Beheading in Islam

Last updated

Beheading was a standard method of execution in pre-modern Islamic law. By the end of the 20th century, its use had been abandoned in most countries. Beheading is still a legal method of execution in Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and Yemen. In Iran, beheading was last used in 2001, according to Amnesty International; however, it is no longer in use. [1]

Contents

In recent times, extremist Jihadist organizations such as ISIS and Jama'at al-Tawhid wal-Jihad have used beheading as a method of killing captives. Since 2002, ISIS have circulated beheading videos as a form of terror and propaganda. [2] [3] Their actions have been condemned by militant and other terrorist groups, as well as by mainstream Islamic scholars and organizations.

Beheading: background and context

The use of beheading for punishment continued well into the 20th century in both Islamic and non-Islamic nations. [4] [5] When done properly, it was once considered a humane and honorable method of execution.

Beheading in Islamic scripture

There is a debate as to whether the Quran discusses beheading. [6] Two surahs could potentially be used to provide a justification for beheading in the context of war: [6]

When the Lord inspired the angels (saying) I am with you. So make those who believe stand firm. I will throw fear into the hearts of those who disbelieve. Then smite the necks and smite of them each finger. (8:12)

Now when ye meet in battle those who disbelieve, then it is smiting of the necks until, when ye have routed them, making fast of bonds; and afterward either grace or ransom 'til the war lay down its burdens. (47:4)

Among classical commentators, Fakhr al-Din al-Razi interprets the last sentence of 8:12 to mean striking at the enemies in any way possible, from their head to the tips of their extremities. [7] Al-Qurtubi reads the reference to striking at the necks as conveying the gravity and severity of the fighting. [8] For al-Qurtubi, al-Tabari, and Ibn Kathir, the expression indicates the brevity of the act, as it is confined to battle and is not a continuous command. [8]

Some commentators have suggested that terrorists use alternative interpretations of these surahs to justify beheading captives, however there is agreement among scholars that they have a different meaning. [6] Furthermore, according to Rachel Saloom, surah 47:4 goes on to recommend generosity or ransom when waging war, and it refers to a period when Muslims were persecuted and had to fight for their survival. [6]

Beheading in Islamic law

Beheading was the normal method of executing the death penalty under classical Islamic law. [9] [2] It was also, together with hanging, one of the ordinary methods of execution in the Ottoman Empire. [10]

Currently, Saudi Arabia is the only country in the world which uses decapitation within its Islamic legal system. [11] The majority of executions carried out by the Wahhabi government of Saudi Arabia are public beheadings, [12] [13] which usually cause mass gatherings but are not allowed to be photographed or filmed. [14]

According to Amnesty, beheading have been carried out by state authorities in Iran as recently as 2001, [11] [15] [16] but as of 2014 is no longer in use. [15] It is also a legal form of execution in Qatar and Yemen, but the punishment has been suspended in those countries. [11] [17]

Historical occurrences

Modern use by non-state actors

Modern instances of Islamist beheading date at least to the early 1990s.

At the beginning of the Bosnian War (1992-95), anywhere from 500-6,000 foreign volunteers (mostly from the Gulf States, the Levant, and South Asia) travelled to Bosnia (with the support of the Croatian government at the time) to volunteer for jihad and fight alongside the Bosniaks that were being heavily persecuted against. Most came into Bosnia and Herzegovina under the guise of being volunteer aid workers and freelance journalists, complete with fake identification cards and passports. When they arrived in Bosnia, they formed a volunteer brigade called the El-Mudžahid along with some local Bosniak volunteers, and were affiliated with the 3rd Corps (although they weren't officially absorbed into the Bosnian Army, and also had quite a bit of internal conflict and strife amongst the two organizations due to differing views on Islam, culture, and politics). The El-Mudžahid were notorious for their brutal tactics and ferocious fighting on the battlefield, along with how they treated their POW's. There was several cases of decapitation that happened to POW's, along with being tortured severely before-hand. In the most famous case, there is an amateur video (along with a photo) taken of a foreign fighter decapitating and holding the severed head of a Serb POW up to the camera. Before the subsequent video was taken, 2 Serb POW's (Momir Mitrović and Predrag Knežević) were captured, subjected to severe beatings and had their hands and feet bound together for hours on end. After beating and torturing the prisoners for hours, the foreign fighter slit the throats of the two Serb POW's and then proceeded to decapitate them, to which after they held the head of one of the POW's up in "celebration". There also have been many other documented cases of decapitation happening at the hands of El-Mudžahid during the Bosnian War. [23]

