Beheading in Islam

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.

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 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]

• The Islamic followers of Mohammed executed the men of the Jewish tribe of Banu Qurayza for an alleged treaty violation, with several hundred killed in 627.[18]
• After the Battle of Hattin (1187), Saladin personally beheaded Raynald of Châtillon; a Christian knight who served in the Second Crusade and organized attacks against Islam's two holiest cities.[19]
• Forces of the Ottoman Empire invaded and laid siege to the city of Otranto and its citadel in 1480. According to a traditional account, after capture, more than 800 of its inhabitants – who refused to convert to Islam – were beheaded. They are known as the "Martyrs of Otranto".[20] Historicity of this account has been questioned by modern scholars.[21]
• Muhammad Ahmad declared himself Mahdi in 1880 and led Jihad against the Ottoman Empire and their British allies. He and his followers beheaded opponents, Christian and Muslim alike including the British general Charles Gordon.[22]

Modern instances of Islamist beheading date at least to the 1990s. In 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.[23] In 1997, the Armed Islamic Group of Algeria beheaded 80-200 villagers in Benthalia.[24][25]

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.[26] Revulsion in the Muslim community led al Qaeda to abandon video beheadings.[27] Groups in Iraq led by Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, Tawhid and Jihad and later ISIL, continued the practice.[28] 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.[29]

Since 2004 insurgents in South Thailand began to sow fear in attacks where men and women of the local Buddhist minority were beheaded.[30] 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.[31] 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.[32]

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.[33][34] 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.[35] 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."[36]

• Islamic terrorism
• Buddhism and violence
• Capital punishment in Saudi Arabia