Ajay Kumar at 15:59, 20 September 2023

2023-09-20T15:59:43Z

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{{Short description|Execution in Islamicate jurisdictions}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=July 2022}}
{{Islam}}
[[Decapitation|Beheading]] was a standard method of execution in pre-modern [[Islamic law]]. By the end of the 20th century, its use had been abandoned in most countries. Beheading is still a legal method of execution in Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and Yemen. In Iran, beheading was last used in 2001 according to [[Amnesty International]], but it is no longer in use.<ref>"Beheading was last used as a method of execution in 2001....beheading is no longer in use." Cornell Center on the Death Penalty Worldwide, [https://www.deathpenaltyworldwide.org/country-search-post.cfm?country=iran Death Penalty Worldwide: Iran] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190727215646/http://www.deathpenaltyworldwide.org/country-search-post.cfm?country=iran |date=27 July 2019 }}</ref> In recent decades, extremist [[List of Salafi jihadist groups|Salafi jihadist groups]] have used beheading as a method of killing captives and terror tactic.

==Beheading: background and context==
{{main|Decapitation}}
The use of beheading for punishment continued well into the 20th century in both Islamic and non-Islamic nations.<ref>{{cite book|page=156|author=Cliff Roberson, Dilip K. Das|title=An Introduction to Comparative Legal Models of Criminal Justice|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=pQLLBQAAQBAJ|publisher=CRC Press|year=2008|isbn=9781420065930}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/explainer/2009/02/decapitation_and_the_muslim_world.html|title=Decapitation and the Muslim World|author=Nina Rastogi|date=20 February 2009|work=Slate|access-date=10 August 2016|archive-date=27 December 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171227221213/http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/explainer/2009/02/decapitation_and_the_muslim_world.html|url-status=live}}</ref> When done properly, it was once considered a humane and honorable method of execution.

==Beheading in Islamic scripture==

There is a debate as to whether the Quran discusses beheading.<ref name = saloom>Rachel Saloom (2005), "Is Beheading Permissible under Islamic Law – Comparing Terrorist Jihad and the Saudi Arabian Death Penalty", ''UCLA Journal of International Law and Foreign Affairs'', vol. 10, pp. 221–49.</ref> Two surahs could potentially be used to provide a justification for beheading in the context of [[jihad|war]]:<ref name = saloom/>

<blockquote>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)<ref>{{Cite web |title=Surah Al-Anfal - 1-75 |url=https://quran.com/al-anfal |access-date=2023-08-30 |website=Quran.com |language=en}}</ref></blockquote>
<blockquote>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)<ref>{{Cite web |title=Surah Muhammad - 1-38 |url=https://quran.com/muhammad |access-date=2023-08-30 |website=Quran.com |language=en}}</ref></blockquote>

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.<ref>{{Cite book|author=Nasr, Seyyed Hossein |author2=Dagli, Caner K. |author3=Dakake, Maria Massi |author4=Lumbard, Joseph E.B. |author5=Rustom, Mohammed | year=2015 | title=The Study Quran: A New Translation and Commentary |publisher=HarperCollins (Kindle edition)|page=Commentary to 8:12, Loc. 23676–23678}}</ref> [[Al-Qurtubi]] reads the reference to striking at the necks as conveying the gravity and severity of the fighting.<ref name=SQ47>{{Cite book|author=Nasr, Seyyed Hossein |author2=Dagli, Caner K. |author3=Dakake, Maria Massi |author4=Lumbard, Joseph E.B. |author5=Rustom, Mohammed | year=2015 | title=The Study Quran: A New Translation and Commentary |publisher=HarperCollins (Kindle edition)|page=Commentary to 47:4, Loc. 59632–59635}}</ref> 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.<ref name=SQ47/>

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.<ref name=saloom/> 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.<ref name = saloom/>

