November 15, 2004

Mutilated torso found in Iraq

No doubt we will be hearing again soon about how this sort of thing is against Islam. We've been down that road before — and here is a fatwa ruling that mutilation is just fine under certain circumstances. This is why I sometimes challenge moderates to be more specific and to challenge directly radical Muslim understandings of Islam: it may be comforting to many Westerners to hear that beheading and mutilation are "un-Islamic," but it does nothing to answer the pro-mutilation Islamic arguments put forward in that fatwa. Until self-proclaimed moderate Muslims actually take on and refute the radicals, all their visions of a noble, peaceful renaissance of Islam will continue to be just whistling in the dark.

From News.com.au, with thanks to JE:

AS hundreds of insurgents who escaped the US onslaught of Fallujah regrouped for further attacks across Iraq, the body of a blonde-haired Caucasian woman with her legs and arms cut off and throat slit was found last night in a street in the battle-torn city. The discovery of the woman wearing a blue dress and with her face shockingly disfigured was made as US marines moved through the south of Fallujah, hunting the remaining diehard rebels after a week of fierce fighting to regain control of the city.

"It is definitely a Caucasian woman with long, blonde hair," said a military official, who cut open a cover that had been over the corpse. Two Western women are known to have been kidnapped in Iraq. Teresa Borcz Khalifa, 54, a Polish-born longtime resident of Iraq, was seized last month and has blonde hair.

Margaret Hassan, 59, director of Care International in Iraq, was also abducted last month and has chestnut-coloured hair.

"It is a female ... missing all four appendages, with a slashed throat and disembowelled, she has been dead for a while but only in this location for a day or two," said Benjamin Finnell, a hospital apprentice with the Navy Corps, who inspected the body. Colonel Mike Shupp said last night the operation to sweep house-to-house through Fallujah should take another four to five days as marine commander Major-General Richard Natonski said more than 1200 rebels had been killed in the week long-offensive.