Category talk:Decapitated terrorist victims

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[edit] History of this category

This category was once called Modern victims of Islamic decapitation (i.e., persons whose beheading was motivated by Islamic extremism). On June 30, 2006, it was renamed Decapitated terrorist victims[1] .

With the renaming, the category has become more general:

• Because the word "modern" was dropped, it is now presumably acceptible to include decapitation victims from ancient times.
• Because the word "Islamic" was dropped, it is now acceptable to include persons whose decapitation was motivated by something other than Islamic extremism.

[edit] Criticsm of the renaming

The renaming of June 30, 2006 was controversial, and has unquestionably changed the essential character of the category. Persons arguing against renaming or deletion wrote,

• "History books will no doubt mention persons such as Daniel Pearl and Nick Berg on the same page, because this is a valid category. It is an unpleasant fact that certain persons objectively fit into this category; thus, it does conform to NPOV. I would also support the existence of categories such as 'Modern victims of Christian decapitation' and 'Modern victims of Buddhist decapitation,' if there were any persons who could be placed in those categories."
• "Don't 'dumb down' this category."
• "Fundamentalist islamic terrorists are the common thread here and sidestepping it completely with 'Category:Decapitated terrorist victims' is willful ignorance."
• "The simple fact is that there are indeed a number of modern Islamic decapitations taking place. To deny this is foolish."
• "Let's not make the category less descriptive just because we're too politically correct to face facts."
• "The category is entirely factual, and there are no good reasons to delete it."
• "For those expressing shock at the name of this category, I urge you to look into the matter more closely. The Quran clearly has provisions in it for 'striking the neck' (decapitating) adversaries."
• "We must include 'Islamic' because all of the killings were committed by Islamic zealots. If we leave that out, we are sugar coating this."'

[edit] Needs a new title

My points are two-fold:

1) It would probably be more correct to call them "victims of beheading" rather than "victims of decapitation." These incidents are almost exclusively referred to as "beheading" in the media, and "beheading" implies a method of murder (cutting/hacking/sawing/chopping while the vic is alive) whereas "decapitation" implies an accidental death (ie, car crash) or the post-mortem removal of the head.

2) We *have* to mention that these acts were carried out by Muslim fanatics. Anything less would be sugar-coating it. Maybe we could call it "beheaded victims of Islamists" or something similar. If that offends your PC sensibilities, feel free to create a category for "beheaded victims of Christians" or what have you. Roland Deschain 03:37, 17 November 2006 (UTC)