Quote:
Originally Posted by Richard
Remember - it's a big world of beheading out there - ain't just an Islamic fundi thing
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With respect, in this case, it is 'just an Islamic Fundi Thing.' There's a giant gap between beheading a child in public, in daylight, in front of a crowd on videotape and the examples on your list.
Superstitious Beheading in Africa: Victims were killed in secret because their heads contained magical power = their heads had financial value. Fatal robbery, pure and simple. If the local shaman wanted toes instead of heads, we would be reading about survivors with missing toes, instead of corpses missing heads. The actual act of decapitation has no significance to anyone but the victim. The suffering of the victim does not further the perp's agenda and it is not aimed at the local population. The whole event is supposed to be secret because the participants, however backwards, acknowledge that what they are doing is bad.
Turf Beheading in African Slum / South American Prison: Hard to use the term victim here. Violent felons behead a gang leader in a place where local authority permits crime and violence. The perp and the victim could trade places and the story would read exactly the same. They selected one another as targets in a kill-or-be-killed struggle for turf. Decapitation has significance to the victim, who merited a special death because he was a prominent, dangerous adversary.
His suffering is aimed at other violent felons in the slum or prison, to protect the perp from retaliation. It has no significance to people outside the slum/prison who are not members of MS-13 or Munginka or whatever gang.
Cartel Turf Beheading in Mexico: Getting warmer, but we're still dealing with rational actors. Beheading to increase market share and lower operating costs. Victim decapitated to frighten local civilians, law enforcement, or a rival gangs. The deed is
still done in the dark. Victim's death has signifiance, but not his suffering ... the
perps want to avoid witnesses, not create them, and
decapitations are aimed at specific local groups, a courthouse, a police squad, a neighborhood, etc. The
victim likely violated a specific, well-known rule... accept bribes, don't snitch, don't cooperate with rival gangs, don't violate turf boundaries. The target was specifically selected for something they did.
Mujahideen Beheading of Children or by Children: The target and perp were selected for their significance to witnesses.
Decapitation done in daylight and on videotape to increase the number of witnesses.
The violence is an assault on the minds of the witnesses as much as it is an attack on the life of the victim, and in this case, on the innocence of the perp. Where the cartel's message is "Stay out of our business" the
Mujahideen message is "Get into my business/Participate in my violence." Children are involved because their presence works greater emotional violence and conveys a greater threat to anyone who watches. The tape will be sent beyond the borders of the town or state as a deliberate threat to people these specific mujahideen will never meet.
Perps from the other three examples would likely object to the Muj beheading. The Prison and Slum gangs limit their deliberate violence to other gang members and to people who directly interact with their gang. If kids or bystanders die, they are collateral damage, and their suffering is downplayed. Prison and slum gangs avoid responsibility for bystanders whenver possible because the bystanders often represent neighbors, family members, or even clients. Even the African shaman would object to the Muj beheading, if only because the Muj aren't motivated by robbery, and they don't perform any incantations over the severed head.
So, simple version, because the Muj target selection process deliberately picks soft, innocent targets, because the actual perp derives no material benefit from the violence, because they use the suffering of the vic as a form of violence against witnesses, and because they intentionally increase the number of witnesses beyond the local boundary of their community,
I believe they commit a different, far more severe crime than the people in these other examples.
Barn Owl