Beginning in 2014, a number of people from various countries were
beheaded
Decapitation or beheading is the total separation of the head from the body. Such an injury is invariably fatal to humans and most other animals, since it deprives the brain of oxygenated blood, while all other organs are deprived of the ...
by the
Islamic State
An Islamic state is a State (polity), state that has a form of government based on sharia, Islamic law (sharia). As a term, it has been used to describe various historical Polity, polities and theories of governance in the Islamic world. As a t ...
; a radical
Sunni
Sunni Islam () is the largest branch of Islam, followed by 85–90% of the world's Muslims. Its name comes from the word '' Sunnah'', referring to the tradition of Muhammad. The differences between Sunni and Shia Muslims arose from a disagr ...
Islamist group operating in
Iraq
Iraq,; ku, عێراق, translit=Êraq officially the Republic of Iraq, '; ku, کۆماری عێراق, translit=Komarî Êraq is a country in Western Asia. It is bordered by Turkey to Iraq–Turkey border, the north, Iran to Iran–Iraq ...
and parts of
Syria
Syria ( ar, سُورِيَا or سُورِيَة, translit=Sūriyā), officially the Syrian Arab Republic ( ar, الجمهورية العربية السورية, al-Jumhūrīyah al-ʻArabīyah as-Sūrīyah), is a Western Asian country loc ...
.
In January 2015, a copy of an ISIS penal code surfaced describing the penalties it enforces in areas under its control, including beheadings.
Beheading video
A beheading video is a form of propaganda or snuff video in which hostages are graphically decapitated. It is often employed by groups seeking to instill shock or terror into a population, whilst beheading has been a widely employed public execu ...
s have been frequently posted by ISIS members to
social media
Social media are interactive media technologies that facilitate the creation and sharing of information, ideas, interests, and other forms of expression through virtual communities and networks. While challenges to the definition of ''social medi ...
. Several of the videoed beheadings were conducted by
Mohammed Emwazi
Mohammed Emwazi (born Muhammad Jassim Abdulkarim Olayan al-Dhafiri; ar, محمد جاسم عبد الكريم عليان الظفيري; 17 August 1988 – 12 November 2015) was a British militant of Kuwaiti origin believed to be the pers ...
, whom the media referred to as "Jihadi John" ("John" because of his English accent) before his identification.
The beheadings received wide coverage around the world and attracted international condemnation. Political scientist Max Abrahms posited that ISIS may be using well-publicized beheadings as a means of differentiating itself from
Al-Qaeda in Iraq
Al-Qaeda in Iraq (AQI; ar, القاعدة في العراق, al-Qā'idah fī al-ʿIrāq) or Al-Qaeda in Mesopotamia ( ar, القاعدة في بلاد الرافدين, al-Qā'idah fī Bilād ar-Rāfidayn), officially known as ''Tanzim Qaidat a ...
(AQI), and identifying itself with
Khalid Sheikh Mohammed
Khalid Sheikh Mohammed (sometimes also spelled Shaikh; also known by at least 50 pseudonyms; born March 1, 1964 or April 14, 1965) is a Pakistani Islamist militant held by the United States at the Guantanamo Bay detention camp under terrorism-re ...
, the
al-Qaeda
Al-Qaeda (; , ) is an Islamic extremism, Islamic extremist organization composed of Salafist jihadists. Its members are mostly composed of Arab, Arabs, but also include other peoples. Al-Qaeda has mounted attacks on civilian and military ta ...
member who beheaded
Daniel Pearl
Daniel Pearl (October 10, 1963 – February 1, 2002) was an American journalist who worked for ''The Wall Street Journal.'' He was kidnapped and later decapitated by terrorists in Pakistan.'
Pearl was born in Princeton, New Jersey, and rais ...
.
The publicised beheadings represent a small proportion of a larger number of total people killed following capture by ISIS.
