Extremist Salafi jihadist groups 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.[1][2] Their actions have been condemned by militant and other terrorist groups, as well as by mainstream Islamic scholars and organizations.

History

Modern instances of beheadings by Salafi jihadist groups date at least to the early 1990s.

1990s

At the beginning of the Bosnian War (1992–95), anywhere from 500 to 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 were 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.[3]

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.[4]

In 1997, the Armed Islamic Group of Algeria beheaded 80-200 villagers in Benthalia.[5][6]

2000s

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.[7] Revulsion in the Muslim community led al Qaeda to abandon video beheadings.[8] Groups in Iraq led by Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, Tawhid and Jihad and later ISIL, continued the practice.[9] Since 2002, they have been mass circulating beheading videos as a form of terror and propaganda.[1][2] One of al-Zarqawi's most publicized murders was that of American Nick Berg.[10]

Since 2004 insurgents in South Thailand began to sow fear in attacks where men and women of the local Buddhist minority were beheaded.[11] 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.[12] 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.[13]

2010s

In January 2015, a copy of an ISIL penal code surfaced describing the penalties it enforces in areas under its control, including beheadings.[14] Beheading videos have been frequently posted by ISIL members to social media.[15][5] 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.[8] Beheadings represent a small proportion of a larger total of people killed following capture by ISIL.[16]

2020s

In 2020 a teacher was murdered and beheaded in France, apparently for showing his students cartoons of Muhammad.[17] Similarly Kanhaiya Lal also beheaded by two Islamist on the name of Islam over Nupur Sharma's comments on Prophet Muhammad.[18]

Over fifty people were beheaded by Islamic terrorists in the Cabo Delgado Province of Mozambique in early November 2020.[19]

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.[20][21]

Academic perspectives

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.[22][23] 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.[24] 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."[25]

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.[26][27]

See also

References

  1. 1 2 Sara Hussein and Rita Daou (3 September 2014). "Jihadists beheadings sow fear, prompt Muslim revulsion". Yahoo! News. Agence France-Presse. Archived from the original on 27 July 2019. Retrieved 3 September 2014.
  2. 1 2 James Watson, Anne Hill (2015). Dictionary of Media and Communication Studies. Bloomsbury Publishing USA. p. 325. ISBN 9781628921489.
  3. ↑ Archived 2023-03-30 at the Wayback Machine "Mujahideen Fighters ‘Cut off Bosnian Serb Soldiers’ Heads'", Balkan Insight, 21 April 2016.
  4. ↑ Archived 2019-07-27 at the Wayback Machine "Boy soldier who died for faith made 'saint'", The Daily Telegraph, 24 January 2004.
  5. 1 2 "Celso, Anthony N. "Jihadist Organizational Failure and Regeneration: the Transcendental Role of Takfiri Violence."" (PDF). Archived (PDF) from the original on 2018-12-12. Retrieved 2015-03-04.
  6. ↑ Steven Mufson (4 July 2004). "A Brutal Act's Long History". The Washington Post. Archived from the original on 7 September 2018. Retrieved 9 June 2023.
  7. ↑ "Online NewsHour Update: Pakistan Convicts Four Men in Pearl Murder". PBS. 15 July 2002. Archived from the original on 4 September 2017. Retrieved 26 September 2013.
  8. 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.
  9. ↑ Ignatieff, Michael (November 14, 2004). "The Terrorist as Auteur". The New York Times. Archived from the original on May 28, 2015. Retrieved June 9, 2023 – via NYTimes.com.
  10. ↑ "'Zarqawi' beheaded US man in Iraq". BBC News. 13 May 2004. Archived from the original on 27 July 2019. Retrieved 9 June 2023.
  11. ↑ "Reuters - Thai Buddhist beheaded, another shot in Muslim south". Reuters. 2009-06-15. Archived from the original on 24 September 2015. Retrieved 28 November 2014.
  12. ↑ "Beheadings Raise Tensions in Thailand". Archived from the original on 11 December 2014. Retrieved 1 December 2014.
  13. ↑ "Beheading Moderate Islam". 26 February 2009. Archived from the original on 27 July 2019. Retrieved 9 June 2023.
  14. ↑ 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. Archived from the original on 25 September 2015. Retrieved 9 June 2023.
  15. ↑ "Staffer, Crisis, and Jake Hume. "Balance of Powers: Syria." (2014)" (PDF). Archived (PDF) from the original on 2018-09-29. Retrieved 2015-03-04.
  16. ↑ Cumming-Bruce, Nick (2 October 2014). "5,500 Iraqis Killed Since Islamic State Began Its Military Drive, U.N. Says". The New York Times. Archived from the original on 27 July 2019. Retrieved 16 August 2015.
  17. ↑ "Suspect in teacher's beheading in France was Chechen teen". Associated Press News. Archived from the original on 2020-10-17. Retrieved 2023-06-09.
  18. ↑ "Udaipur murder: Who was Kanhaiya Lal? Why was Kanhaiya Lal killed?". DNA India. Archived from the original on 2022-07-10. Retrieved 2022-07-10.
  19. ↑ "Militant Islamists 'behead more than 50' in Mozambique". Yahoo. 2018-08-26. Archived from the original on 2020-11-10. Retrieved 2020-11-10.
  20. ↑ Alia Brahami (2010). Sibylle Scheipers (ed.). Terrorist Beheadings: Politics and Reciprocity. Vol. Prisoners in War. Oxford University Press. p. 551. ISBN 9780191610387.
  21. ↑ "Hezbollah, Hamas denounce beheadings". Associated Press/NBC News. 13 May 2004. Archived from the original on 6 March 2017. Retrieved 10 August 2016.
  22. ↑ Archived 2014-09-14 at the Wayback Machine From Daniel Pearl to James Foley: The modern tactic of Islamist beheadings, Adam Taylor, 21 August 2014, The Washington Post/Chicago Tribune.
  23. ↑ Archived 2019-07-27 at the Wayback Machine 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.
  24. ↑ Archived 2017-04-24 at the Wayback Machine Why Beheading Videos Are Back With ISIS, and Why They Went Away, Katie Zavadski, 21 August 2014, New York.
  25. ↑ Timothy R. Furnish (2005). "Beheading in the Name of Islam". Middle East Quarterly. 12 (2): 51–57.
  26. ↑ 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.
  27. ↑ Patrick Cockburn (16 December 2016). "There's more propaganda than news coming out of Aleppo this week". The Independent. Archived from the original on 27 July 2019. Retrieved 9 June 2023.
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