Executed for being poor

'An Iraqi militant group posted a video on the Internet on Monday that appeared to show the 2004 killing of 12 Nepalese men who worked for a contracting firm in Iraq.'

(full story here)

Since the 'militants' have seen fit to remind us of the crime, we should also remind ourselves what the victims were doing in Iraq. My atlas tells me that 40% of the population of Nepal is malnourished. It isn't bang up to date but I don't suppose the situation has changed dramatically. So it's a safe bet that for these men a job enabling them to feed their families was not something to turn down even if they had to go to Iraq to do it (and even though they were officially banned from travelling to Iraq by the Nepalese government).

So remember this case next time you come across someone claiming to be a socialist or a liberal who suggests that Islamist terror is some kind of cry for justice on behalf of the world's poor and oppressed.