Background
ISIL's earlier incarnations
According to Professor
Ibrahim al-Marashi, ISIL's earlier incarnations used beheadings to force foreign policy changes such as getting the
Philippines
The Philippines (; fil, Pilipinas, links=no), officially the Republic of the Philippines ( fil, Republika ng Pilipinas, links=no),
* bik, Republika kan Filipinas
* ceb, Republika sa Pilipinas
* cbk, República de Filipinas
* hil, Republ ...
to withdraw from the
Iraq War
{{Infobox military conflict
, conflict = Iraq War {{Nobold, {{lang, ar, حرب العراق (Arabic) {{Nobold, {{lang, ku, شەڕی عێراق (Kurdish languages, Kurdish)
, partof = the Iraq conflict (2003–present), I ...
.
[
]
ISIL's justifications or reasons for beheadings
Prior to the 2014–2015 wave of ISIL beheadings of Westerners and Japanese, ISIL members on 12 August 2014 sent an email to the family of American hostage James Foley and stated that American hostages would be killed in retaliation for:
* the 8 August 2014 U.S. bombings of ISIL;
* U.S. incarceration of Pakistani Muslim
Muslims ( ar, المسلمون, , ) are people who adhere to Islam, a monotheistic religion belonging to the Abrahamic tradition. They consider the Quran, the foundational religious text of Islam, to be the verbatim word of the God of Abrah ...
ah Aafia Siddiqui
Aafia Siddiqui ( ur, ; born 2 March 1972) is a Pakistani national who is serving an 86-year sentence at the Federal Medical Center, Carswell in Fort Worth, Texas, United States for attempted murder and other felonies.
Siddiqui was born in Paki ...
;
* the U.S. and its government having "no motivation to deal with the Muslims except with the language of force."
According to Professor Ibrahim al-Marashi, ISIL is using beheadings of locals to intimidate people, including their own soldiers, into obeying the dictates of a weak state. Beheadings of Westerners are designed to strike back at the United Kingdom and the United States for military actions against ISIL that they have no other way of responding to. "With an act of a sword, they manage to force both merican PresidentObama and ritish Prime MinisterCameron to react. The two men, who control the world's most advanced militaries, find themselves at the mercy of the sword. Both displayed physical pain and grief when they condemned the way their nationals died." says al-Marashi.
"Terror marketing" to recruit new fighters is another motivation. "Some of these men have sort of a pornographic attraction to these violent scenes, these violent beheading videos. It really sort of energizes them." said Paul Cruickshank, a terrorism analyst for CNN
CNN (Cable News Network) is a multinational cable news channel headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia, U.S. Founded in 1980 by American media proprietor Ted Turner and Reese Schonfeld as a 24-hour cable news channel, and presently owned by ...
.
List of incidents
Alleged beheading plots
Jihadi John
Sky News
Sky News is a British free-to-air television news channel and organisation. Sky News is distributed via an English-language radio news service, and through online channels. It is owned by Sky Group, a division of Comcast. John Ryley is the hea ...
spoke to a defector member of Islamic State, who claimed he witnessed Mohammed Emwazi, known as Jihadi John
Mohammed Emwazi (born Muhammad Jassim Abdulkarim Olayan al-Dhafiri; ar, محمد جاسم عبد الكريم عليان الظفيري; 17 August 1988 – 12 November 2015) was a British militant of Kuwaiti origin believed to be the pers ...
, murder Japanese hostage Kenji Goto
was a Japanese freelance video journalist covering wars and conflicts, refugees, poverty, AIDS, and child education around the world. In October 2014, he was captured and held hostage by Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) militants after en ...
. He is the only person to admit seeing Emwazi kill. The Islamic State said Emwazi was employed as the chief killer of foreign hostages.
The Islamic State claimed foreign hostages captured and murdered by the group were subjected to numerous mock executions until the procedure became normal, which, it has been suggested, was why many hostages appeared calm in execution videos published online by the group. The Islamic State said the hostages were beheaded later.