In the First Chechen War (1994–96), the beheading of Yevgeny Rodionov, a Russian soldier who refused to convert to Islam, led some within the Russian Orthodox Church to venerate him as a martyr. [24]

In 1997, the Armed Islamic Group of Algeria beheaded 80-200 villagers in Benthalia. [25] [26]

The 2002 beheading of American journalist Daniel Pearl by Al-Qaeda member Khalid Sheikh Mohammed in Pakistan drew international attention enhanced by the release of a beheading video. [27] Revulsion in the Muslim community led al Qaeda to abandon video beheadings. [28] Groups in Iraq led by Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, Tawhid and Jihad and later ISIL, continued the practice. [29] Since 2002, they have been mass circulating beheading videos as a form of terror and propaganda. [2] [3] One of al-Zarqawi's most publicized murders was that of American Nick Berg. [30]

Since 2004 insurgents in South Thailand began to sow fear in attacks where men and women of the local Buddhist minority were beheaded. [31] On 18 July 2005 two terrorists entered a teashop in South Thailand, shot Lek Pongpla, a Buddhist cloth vendor, beheaded him and left the head outside of the shop. [32] The founder of Bridges TV, a Muslim cable channel in originally based in Buffalo, NY that aimed to combat negative perceptions of Muslims that were allegedly dominating mainstream media coverage, beheaded his wife in 2009 in the offices of Bridges TV. [33]

According to Peter R. Neumann, Director of the International Centre for the Study of Radicalisation and Political Violence at King's College London, viral beheading videos are intended, and are at least somewhat effective, as a recruiting tool for jihad among both Western and Middle Eastern youth. [34] [35] Other observers argue that while Al Qaeda initially used beheading as a publicity tool, it later decided that they caused Muslims to recoil from Islamism and that although ISIS/IS is enthusiastically deploying beheading as a tactic in 2014, it, too, may find that the tactic backfires. [36] Timothy R. Furnish, as assistant professor of Islamic History, contrasts the Saudi government executions, conforming to standards that minimize pain, with the non-state actors who have "chosen a slow, torturous sawing method to terrorize the Western audience." [37]

In 2020 a teacher was murdered and beheaded in France, apparently for showing his students cartoons of Muhammad. [38] Similarly Kanhaiya Lal also beheaded by two Islamist on the name of Islam over Nupur Sharma's comments on Prophet Muhammad. [39]

Over fifty people were beheaded by Islamic terrorists in the Cabo Delgado Province of Mozambique in early November 2020. [40]

ISIL beheading incidents

In January 2015, a copy of an ISIL penal code surfaced describing the penalties it enforces in areas under its control, including beheadings. [41] Beheading videos have been frequently posted by ISIL members to social media. [42] [25] Several of the videoed beheadings were conducted by Mohammed Emwazi, whom the media had referred to as "Jihadi John" before his identification.

