Beheading in Islamism

Countries with decapitation as a legal penalty

  In law but no longer in use

  In law and in use

Beheading is a formerly widespread execution method that has gradually been banned throughout the world but remains used or advocated for by some adherents of Islamism and Islamic extremism. Beheading is a legal form of execution in Iran, Qatar and Yemen, but the punishment has been suspended in those countries. The majority of executions carried out by the Wahhabi government of Saudi Arabia are public beheadings, which usually cause mass gatherings but are not allowed to be photographed or filmed. Since 2002, however, jihadist groups such as al-Qaeda and the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant have been mass circulating beheading videos as a form of terror and propaganda.^[1]

Scriptural justification

According to historian Timothy Furnish, some Islamist groups, including Abu Musab al-Zarqawi's Tawhid wal-Jihad (Unity and Jihad) and Abu Abdallah al-Hasan bin Mahmud's Ansar al-Sunna (Defenders of [Prophetic] Tradition), use Qur'anic passages to justify beheading. Sura 47 reads: "When you encounter the unbelievers on the battlefield, strike off their heads until you have crushed them completely; then bind the prisoners tightly." According to Furnish, the translation of kāfaru is fairly straightforward: "those who blaspheme/are irreligious", while the meaning of darb ar-riqab is less clear. Darb can be translated as "striking or hitting" and ar-riqab can mean "necks, slaves, persons". However, again according to Furnish, most scholars translate this sura: "When you meet the unbelievers, smite their necks."^[2]

Muhammad has been described as ordering beheadings. The Jewish tribe of the Banu Qurayza is described in various hadith. 800-900 men from this tribe were beheaded on the orders of Muhammad:

The Jews were made to come down, and Allah’s Messenger imprisoned them. Then the Prophet went out into the marketplace of Medina (it is still its marketplace today), and he had trenches dug in it. He sent for the Jewish men and had them beheaded in those trenches. They were brought out to him in batches. They numbered 800 to 900 boys and men. As they were being taken in small groups to the Prophet, they said to one another, ‘What do you think will be done to us?’ Someone said, 'Do you not understand. On each occasion do you not see that the summoner never stops? He does not discharge anyone. And that those who are taken away do not come back. By God, it is death!' The affair continued until the Messenger of Allah had finished with them all.

—Al-Tabari, Vol. 8, p. 35

Narrated Abu-Sa'id al-Khudri: When the tribe of Banu Qurayza was ready to accept Sad's judgment, Allah's Apostle sent for Sad who was near to him. Sad came, riding a donkey and when he came near, Allah's Apostle said (to the Ansar), "Stand up for your leader." Then Sad came and sat beside Allah's Apostle who said to him. "These people are ready to accept your judgment." Sad said, "I give the judgment that their warriors should be killed and their children and women should be taken as prisoners." The Prophet then remarked, "O Sad! You have judged amongst them with (or similar to) the judgment of the King Allah."

—Sahih al-Bukhari, 4:52:280 see also Sahih al-Bukhari, 5:58:148 Sahih al-Bukhari, 8:74:278 Sahih Muslim, 19:4368 Sahih Muslim, 19:4369

Narrated Aisha: No woman of Banu Qurayza was killed except one. She was with me, talking and laughing on her back and belly (extremely), while the Apostle of Allah (peace be upon him) was killing her people with the swords. Suddenly a man called her name: Where is so-and-so? She said: I I asked: What is the matter with you? She said: I did a new act. She said: The man took her and beheaded her. She said: I will not forget that she was laughing extremely although she knew that she would be killed.

—Sunan Abu Dawood, 14:2665

Historic background

Saladin personally beheaded Raynald of Châtillon, a knight who served in the Second Crusade after the Battle of Hattin. This was because Raynald had engaged in perfidy, and broken a truce to attack caravans of Muslims civilians, including one in which Saladin's sister was returning from pilgrimage.^[3]

Beheadings as terror tactic

Modern instances of Islamist beheading date at least to the First Chechen War (1994–96), and to the beheading of Yevgeny Rodionov, a Russian soldier who refused to convert to Islam, whose subsequent beheading has led some within the Russian Orthodox Church to venerate him as a martyr.^[4]

The 2002 beheading of American journalist Daniel Pearl by Al-Qaeda member Khalid Sheikh Mohammed in Pakistan drew international attention, attention enhanced by the intensity of hatred for Western culture and Jews expressed by the murderers, and by the release of a beheading video.^[5]

Beheadings have emerged as a terror tactic in Iraq since 2003.^[6] Civilians have borne the brunt of the beheadings, although U.S. and Iraqi military personnel have also been targeted. After kidnapping the victim, the kidnappers typically make some sort of demand of the government of the hostage's nation and give a time limit for the demand to be carried out, often 72 hours. Beheading is often threatened if the government fails to heed the wishes of the hostage takers. Frequently the crude beheadings are videotaped and made available on the Internet. One of the most publicized executions of an American was that of Nick Berg.^[7][8][9]

Since 2004 insurgents in South Thailand began to sow fear in attacks where men and women of the local Buddhist minority were beheaded.^[10]

Motivation

As means to gain stature and publicity from shock and horror

Historian Timothy Furnish and others have suggested that beheading is a "tactic" used by terrorist groups "to maximize shock and the press reaction upon which they thrive."^[2][11][12] However, Western observers also perceive use of beheading by Al Qaeda as having backfired, leading to the group's decline as Muslims recoiled from its brutality.^[13]

On 18 July 2005 two militants entered a teashop in South Thailand, shot Lek Pongpla, a Buddhist cloth vendor, beheaded him and left the head outside of the shop.^[14]

As a recruitment tool

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 as and are at least somewhat effective as a recruiting tool for jihad among both Western and Middle Eastern youth.^[15][16] 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.^[17]

To discourage opposition

Analysts interpret actions like the August 2014 beheading of a Peshmerga soldier as an intimidation technique, calculated by ISIL to discourage Kurds and Western governments from fighting Islamist militants.^[16]

Condemnation by Muslim authorities

Muslim scholars and Islamic authorities across the globe, such as the U.S. Council of Muslim Organizations and The Muslim Council of Britain have condemned Islamist beheading.^[18]

See also

• ISIL beheading incidents

References