2014 Australian counter-terrorism raids
In a pre-dawn police raid
A police raid is an unexpected visit by police or other law-enforcement officers with the aim of using the element of surprise in order to seize evidence or arrest suspects believed to be likely to hide evidence, resist arrest, be politicall ...
on September 18, 2014, Australian law enforcement detained 15 individuals in Sydney and Brisbane
Brisbane ( ) is the capital and most populous city of the states and territories of Australia, Australian state of Queensland, and the list of cities in Australia by population, third-most populous city in Australia and Oceania, with a populati ...
who were allegedly plotting a "demonstration execution". The purported plan was to kidnap a random resident of Sydney
Sydney ( ) is the capital city of the state of New South Wales, and the most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Located on Australia's east coast, the metropolis surrounds Sydney Harbour and extends about towards the Blue Mountain ...
and behead the individual on camera, draped in the black flag of the Islamic State. The beheading did not occur.
Theresa May assassination plan
In November 2017, Naa'imur Zakariyah Rahman planned to detonate bombs and behead the then British prime minister Theresa May
Theresa Mary May, Lady May (; née Brasier; born 1 October 1956) is a British politician who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom and Leader of the Conservative Party from 2016 to 2019. She previously served in David Cameron's cab ...
in the name of Islamic State. He was arrested before he could do so and convicted in 2018.
Beheading of a child in Mozambique
In March 2021, Save the Children, a UK-based aid group, reported the beheading of a 12 year old child by ISIL-linked militants.
International response
U.S. President Barack Obama condemned the actions of the militants and Jihadi John in particular and vowed punishment for all the militants responsible behind the videotaped beheadings. Secretary of State John Kerry
John Forbes Kerry (born December 11, 1943) is an American attorney, politician and diplomat who currently serves as the first United States special presidential envoy for climate. A member of the Forbes family and the Democratic Party (Unite ...
also called Jihadi John a "coward behind a mask" and, echoing Obama, stated that all those responsible would be held accountable by the United States.[ British officials have also reiterated their commitment to capturing those responsible for the beheadings. Admiral Alan West, a former UK Security Minister, said that Jihadi John is a "dead man walking" who will be "hunted down like Osama Bin-Laden". British Prime Minister David Cameron also condemned the actions and stated that he was absolutely certain that Jihadi John would "one way or another, face justice". Other figures like Justice Secretary ]Chris Grayling
Christopher Stephen Grayling (born 1 April 1962) is a British Conservative Party (UK), Conservative Party politician and author who served as Secretary of State for Transport from 2016 to 2019. He has served as Member of Parliament (United King ...
, and Secretary General of Interpol
The International Criminal Police Organization (ICPO; french: link=no, Organisation internationale de police criminelle), commonly known as Interpol ( , ), is an international organization that facilitates worldwide police cooperation and cri ...
Ronald Noble
Ronald Kenneth "Ron" Noble (born September 24, 1956) is an American law enforcement officer who served as the secretary-general of the International Criminal Police Organization (Interpol) from 2000 to 2014. He was the organization's first A ...
also stated that Jihadi John should be brought to justice.
The day after the video of the beheading of Steven Sotloff surfaced, Cameron told the House of Commons
The House of Commons is the name for the elected lower house of the bicameral parliaments of the United Kingdom and Canada. In both of these countries, the Commons holds much more legislative power than the nominally upper house of parliament. ...
: "I am sure the whole House, and the whole country, will join with me in condemning the sickening and brutal murder of another American hostage, and share our shock and anger that it again appears to have been carried out by a British citizen. All our thoughts are with the British hostage and his family. Their ordeal is unimaginable." He concluded: "A country like ours will not be cowed by these barbaric killers. If they think we will weaken in the face of their threats, they are wrong. It will have the opposite effect. We will be more forthright in the defence of the values, liberty under the rule of law, freedom, democracy that we hold dear."[
Soon after the David Haines video surfaced, Prime Minister Cameron released a statement by Twitter: "The murder of David Haines is an act of pure evil. My heart goes out to his family who have shown extraordinary courage and fortitude. We will do everything in our power to hunt down these murderers and ensure they face justice, however long it takes."]
The White House
The White House is the official residence and workplace of the president of the United States. It is located at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW in Washington, D.C., and has been the residence of every U.S. president since John Adams in 1800. ...
released this statement via Twitter: "The United States strongly condemns the barbaric murder of UK citizen David Haines by the terrorist group ISIL SIS Our hearts go out to the family of Mr. Haines and to the people of the United Kingdom. The United States stands shoulder to shoulder tonight with our close friend and ally in grief and resolve. We will work with the United Kingdom and a broad coalition of nations from the region and around the world to bring the perpetrators of this outrageous act to justice, and to degrade and destroy this threat to the people of our countries, the region and the world."