The beheadings received wide coverage around the world and attracted international condemnation. Political scientist Max Abrahms posited that ISIL may be using well-publicized beheadings as a means of differentiating itself from Al-Qaeda in Iraq (AQI), and identifying itself with Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the al-Qaeda member who beheaded Daniel Pearl. [28] Beheadings represent a small proportion of a larger total of people killed following capture by ISIL. [43]

Condemnation by Muslims

Mainstream Islamic scholars and organizations around the world, as well as other organizations such as Hezbollah, Hamas, Al-Qaeda and the Taliban have condemned the practice. [44] [45]

Impact on war coverage

Some analysts have argued that the beheadings of journalists and aid workers, along with other abductions and executions of independent observers in Syrian war zones, have forced international media to rely exclusively on reporting which is directly or indirectly influenced by rebel and opposition groups and in this way allowed the latter to dictate the coverage of events in areas under their control. [46] [47]

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Al-Qaeda</span> Salafi jihadist organization founded in 1988

Al-Qaeda is a Sunni pan-Islamist militant organization led by Salafi jihadists who self-identify as a vanguard spearheading a global Islamist revolution to unite the Muslim world under a supra-national Islamic state known as the Caliphate. Its members are mostly composed of Arabs, but also include other peoples. Al-Qaeda has mounted attacks on civilian and military targets in various countries, including the 1998 United States embassy bombings, the 2001 September 11 attacks, and the 2002 Bali bombings; it has been designated as a terrorist group by the United Nations Security Council, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), the European Union, and various countries around the world.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Islamic terrorism</span>

Islamic terrorism refers to terrorist acts with religious motivations carried out by fundamentalist militant Islamists and Islamic extremists.

Takfiri is an Arabic and Islamic term denoting a Muslim who excommunicates one of his/her coreligionists, i.e. who accuses another Muslim of being an apostate. Since according to the traditional interpretations of Islamic law (sharīʿa) the punishment for apostasy is the death penalty, and potentially a cause of strife and violence within the Muslim community (Ummah), an ill-founded accusation of takfīr is considered a major forbidden act (haram) in Islamic jurisprudence, with one ḥadīth declaring that one who wrongly declares another Muslim to be an unbeliever is himself an apostate. Takfirism has been called a "minority ideology" which "advocates the killing of other Muslims declared to be unbelievers".

Abu Muhammad al-Maqdisi, or more fully Abu Muhammad Essam al-Maqdisi, is the assumed name of Essam Muhammad Tahir al-Barqawi, an Islamist Jordanian-Palestinian writer. A Qutubi jihadi ideologue, he has popularized many of the most common themes of radical Islam today, like the theological impetus given to the notion of Al Wala' Wal Bara', being the first to declare the Saudi royal family to be apostates or considering democracy a religion, and thus whoever believes in it to be an apostate, but he is best known as the spiritual mentor of Jordanian jihadist Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the initial leader of al-Qaeda in Iraq. However, an ideological and methodical split emerged between Maqdisi and Zarqawi in 2004 due to Zarqawi's takfeer proclamations towards the Shia populations in Iraq. Maqdisi opted for a more cautious approach towards targeted Shia killings, attempting to stop Zarqawi's radical ideological movement before Zarqawi's methods become counter-productive.

A beheading video is a form of propaganda or snuff video in which hostages are graphically decapitated. It is often employed by groups seeking to instill shock or terror into a population. Although beheading has been a widely employed public execution method since the ancient Greeks and Romans, videos of this type only began to arise in 2002 with the beheading of Daniel Pearl and the growth of the Internet in the Information Age, which allowed groups to anonymously publish these videos for public consumption. The beheadings shown in these videos are usually not performed in a "classical" method – decapitating a victim quickly with a blow from a sword or axe – but by the relatively slow and torturous process of slicing and sawing the victim's neck, while still alive, with a knife. Despite the number of groups and ideologies that employ this form of propaganda, the process is overwhelmingly associated with Islamist extremists.

