be upon him, advised against burning people with fire.”
 – Feb. 4, 2015, according to the press

Tunisian President Beji Caid Essebsi

The pilot's killing was an "odious crime" incompatible with the principles of Islam and all other divine laws.
 – Feb. 4, 2015, according to the press

Secretary- General of the Arab League

“What was a heinous crime contrary to all international and religious norms, it brings us back to the dark ages before the Middle Ages.”
 – Feb. 3, 2015, according to the press

Lebanese Foreign Minister Gebran Bassil

“These are crimes that should be listed as crimes against humanity.”
 – Feb. 3, 2015, according to the press

Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi

“We condemn this criminal act and call upon the international coalition to direct harsh blows to these terrorist gangs.”
 – Feb. 3, 2015, according to the press

Omani Foreign Minister Yusuf bin Alawi bin Abdullah

“[The killing] reflects a deep-rooted hatred and organized terrorism against all Muslims and contradicts religious law.”
 – Feb. 4, 2015, according to the press