The British Counter Terrorism Internet Referral Unit The Counter-Terrorism Internet Referral Unit (CTIRU) was set up in 2010 by ACPO (and run by the Metropolitan Police) to remove unlawful terrorist material content from the Internet, with a specific focus on UK based material. CTIRU works with inter ...
(CTIRU) has been working to "take extremist material off the internet" and has removed over 28,000 pieces of "unlawful terrorist-related content" between December 2013 and August 2014.
In response to the beheading of journalists James Foley and Steven Sotloff, Agence France-Presse
Agence France-Presse (AFP) is a French international news agency headquartered in Paris, France. Founded in 1835 as Havas, it is the world's oldest news agency.
AFP has regional headquarters in Nicosia, Montevideo, Hong Kong and Washington, D.C ...
(AFP) released a statement saying that it would "no longer accept work from freelance journalists who travel to places where we ourselves would not venture" including Syria. The Boston-based GlobalPost
''GlobalPost'' is an online US digital journalism company that focuses on international news founded on January 12, 2009, by Philip S. Balboni and Charles M. Sennott. Its stated mission is "to redefine international news for the digital age." ...
, for whom Foley had been a contributor, released a statement saying "While we continue to send staff correspondents to Syria, we no longer accept freelance work from that war zone."
Two days after the beheading of Hervé Gourdel
Beginning in 2014, a number of people from various countries were beheaded by the Islamic State; a radical Sunni Islamist group operating in Iraq and parts of Syria.
In January 2015, a copy of an ISIS penal code surfaced describing the pen ...
, hundreds of Muslims gathered in the Grand Mosque of Paris
The Grand Mosque of Paris (french: Grande Mosquée de Paris), also known as the Great Mosque of Paris or simply the Paris Mosque, is located in the 5th arrondissement of Paris, 5th arrondissement and is one of the largest mosques in France. There ...
to show solidarity against the beheading. The protest was led by the leader of the French Council of the Muslim Faith
The French Council of the Muslim Faith (french: Conseil français du culte musulman, usually abbreviated to CFCM), is a national elected body, to serve as an official interlocutor with the French state in the regulation of Muslim religious activi ...
, Dalil Boubakeur
Dalil Boubakeur (born 2 November 1940) is a physician, Mufti, and current rector of the Great Mosque of Paris. He is also the president of the French Council of the Muslim Faith. He was born on 2 November 1940 in the Algerian city of Skikda, to ...
, and was joined by thousands of other Muslims around the country. French president François Hollande
François Gérard Georges Nicolas Hollande (; born 12 August 1954) is a French politician who served as President of France from 2012 to 2017. He previously was First Secretary of the Socialist Party (PS) from 1997 to 2008, Mayor of Tulle from ...
said Gourdel’s beheading was "cowardly" and "cruel," and confirmed that airstrikes would continue against ISIL in Iraq. Hollande also called for three days of national mourning, with flags flown at half-mast throughout the country and said that security would be increased throughout Paris.[
]
See also
* Killing of captives by ISIL
Executions by ISIS refers here to killing by beheading, immolation, shooting or other means of military and civilian people (such as captives and "criminals") by the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL). ISIL has released a number of propa ...
* Murders of Louisa Vesterager Jespersen and Maren Ueland
Murder is the unlawful killing of another human without justification or valid excuse, especially the unlawful killing of another human with malice aforethought. ("The killing of another person without justification or excuse, especially the c ...
References
External links
Photos: ISIS terrorists released info graphic shows its suicide attack statistics including types of attacks
{{Portal bar, Iraq, Asia
*
Foreign hostages in Syria
Kidnappings by Islamists
2014 in Iraq
2014 in Syria
2015 in Iraq
2015 in Syria
2014 murders in Asia
2015 murders in Asia
Murder in Iraq
Murder in Syria
Filmed executions
Filmed executions in Iraq
Beheading videos
Filmed killings in Asia
Persecution by ISIL