Jihadism is a neologism which is used in reference to "militant Islamic movements that are perceived as existentially threatening to the West" and "rooted in political Islam." It has been applied to various insurgent Islamic extremist, militant Islamist, and terrorist individuals and organizations whose ideologies are based on the Islamic notion of jihad. It has also been applied to various Islamic empires in history, such as the Umayyad Caliphate and the Ottoman Empire, who extensively campaigned against non-Muslim nations in the name of jihad.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Islamic extremism</span> Extreme or radical form of Islam

Islamic extremism, Islamist extremism, or radical Islam, is used in reference to extremist beliefs and behaviors which are associated with the Islamic religion. These are controversial terms with varying definitions, ranging from academic understandings to the idea that all ideologies other than Islam have failed and are inferior to Islam. These terms can also be used in reference to other sects of Islam that do not share such beliefs. Political definitions of Islamic extremism include the one which is used by the government of the United Kingdom, which understands Islamic extremism as any form of Islam that opposes "democracy, the rule of law, individual liberty and mutual respect and tolerance of different faiths and beliefs". In 2019, the U.S. Institute for Peace released an important report on extremism in fragile states that developed recommendations focused on adopting a shared understanding, operationalize a prevention framework, and rallying the international community.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Islamic State</span> Salafi jihadist militant Islamist group

The Islamic State (IS), also known as the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, Islamic State of Iraq and Syria, and by its Arabic acronym Da'ish or Daesh, is a militant Islamist group and former unrecognized quasi-state that follows the Salafi jihadist branch of Sunni Islam. It was founded by Abu Musab al-Zarqawi in 1999 and gained global prominence in 2014, when it drove Iraqi security forces out of key cities during the Anbar campaign, which was followed by its capture of Mosul and the Sinjar massacre. The organization significantly revamped the course of the Syrian civil war when it announced its expansion into Syria in mid-2013 and began conducting ground attacks against both Syrian government forces and Syrian opposition militias. By the end of 2015, it held an area that contained an estimated eight to twelve million people and stretched from western Iraq to eastern Syria, where it enforced its interpretation of Islamic law. ISIL was estimated at the time to have an annual budget of more than US$1 billion and more than 30,000 fighters.

Osama bin Laden, a militant Islamist and reported founder of al-Qaeda, in conjunction with several other Islamic militant leaders, issued two fatawa – in 1996 and then again in 1998—that military personnel from the United States and allied countries until they withdraw support for Israel and withdraw military forces from Islamic countries. He was indicted in United States federal court for his alleged involvement in the 1998 U.S. embassy bombings in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania and Nairobi, Kenya, and was on the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation's Ten Most Wanted Fugitives list until his death.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Salafi jihadism</span> Transnational Sunni Islamist religious-political ideology

Salafi jihadism or jihadist-Salafism is a transnational, hybrid religious-political ideology based on the Sunni sect of Islamism, seeking to establish a global caliphate, characterized by the advocacy for "physical" (military) jihadist and Salafist concepts of returning to what adherents believe to be the "true Islam". The ideological foundation of the movement was laid out by a series of prison-writings of the Egyptian Sunni Islamist theoretician Sayyid Qutb during the 1960s.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Al-Nusra Front</span> Jihadist organization in the Syrian Civil War

Al-Nusra Front or Jabhat al-Nusra, known as Jabhat Fatah al-Sham after July 2016, and also described as al-Qaeda in Syria or al-Qaeda in the Levant, was a Salafist jihadist terrorist organization fighting against Syrian government forces in the Syrian Civil War. Its aim was to establish an Islamic state in the country. The group has changed its name several times and merged with and separated from other groups.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jihadi John</span> Kuwaiti-British militant and ISIL executioner (1988–2015)

Mohammed Emwazi was a British militant of Kuwaiti origin believed to be the person seen in several videos produced by the Islamist extremist group ISIL showing the beheadings of a number of captives in 2014 and 2015. A group of his hostages nicknamed him "John" since he was part of a four-person terrorist cell with English accents whom they called "The Beatles"; the press later began calling him "Jihadi John".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Islamic State beheading incidents</span> Mostly 2014–2015 beheadings by Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant

Beginning in 2014, a number of people from various countries were beheaded by the Islamic State: a radical Sunni Islamist group operating in Iraq and parts of Syria.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Abu Muslim al-Turkmani</span> ISIL deputy leader

Fadel Ahmed Abdullah al-Hiyali, better known by his noms de guerre Abu Muslim al-Turkmani, Haji Mutazz, or Abu Mutaz al-Qurashi, was the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) governor for territories held by the organization in Iraq. He was considered the ISIL second-in-command ; he played a political role of overseeing the local councils and a military role that includes directing operations against opponents of ISIL. His names were also spelt Fadhil Ahmad al-Hayali, and Hajji Mutazz.

The ideology of the Islamic State, sometimes called Islamic Statism, has been described as being a hybrid of Salafism, Salafi jihadism, Sunni Islamist fundamentalism, Wahhabism, and Qutbism. Through its official statement of beliefs originally released by its first leader Abu Omar al-Baghdadi in 2007 and subsequently updated since June 2014, IS defined its creed as "a middle way between the extremist Kharijites and the lax Murji'ites".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sheikh Omar Hadid Brigade</span> Islamist militant group active in the Gaza Strip

The Sheikh Omar Hadid Brigade, also known as Islamic State in Gaza, is an Islamist militant group affiliated with the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant that is active in the Gaza Strip. Its goals have consistently matched those of the Islamic State, in that it seeks to establish the al-Sham caliphate. As such, it opposes all forms of Palestinian nationalism while also supporting the elimination of all Jews and other ethno-religious 'infidels' from the region.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Capital punishment in Islam</span> Overview of the death penalty in Islam

Capital punishment in Islam is traditionally regulated by the Islamic law (sharīʿa), which derived from the Quran, ḥadīth literature, and sunnah. Crimes according to the sharīʿa law which could result in capital punishment include apostasy from Islam, murder, rape, adultery, homosexuality, etc. Death penalty is in use in many Muslim-majority countries, where it is utilised as sharīʿa-prescribed punishment for crimes such as apostasy from Islam, adultery, witchcraft, homosexuality, murder, rape, and publishing pornography.

Starting in the mid-1970s and 1980s, the international propagation of Salafism and Wahhabism within Sunni Islam favored by the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and other Gulf monarchies has achieved what the French political scientist Gilles Kepel defined as a "preeminent position of strength in the global expression of Islam." Until the 1990s Saudi break-up with Muslim Brotherhood, interpretations included not only Salafiyya Islam of Saudi Arabia, but also Islamist/revivalist Islam, and a "hybrid" of the two interpretations.

Collaboration with the Islamic State refers to the cooperation and assistance given by governments, non-state actors, and private individuals to the Islamic State (IS) during the Syrian Civil War, Iraqi Civil War, and Libyan Civil War.

The history of the Islamic State began with the group's foundation in 1999 by Jordanian Salafi jihadist Abu Musab al-Zarqawi under the name Jamāʻat al-Tawḥīd wa-al-Jihād. In a letter published by the US State Department in February 2004, Zarqawi wrote that jihadists should use bombings to start an open sectarian war in Iraq so that Sunnis from other countries would mobilize against the assassinations carried out by Shias, specifically the Badr Organisation, against Ba'athists and Sunnis. The Islamic State would eventually grow to control territory with a population of millions.