== Beheading in Islamic law ==

Beheading was the normal method of executing the death penalty under classical Islamic law.<ref>{{cite book|author=Rudolph Peters|title=Crime and Punishment in Islamic Law: Theory and Practice from the Sixteenth to the Twenty-First Century|url=https://archive.org/details/crimepunishmenti00pete_738|url-access=limited|publisher=Cambridge University Press|year=2006|page=[https://archive.org/details/crimepunishmenti00pete_738/page/n48 36]}}</ref><ref name="Sara Hussein and Rita Daou"/> It was also, together with hanging, one of the ordinary methods of execution in the [[Ottoman Empire]].<ref>{{cite book|author=Rudolph Peters|title=Crime and Punishment in Islamic Law: Theory and Practice from the Sixteenth to the Twenty-First Century|url=https://archive.org/details/crimepunishmenti00pete_738|url-access=limited|publisher=Cambridge University Press|year=2006|page=[https://archive.org/details/crimepunishmenti00pete_738/page/n113 101]}}</ref>

Currently, Saudi Arabia is the only country in the world which uses decapitation within its Islamic legal system.<ref name="HoodHoyle2015"/> The majority of executions carried out by the [[Wahhabi movement|Wahhabi]] government of [[Capital punishment in Saudi Arabia|Saudi Arabia]] are [[Public executions in Saudi Arabia#Beheading|public beheadings]],<ref>Janine di Giovanni, [http://www.newsweek.com/2014/10/24/when-it-comes-beheadings-isis-has-nothing-over-saudi-arabia-277385.html "When It Comes to Beheadings, ISIS has Nothing Over Saudi Arabia"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141016223514/http://www.newsweek.com/2014/10/24/when-it-comes-beheadings-isis-has-nothing-over-saudi-arabia-277385.html |date=16 October 2014 }}, ''[[Newsweek (magazine)|Newsweek]]'', 14 October 2014.</ref><ref>Russell Goldman, [https://abcnews.go.com/US/saudi-arabias-beheading-nanny-strict-procedures/story?id=18182757 "Saudi Arabia's Beheading of a Nanny Followed Strict Procedures"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190718161820/https://abcnews.go.com/US/saudi-arabias-beheading-nanny-strict-procedures/story?id=18182757 |date=18 July 2019 }}, ABC News, 11 January 2013.</ref> which usually cause mass gatherings but are [[Censorship in Saudi Arabia|not allowed to be photographed or filmed]].<ref>{{cite news|url=https://foreignpolicy.com/2015/01/20/saudi-arabias-beheadings-are-public-but-it-doesnt-want-them-publicized/|title=Saudi Arabia's Beheadings Are Public, but It Doesn't Want Them Publicized|date=20 January 2015|work=[[Foreign Policy Magazine]]|author=Justine Drennen|access-date=5 March 2017|archive-date=27 July 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190727215646/https://foreignpolicy.com/2015/01/20/saudi-arabias-beheadings-are-public-but-it-doesnt-want-them-publicized/|url-status=live}}</ref>

According to Amnesty, beheading have been carried out by state authorities in [[Capital punishment in Iran|Iran]] as recently as 2001,<ref name="HoodHoyle2015"/><ref name = DPD/><ref name="fidh.org">{{cite web|title=Iran / death penalty A state terror policy|url=https://www.fidh.org/IMG/pdf/Rapport_Iran_final.pdf|publisher=[[International Federation for Human Rights]]|access-date=5 April 2016|page=38|date=16 March 2010|archive-date=19 April 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190419061540/https://www.fidh.org/IMG/pdf/Rapport_Iran_final.pdf|url-status=live}}</ref> but as of 2014 is no longer in use.<ref name = DPD>[http://www.deathpenaltyworldwide.org/country-search-post.cfm?country=iran "Death Penalty Database: Iran"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190407144305/https://www.deathpenaltyworldwide.org/country-search-post.cfm%3Fcountry%3Diran |date=7 April 2019 }}, deathpenaltyworldwide.org, Cornell Law School. Retrieved 13 June 2016.</ref>
It is also a legal form of execution in Qatar and Yemen, but the punishment has been suspended in those countries.<ref name="HoodHoyle2015">{{cite book|last1=Hood|first1=Roger|last2=Hoyle|first2=Carolyn|title=The Death Penalty: A Worldwide Perspective|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=7S-tBQAAQBAJ&pg=PA178|year=2015|publisher=[[Oxford University Press]]|isbn=978-0-19-870173-6|page=178}}</ref><ref name="Michael">{{cite book|last1=Kronenwetter|first1=Michael|title=Capital Punishment: A Reference Handbook|publisher=ABC-CLIO|isbn=9781576074329|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=SOiuzOv061EC&q=beheading+in+Iran&pg=PA202|language=en|year=2001}}</ref>

