An egregious example of dhimmitude from the LA Times, with thanks to kfir:
LONDON “” Daniel Pearl, Nicholas Berg, Paul M. Johnson Jr. and now a threat against a South Korean: Militants in the Middle East and South Asia have adopted beheading, vaguely invoking religious justifications or Arab tradition for the method of killing. Yet most Muslims would consider that a gross misinterpretation of their religion.
There is nothing particularly Islamic about decapitation, no exhortation in the Koran to carry out beheadings, and no religious prescription for the killing of innocents in any form, religious scholars and academics say.
Oh really? Well, let’s look at the record:
Remember thy Lord inspired the angels (with the message): “I am with you: give firmness to the Believers: I will instil terror into the hearts of the Unbelievers: smite ye above their necks and smite all their finger-tips off them.” (Qur’an, Sura 8:12)
Therefore, when ye meet the Unbelievers (in fight), smite at their necks… (Qur’an, Sura 47:4)
And during the massacre of the Jewish Qurayzah tribe, Ibn Ishaq, Muhammad’s earliest biographer, describes the scene:
The apostle [Muhammad] went out to the market of Medina (which is still its market today) and dug trenches in it. Then he sent for [the men of Banu Qurayza] and struck off their heads in those trenches as they were brought out to him in batches.
Ibn Ishaq puts the number of those massacred at “600 or 700 in all, though some put the figure as high as 800 or 900.”
So why is the LA Times repeating this arrant nonsense about there being nothing in Islam sanctioning beheading? Are they ignorant, or willfully deceptive? In the final analysis, it doesn’t matter — the outcome is the same either way. But it does show why most analyses of Islam and terrorism in the mainstream media simply cannot be trusted.