On The Willows We Hung Up Our Lyres

Associated Press
KABUL, Afghanistan - A purported Taliban spokesman warned Friday that some of the 22 South Korean hostages were in bad health, saying hours after the kidnappers’ latest deadline passed that the captives were crying and worried about their future.

Qari Yousef Ahmadi, who claims to speak for the kidnappers, told The Associated Press by phone that the group still insisted on exchanging Taliban prisoners for the captives, who could be killed if the demand was not met. Ahmadi spoke several hours after the passage of the most recent Taliban deadline but said the militia had not set a new one.

Some of the South Koreans were “not in good condition,” Ahmadi said. “I don’t know if the weather is not good for them, or our food. The women hostages are crying.

One hostage, 42-year-old pastor Bae Hyung-kyu, was found dead of multiple gunshots on Wednesday in Qarabagh, the district where the hostages were being held.

What seems to go unreported by most news outlets is that these radical Muslims are purposefully holding Christian hostages because they are Christians. These 23 people were Christian missionaries in Afghanistan providing aid to residents of that country.

The slain man was the pastor of the church.

The widow of the slain pastor made a tearful appeal Friday for the release of the remaining hostages, saying she does not want other families to experience her grief.

“I sincerely hope that the pain the families are already having enough won’t deepen with more sadness,” Kim Hee-yeon told reporters. “I sincerely hope there won’t be any more victims.”

Several months ago an Italian journalist was kidnapped. The Italian government earned the release of one journalist by setting free five Taliban prisoners. Now one of the men that is behind these current kidnappings was one of the five held within an Italian prison and released in the exchange.

These evil men care nothing for human life. They crave only what they perceive as power. They commit suicide for their cause. They say they do this for their religion, yet they are godless men who have no souls. They are philistines.

The Rabbis of old tell us that the sin of Sodom was not only decadence and immorality. That was the fruit of sin. The sin of Sodom was inhospitality to visitors. The Angels of God came to the city to look for one righteous man. Only one righteous man showed them hospitality and invited them to his home and shared with them food and friendship, He protected them since he harbored them under his roof, even to the point that he was willing to sacrifice his own daughters to protect the strangers.

This truth is known not only to the Jews but to those who study the Koran.

“May you O Lord Our GOD have mercy on those captives and let them be set free. May you turn the hearts of those evil men to see your Light and know The Truth. May YOU Who know all things and judge all men turn this travesty into justice and show forth Your Glory. God save Your people. I pray this O Lord GOD Almighty in the Name of YOUR SON JESUS.”