Fifty Shades of Incarnadine

It has become apparent that, quite apart from such socio-politico-theological aims (legitimate or otherwise) that ISIL might pursue, there is an increasing fascination, among many of its activists, with Execution Porn, for its own sake.   This we have analyzed here;  herewith  an update.

The Latest:

* A dozen or so Kurds are paraded in cages, presumably prior to the main event:  their immolation.  (Rather like the pre-game festivities at the Superbowl.)

* 21 Copts, kidnapped in Libya, were brightly decked in orange jumpsuits, paraded along the sort of seashore that usually features a golden retriever and a life-insurance ad, and then beheaded, in a 21-ring ceremony.  (The media has been unhelpful as to why these Egyptian Christians  were in Libya in the first place;  presumably they fled there, from the Egyptian skillet, into the fire.)

Those acts are not so much political statements (again:  whether noble or misguided) as variety acts : the Caliphate embracing the Société du Spectacle.   For the victims here were neither combatants (like the Jordanian pilot), nor Westerners (inherently evil for racial reasons), but simply guys who happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time.

And now for something  completely different ...

And you know that, what these publicity-junkies are thinking now, is:   What can we do, that's completely different?  What can we do for an encore?

Fact is, ISIL is going to have to get cracking, if they want to continue to dominate the Atrocity Sweepstakes:  Boko Haram is now giving them some serious competition, recycling their seven-year-old Christian sex-slaves as suicide bombers against pretty much random civilian targets.

[Hot leaks from an inside source!]  A preview of upcoming events:

* A score of Sufis, dressed in wool, are set alight.

* Seven lords a-leaping  are obliged to jump over a cliff.

* A clowder of kittehhs  are herded together (a feat in itself) by a contingent of masked doggehhs, and treated verrehh, verrehh    badlehhh….

(VIP seating available from TicketMaster.)

[Update 23 June 2015]  The ISIL metteurs-en-scène keep coming up with ever more stage-business to thrill their audience.

The Site Intelligence group, which tracks jihadist activity online, released what appears to be an Islamic State video from northern Iraq. It depicts three grisly group killings of 12 supposed "spies."

The first scene shows four men forced into a car that is then blasted by a militant with a rocket-propelled grenade. The next scene, like something created by a sadistic Bond villain, shows detainees lowered into a pool in a metal cage and then brought up, lifeless and frothing at the mouth. And the last, the most gruesome, shows a cordon of prisoners led onto open terrain with explosives attached to their necks; the explosives are detonated and heads fly into the air.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/worldviews/wp/2015/06/23/what-the-islamic-state-did-to-two-boys-caught-eating-during-ramadan/