== Historical occurrences ==
* 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.<ref>{{Cite encyclopedia|author=Watt, W. Montgomery | year= 2012 | title=Ḳurayẓa |encyclopedia=Encyclopaedia of Islam| edition=2nd|publisher=Brill |editor=P. Bearman |editor2=Th. Bianquis |editor3=C.E. Bosworth |editor4=E. van Donzel |editor5=W.P. Heinrichs| doi= 10.1163/1573-3912_islam_SIM_4535 }}</ref>
* After the [[Battle of Hattin]] (1187), [[Saladin]] personally beheaded [[Raynald of Châtillon]]; a Christian knight who served in the [[Second Crusade]] and organized attacks [[Crusader raids on the Red Sea|against Islam's two holiest cities]].<ref name=newmanhistory>{{cite book |last=Newman |first=Sharan |date=2007 |title=The Real History Behind the Templars |publisher=Penguin |page=133 |isbn=978-0425215333 }}</ref>
*Forces of the [[Ottoman Empire]] [[Ottoman invasion of Otranto|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]]".<ref>{{Cite web
|last = Bunson
|first = Matthew
|title = How the 800 Martyrs of Otranto Saved Rome
|work = Catholic Answers
|url = http://www.catholic.com/magazine/articles/how-the-800-martyrs-of-otranto-saved-rome
|access-date = 11 February 2012
|archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20131217224555/http://www.catholic.com/magazine/articles/how-the-800-martyrs-of-otranto-saved-rome
|archive-date = 17 December 2013
|url-status = dead
}}</ref> [[Historicity]] of this account has been questioned by modern scholars.<ref name=Bisaha>{{cite book|title=Creating East And West: Renaissance Humanists And the Ottoman Turks|author=Nancy Bisaha|year=2004|publisher=University of Pennsylvania Press|location=Philadelphia|page=158}}</ref>
* [[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 George Gordon|Charles Gordon]].<ref>Byron Farwell, Prisoners of the Mahdi (New York & London: W.W. Norton & Company, 1989), pp. 156-7.</ref>

==Modern use by non-state actors==
{{main|Beheading by Salafi jihadist groups}}
Extremist [[List of Salafi jihadist groups|Salafi jihadist groups]] such as [[Islamic State|ISIS]] and [[Jama'at al-Tawhid wal-Jihad]] have used beheading as a method of killing captives. Since 2002, ISIS have circulated [[beheading video]]s as a form of [[Islamic terrorism|terror]] and [[Terrorism and social media|propaganda]].<ref name="Sara Hussein and Rita Daou">{{cite web |url=https://news.yahoo.com/jihadists-beheadings-sow-fear-prompt-muslim-revulsion-205000146.html |title=Jihadists beheadings sow fear, prompt Muslim revulsion |publisher=[[Yahoo! News]] |agency=Agence France-Presse |author=Sara Hussein and Rita Daou |date=3 September 2014 |access-date=3 September 2014 |archive-date=27 July 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190727164819/https://news.yahoo.com/jihadists-beheadings-sow-fear-prompt-muslim-revulsion-205000146.html |url-status=live }}</ref><ref name="James Watson, Anne Hill 2015 325">{{cite book|author=James Watson, Anne Hill|title=Dictionary of Media and Communication Studies|publisher=Bloomsbury Publishing USA|year=2015|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=gJCOCgAAQBAJ&pg=PA325|page=325|isbn=9781628921489}}</ref> Their actions have been condemned by militant and other terrorist groups, as well as by mainstream Islamic scholars and organizations, who have contrasted Saudi government executions, which conform to standards that minimize pain, with the non-state actors who have "chosen a slow, torturous sawing method to terrorize the Western audience".<ref name=Furnish>{{cite journal|title=Beheading in the Name of Islam|author=Timothy R. Furnish|journal=Middle East Quarterly|pages=51–57|volume=12|number=2|year=2005}}</ref>

==References==
{{reflist}}

[[Category:Execution methods]]
[[Category:History of Islam]]
[[Category:Islam and capital punishment]]

Beheading in Islam - Revision history

Ajay Kumar at 15:59, 20 September 2023