Jeff Jacoby in the Boston Globe (thanks to Looney Tunes) explores Islamic justifications for mutilation of corpses:
The popular “Ask the Scholar” feature of Islam Online (www.islamonline.net) was recently asked “how Islam views the issue of mutilating dead bodies of enemies.” In a reply, Sheik Faysal Mawlawi, deputy chairman of the European Council for Fatwa and Research, began by declaring that mutilation is “not allowable” under Islam. But then came the loophole:
“It is possible to mutilate the dead only in case of retaliation. . . . If he inflicts any physical damage on anyone, he should be retaliated against in the same manner. In case of war, Muslims are allowed to take vengeance for their mutilated dead mujahids (fighters) in the same way it was done to them.” This, the European sheik explained, is the teaching of the Koran (16:126), which counsels patience but authorizes revenge. …
Ultimately it is up to the world’s moderate, modern Muslims to rise up against the barbarians in their midst. Until that day comes, there is nothing the West can do to ameliorate or appease this enemy. We can only destroy it — or be destroyed.