Beheading video

A beheading video is a video which depicts a live murder in which a hostage or victim is shown to be graphically decapitated, or the head is displayed in the aftermath. Such videos are typically distributed mostly through the Internet,[1] and are often employed by groups seeking to instill shock or terror into a population. Although beheading has been a widely employed public execution method since the ancient Greeks and Romans,[2] videos of this type only began to arise in 2002 with the beheading of Daniel Pearl and the growth of the Internet in the Information Age, which allowed groups to anonymously publish these videos for public consumption. The beheadings shown in these videos are usually not performed in a "classical" method — decapitating a victim quickly with a blow from a sword or axe — but by the relatively slow and torturous process of slicing and sawing the victim's neck, while still alive, with a knife.[3]

History

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The first beheading by the National Movement for the Restoration of Pakistani Sovereignty was of Daniel Pearl in 2002.[4] The videos were popularized in 2004 by Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, a radical Islamic militant.[5]

The videos caused controversy among Islamic scholars, some of whom denounced them as against Islamic law; al-Qaeda did not approve and Osama bin Laden considered them poor public relations. Regardless, they became popular with certain Islamic terrorist groups, such as the Islamic State.[6]

Early videos were grainy and unsophisticated, but, according to the Chicago Sun-Times, had by 2004 been "growing in sophistication, using animated graphics and editing techniques apparently aimed at embellishing the audio to make a victim's final moments seem more disturbing".[7] These videos are often uploaded to the Internet by terrorists, then discussed and distributed by web-based outlets,[8] such as blogs, shock sites, and traditional journalistic media. In 2013, a beheading video by a Mexican drug cartel spread virally on Facebook. The non-profit organization Family Online Safety Institute petitioned Facebook to remove the video.[9] Initially, Facebook refused.[10] They later complied,[11] and subsequently clarified their policies, stating that beheading videos would only be allowed if posted in a manner intended for its users to "condemn" the acts.[12]

Writing in The Atlantic, Simon Cottee drew a comparison between jihadist videos and gonzo pornography.[13]

Videos released

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1996–1999

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  • An unidentified Russian soldier was beheaded in 1996 in Chechnya by resistance fighters during the First Chechen war, known as "Chechclear".
  • One officer and five enlisted men in the Russian military were decapitated on film during the Tukhchar massacre on September 5, 1999.

2002

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2004

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2005–2013

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2014

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2015

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2016

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2017

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  • Jürgen Kantner, German citizen, beheaded in March 2017 in the Philippines by Abu Sayyaf jihadists.[58]
  • IS has released a video claiming to show one of its jihadists beheading a Russian officer.[59]
  • Muhammad "Hamadi" Abdullah al-Ismail, Syrian citizen who allegedly deserted the Syrian Arab Army, tortured with a sledgehammer and beheaded near the al-Shaer oil fields, Homs Governorate, Syria (the first footage appeared online in June 2017) by Russian mercenaries linked to the Wagner Group.[60]

2018

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2019

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  • Ayafor Florence, Cameroonian citizen who worked as a wardress at the Bamenda Central Prison, beheaded on September 29, 2019 in Pinyin, Northwest Region, Cameroon by Ambazonian militants.[62]

2021

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  • A TikTok video showing a person being beheaded was uploaded by a user @mayengg03 and went viral. The clip starts with a young girl dancing in front of a camera, before switching to a different video with unrelated people where the beheading occurs. TikTok removed the video.[63]
  • An Egyptian man beheaded a victim and wandered in the street while holding up the severed head in broad daylight.[64]

2022

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  • Kanhaiya Lal, a Hindu tailor, was murdered during an attempted beheading following the 2022 Muhammad remarks controversy in India. The two Muslim perpetrators recorded themselves committing the crime but fled from the scene after slicing the victim's throat.[65]

2023

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2024

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  • An unemployed Pennsylvania resident and self-proclaimed militia leader named Justin Mohn, uploaded a 14-minute YouTube video in which he displayed a severed head. The 32-year-old man said the head belonged to his 68-year-old father, Michael Mohn, who he said "is now in hell for eternity as a traitor to this country". Police subsequently confirmed that the father had died and his head had been removed, and charged the man with first-degree murder and abuse of a corpse.[67][68][69] The video was removed from YouTube about five hours after it was published.[70] Mohn's YouTube channel was also terminated.