References

  1. ↑ "Beheading was last used as a method of execution in 2001....beheading is no longer in use." Cornell Center on the Death Penalty Worldwide, Death Penalty Worldwide: Iran
  2. 1 2 3 Sara Hussein and Rita Daou (3 September 2014). "Jihadists beheadings sow fear, prompt Muslim revulsion". Yahoo! News. Agence France-Presse. Retrieved 3 September 2014.
  3. 1 2 James Watson, Anne Hill (2015). Dictionary of Media and Communication Studies. Bloomsbury Publishing USA. p. 325. ISBN   9781628921489.
  4. ↑ Cliff Roberson, Dilip K. Das (2008). An Introduction to Comparative Legal Models of Criminal Justice. CRC Press. p. 156. ISBN   9781420065930.
  5. ↑ Nina Rastogi (20 February 2009). "Decapitation and the Muslim World". Slate.
  6. 1 2 3 4 Rachel Saloom (2005), "Is Beheading Permissible under Islamic Law – Comparing Terrorist Jihad and the Saudi Arabian Death Penalty", UCLA Journal of International Law and Foreign Affairs, vol. 10, pp. 221–49.
  7. ↑ Nasr, Seyyed Hossein; Dagli, Caner K.; Dakake, Maria Massi; Lumbard, Joseph E.B.; Rustom, Mohammed (2015). The Study Quran: A New Translation and Commentary. HarperCollins (Kindle edition). p. Commentary to 8:12, Loc. 23676–23678.
  8. 1 2 Nasr, Seyyed Hossein; Dagli, Caner K.; Dakake, Maria Massi; Lumbard, Joseph E.B.; Rustom, Mohammed (2015). The Study Quran: A New Translation and Commentary. HarperCollins (Kindle edition). p. Commentary to 47:4, Loc. 59632–59635.
  9. ↑ Rudolph Peters (2006). Crime and Punishment in Islamic Law: Theory and Practice from the Sixteenth to the Twenty-First Century . Cambridge University Press. p.  36.
  10. ↑ Rudolph Peters (2006). Crime and Punishment in Islamic Law: Theory and Practice from the Sixteenth to the Twenty-First Century . Cambridge University Press. p.  101.
  11. 1 2 3 Hood, Roger; Hoyle, Carolyn (2015). The Death Penalty: A Worldwide Perspective. Oxford University Press. p. 178. ISBN   978-0-19-870173-6.
  12. ↑ Janine di Giovanni, "When It Comes to Beheadings, ISIS has Nothing Over Saudi Arabia", Newsweek , 14 October 2014.
  13. ↑ Russell Goldman, "Saudi Arabia's Beheading of a Nanny Followed Strict Procedures", ABC News, 11 January 2013.
  14. ↑ Justine Drennen (20 January 2015). "Saudi Arabia's Beheadings Are Public, but It Doesn't Want Them Publicized". Foreign Policy Magazine .
  15. 1 2 "Death Penalty Database: Iran", deathpenaltyworldwide.org, Cornell Law School. Retrieved 13 June 2016.
  16. ↑ "Iran / death penalty A state terror policy" (PDF). International Federation for Human Rights. 16 March 2010. p. 38. Retrieved 5 April 2016.
  17. ↑ Kronenwetter, Michael (2001). Capital Punishment: A Reference Handbook. ABC-CLIO. ISBN   9781576074329.
  18. ↑ Watt, W. Montgomery (2012). "Ḳurayẓa". In P. Bearman; Th. Bianquis; C.E. Bosworth; E. van Donzel; W.P. Heinrichs (eds.). Encyclopaedia of Islam (2nd ed.). Brill. doi:10.1163/1573-3912_islam_SIM_4535.
  19. ↑ Newman, Sharan (2007). The Real History Behind the Templars. Penguin. p. 133. ISBN   978-0425215333.
  20. ↑ Bunson, Matthew. "How the 800 Martyrs of Otranto Saved Rome". Catholic Answers. Archived from the original on 17 December 2013. Retrieved 11 February 2012.
  21. ↑ Nancy Bisaha (2004). Creating East And West: Renaissance Humanists And the Ottoman Turks. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press. p. 158.
  22. ↑ Byron Farwell, Prisoners of the Mahdi (New York & London: W.W. Norton & Company, 1989), pp. 156-7.
