|
Decapitation is Islamic tradition
EFL. These people are trapped in the 7th Century. Berg is, of course, not the first to be murdered in such a gruesome manner. Nor, alas, is he likely to be the last. For the cutting of heads (in Arabic, qata al-raas) has been the favorite form of Islamist execution for more than 14 centuries. In the famous battles of early Islam, with the Prophet personally in command of the army of believers, the heads of enemy generals and soldiers were often cut off and put on sticks to be shown around villages and towns as a warning to potential adversaries. In 680, the Prophetâs favorite grandson, Hussein bin Ali, had his head chopped off in Karbala, central Iraq, by the soldiers of the Caliph Yazid. The severed head was put on a silver platter and sent to Damascus, Yazidâs capital, before being sent further to Cairo for inspection by the Governor of Egypt. The Caliphâs soldiers also cut off the heads of all of Husseinâs 71 male companions, including the one-year-old baby boy Ali-Asghar. Islamic history is full of chopped heads being sent around by special delivery to reassure rulers, to terrorize foes and to impress the common folks. Iranâs Khomeinist mullahs also love severed heads. In April 1980, Ayatollah Sadeq Khalkhali wanted to cut off the heads of eight American soldiers who had died in a failed hostage rescue mission in the Iranian desert. He was prevented from doing so thanks to a last minute intervention by the Swiss government. In 1986, the Khomeinist mullahs cut off the head of William Buckley, the CIAâs Beirut station chief who had been kidnapped by the Hezbollah and sent to Tehran for interrogation. One Algerian specialist in slitting throats and cutting off heads was known as Momo le Nain (Muhammad the Midget). He was a 20-plus-year-old butcherâs apprentice recruited by the GIA for the purpose of cutting off peopleâs heads. In 1996 in Ben-Talha, a suburb of the capital Algiers, Momo cut off a record 86 heads in one night, including the heads of more than a dozen children. Chopping heads is also practiced by Muslim militants on the Indonesian island of Borneo as a means of driving the Christian majority out. It has been effective in forcing nearly half of the islandâs Christians packing. Lots more chopping in the article. Read it all. Posted by: RWV 2004-05-15 |
| http://www.rantburg.com/poparticle.php?ID=33069 |