Hoax

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A hoax beheading video filmed by Benjamin Vanderford, Robert Martin, and Laurie Kirchner in 2004 received wide attention from the American press.[71] The video used Jama'at al-Tawhid wal-Jihad's logo, but not the group's flag. It was originally filmed for Vanderford's local election campaign.[72] He was seeking Matt Gonzalez's seat on the San Francisco Board of Supervisors.[73] Vanderford's second intention was to point out how uncritically the mainstream media would accept an anonymous video.[74] The Islamic Global Media Center claimed to have made the video, but removed it from their website after the hoax was discovered.[75] The video also appeared on other militant websites and was broadcast on Arabic television.[76][77]

See also

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References

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  1. ^ Stannard, Matthew B. (May 13, 2004). "Beheading video seen as war tactic / Experts say terrorists employing grisly form of propaganda". San Francisco Chronicle. Retrieved November 23, 2010.
  2. ^ Abbott, Geoffrey. "Beheading". Encyclopædia Britannica. Retrieved August 14, 2019.
  3. ^ Brecher, Gary (September 3, 2014). "The War Nerd: The long, twisted history of beheadings as propaganda". PandoDaily. Retrieved December 9, 2019.
  4. ^ Miles, Steven H. (2009), Oath Betrayed: American's Torture Doctures (2nd ed.), University of California Press, p. 162, ISBN 978-0-520-25968-3 Miles' claim matches the list in this article if we ignore the beheading of Daniel Pearl almost 27 months earlier in Pakistan. From at last some perspectives, it seems reasonable to classify the Pearl beheading as separate from the 10 beheadings in the 6 months following Abu Ghraib abuses entered the international consciousness. The match isn't perfect, because to get eleven beheadings after Abu Ghraib and before Miles' book appeared, we would either need an event not included in this article or we would need to include the beheading of Piotr Stańczak in Pakistan just over 4 years later. Nevertheless, the record seems largely to confirm Miles' suggestion of vengeance as a motive. He continues, "Pursuing justice differs from being consumed by revenge. The former proceeds from crime to investigation, to trial, to punishment, and then to closure. Vengeance is a whirlwind, where atrocity justifies revenge, and revenge becomes an atrocity."
  5. ^ Rosen, Armin (July 15, 2014). "The Most Extreme Faction Of Al Qaeda Is Winning, And It's Leading To The Destruction Of Iraq". Business Insider. Retrieved October 10, 2018.
  6. ^ Bloom, Mia (August 22, 2014). "Even al-Qaeda denounced beheading videos. Why the Islamic State brought them back". The Washington Post. Retrieved August 23, 2014.
  7. ^ Shrader, Katherine Pfleger (September 29, 2004). "Terrorists sense power in beheading videos". Chicago Sun-Times. Archived from the original on September 21, 2014. Retrieved August 23, 2014.
  8. ^ Palmer, Ewan (August 20, 2014). "James Foley: Police Warn Watching Beheading Video Is A \'Terrorist Offence\'". International Business Times. Retrieved August 23, 2014.
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  56. ^ Thomson, Sylvia; Arsenault, Adrienne (March 31, 2017). "Few signs of Canadian investigation into Abu Sayyaf beheadings in Philippines". CBC News. Retrieved July 1, 2017.
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  63. ^ "Gory beheading video inserted into notorious TikTok to shock users". The Independent. June 7, 2021. Retrieved March 27, 2023.
  64. ^ Tabikha, Kamal (November 1, 2021). "Video of beheading in Egyptian city sparks nationwide horror". The National (Abu Dhabi). Retrieved November 11, 2021.
  65. ^ "Udaipur Tailor's Killers Attacked At Court, How It Happened: 10 Latest Facts". NDTV. July 1, 2022. Retrieved July 2, 2022.
  66. ^ Cotovio, Vasco; Carey, Andrew; Pennington, Josh; Kesaieva, Yulia (April 12, 2023). "Zelensky slams 'beasts' who purportedly beheaded Ukrainian soldiers after video emerges". CNN. Retrieved April 14, 2023.
  67. ^ "Who is Justin Mohn? Man Decapitates Father, Shows Head on YouTube—Police". Newsweek. January 31, 2024.
  68. ^ "Justin Mohn Video Sparks 'Anti-Militia Bill' Conspiracy Theories". Newsweek. January 31, 2024.
  69. ^ Winter, Tom; Antonshchuk, Valeriya; Smith, Patrick; Radnofsky, Caroline (January 31, 2024). "Pennsylvania man arrested after posting YouTube video of father's decapitated head". NBC News. Retrieved February 1, 2024.
  70. ^ "A beheading video was on YouTube for hours, raising questions about why it wasn't taken down sooner". WHYY. Retrieved February 9, 2024.
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