Beheadings get maximum effect

2004-06-23 20:36

Anne-Beatrice Clasmann

Cairo - Although the result in both cases is the death of an innocent civilian, the beheading of a hostage instils a still greater sense of horror than a gunshot in an open street.

This psychological effect is possibly a very important reason why decapitation is used by fanatics such as the al-Tawhid wa al-Jahid group (who killed South Korean Kim Sun Il and American Nick Berg) and the al-Qaeda related group that murdered American Paul Johnson in Saudi Arabia.

Beheading hostages could not be taken serious in its use as pressure to implement often unrealistic political demands.

Even if the Saudi Arabian leadership had declared itself ready to release dozens of detained extremists, the second request by Johnson's kidnappers - the withdrawal of all non-Muslims from the Arabian Peninsula - would be nearly impracticable.

A second reason also exists for the terrorist preference for the sword over the bullet.

Beheading was a method in the battle against "infidels" and as method of execution in several writings from the early days of Islam, and the extremists hold great worth in presenting their actions as legitimate in terms of Islamic law.

Or as it says in a "philosophy of holy war", found in the introduction to an Islamic extremist internet website: "The Imam (preacher) has the choice of taking the heads (of adult male captives) or chopping off an arm or a leg."

As such, Arab governments and Islamic clerics who over the past days have condemned the killing of hostages are not only confronting the methods of terrorists. They find that they must argue that Islam in general does not allow the killing of captives.

The terrorists are even denied legitimacy even by those who accept the extremist interpretation that foreign civilians in Saudi Arabia or in Iraq can be taken as hostages.

"Islam calls for justice and demands the showing of sympathy and mercy in the treatment of captives," say clerics in Cairo's prestigious al-Azhar Islamic institute.

"We are ashamed, because these terrorists have committed these abhorrent and inhuman acts in the name of our religion and culture," declared Sheikh Abdullah bin Said al-Nahyan, information minister of the United Arab Emirates.

The Jordanian government spoke of the beheading as a "barbaric act" and mentioning that Abu Mussab al-Sarkawi whose group is being held responsible for the killing of the South Korean, has already been sentenced to death in absentia in Jordan. - Sapa-dpa

- SAPA