  23. ↑ "Mujahideen Fighters ‘Cut off Bosnian Serb Soldiers’ Heads'", Balkan Insight, 21 April 2016.
  24. ↑ "Boy soldier who died for faith made 'saint'", The Daily Telegraph, 24 January 2004.
  25. 1 2 "Celso, Anthony N. "Jihadist Organizational Failure and Regeneration: the Transcendental Role of Takfiri Violence."" (PDF). Retrieved 4 March 2015.
  26. ↑ Steven Mufson (4 July 2004). "A Brutal Act's Long History". The Washington Post.
  27. ↑ "Online NewsHour Update: Pakistan Convicts Four Men in Pearl Murder". PBS. 15 July 2002. Retrieved 26 September 2013.
  28. 1 2 Taylor, Adam (21 August 2014). "From Daniel Pearl to James Foley: The modern tactic of Islamist beheadings". Chicago Tribune . Archived from the original on 14 September 2014. Retrieved 21 September 2014.
  29. ↑ "The Terrorist as Auteur"
  30. ↑ "'Zarqawi' beheaded US man in Iraq". BBC News. 13 May 2004.
  31. ↑ "Reuters - Thai Buddhist beheaded, another shot in Muslim south". Reuters. 15 June 2009. Archived from the original on 24 September 2015. Retrieved 28 November 2014.
  32. ↑ "Beheadings Raise Tensions in Thailand". Archived from the original on 11 December 2014. Retrieved 1 December 2014.
  33. ↑ "Beheading Moderate Islam". 26 February 2009.
  34. ↑ From Daniel Pearl to James Foley: The modern tactic of Islamist beheadings, Adam Taylor, 21 August 2014, The Washington Post/Chicago Tribune.
  35. ↑ Islamic State steps up propaganda videos, beheading another captive, Videotaped atrocities in an attempt to spread fear are nothing new for IS. But it appears to be stepping up its propaganda as world powers start to engage in halting its spread, Dan Murphy, 29 August 2014, The Christian Science Monitor.
  36. ↑ Why Beheading Videos Are Back With ISIS, and Why They Went Away, Katie Zavadski, 21 August 2014, New York.
  37. ↑ Timothy R. Furnish (2005). "Beheading in the Name of Islam". Middle East Quarterly. 12 (2): 51–57.
  38. ↑ "Suspect in teacher's beheading in France was Chechen teen". Associated Press.
  39. ↑ "Udaipur murder: Who was Kanhaiya Lal? Why was Kanhaiya Lal killed?". DNA India. Retrieved 10 July 2022.
  40. ↑ "Militant Islamists 'behead more than 50' in Mozambique". Yahoo. 26 August 2018. Retrieved 10 November 2020.
  41. ↑ Saul, Heather (22 January 2015). "Isis publishes penal code listing amputation, crucifixion and stoning as punishments - and vows to vigilantly enforce it". The Independent. London.
  42. ↑ "Staffer, Crisis, and Jake Hume. "Balance of Powers: Syria." (2014)" (PDF). Retrieved 4 March 2015.
  43. ↑ Cumming-Bruce, Nick (2 October 2014). "5,500 Iraqis Killed Since Islamic State Began Its Military Drive, U.N. Says". The New York Times. Retrieved 16 August 2015.
  44. ↑ Alia Brahami (2010). Sibylle Scheipers (ed.). Terrorist Beheadings: Politics and Reciprocity. Vol. Prisoners in War. Oxford University Press. p. 551. ISBN   9780191610387.
  45. ↑ "Hezbollah, Hamas denounce beheadings". Associated Press/NBC News. 13 May 2004. Retrieved 10 August 2016.
  46. ↑ Thembisa Fakude (10 December 2014). "Arab World Journalism in a Post-Beheading Era" (PDF). Al Jazeera Center for Studies. Archived from the original (PDF) on 23 March 2019. Retrieved 20 January 2017.
  47. ↑ Patrick Cockburn (16 December 2016). "There's more propaganda than news coming out of Aleppo this week". The Independent.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.