Although CNN sage Marc Lamont Hill is probably right — he famously, and hilariously, observed after the “workplace” beheading of a woman in Oklahoma that “people behead for all sorts of reasons” — a disproportionate number of decapitations appear to share a common theme: They follow perceived slights to the religion of Islam. The insults deemed worthy of this rather extreme form of retaliation, moreover, would seem rather trivial to the impartial observer.
Consider the latest beheading reported by the British tabloid the Mirror:
A street magician had his head chopped off by Islamic State thugs for entertaining passers-by with his tricks.
The talented performer, loved by children, was dragged away while performing in the jihadists’ “capital” of Raqqa in Syria.
He was later beheaded in a public square after his harmless stunts, similar to those of Bradford-born superstar Dynamo, were deemed to insult Islam.
[…]
The street magician was arrested by IS thugs during an impromptu ‘show’ on a street corner as he tried to bring some much-needed cheer to the Syrian city.
He was beheaded in public in a square after the religious fanatics branded his harmless tricks as anti-Islam and an insult to God because they created ‘illusions and falsehood’.
They denounced the terrified magician’s show as haram — or forbidden by the Koran — because it was idle entertainment and kept locals from praying and attending the mosque.
Lest you think these ritualistic executions couldn’t get any more barbaric, an ISIS fighter captured by Kurdish forces last month confided an interview that one of his comrades in arms “deliberately uses a knife which is not the sharpest knife because he wants the beheading process to take longer and to inflict more pain and more suffering on his victim.” Nice touch, no?
Of course, not all murders carried out in the name of Allah are beheadings. Some are performed using comparatively civilized methods such as firearms. That was the instrument of death used Monday in Paris to “punish” cartoonists at the French satirical publication Charlie Hebdo for their mockery of the prophet Muhammad.
Related Articles
- CNN’s Marc Lamont Hill: ‘People behead for all sorts of reasons’
- ISIS fighter: We use dull knives in beheadings to inflict greater pain
- Photo of baby about to be beheaded found on phone of dead ISIS fanatic in Kobani
- French gun laws hampered efforts to repel Islamic terrorists in Paris (Video)
- A deeper look at Charlie Hebdo’s religious offenses
- BREAKING: 12 dead in shooting at offices of French comedy mag that satirized Islam *UPDATE*
