Blogs > Cliopatria > The Koran Indeed Mentions Beheadings  Jul
2, 2004 5:28 am  The Koran Indeed Mentions Beheadings  Lee
Smith, in Slate (July 1, 2004):  Following the recent beheadings
of Americans and other foreigners in Iraq and Saudi Arabia, the
U.S. press turned to various experts to identify a precedent in
the Quran or Islamic history for this kind of gory
murder."Beheadings are not mentioned in the Koran at all," Imam
Muhammad Adam El-Sheikh, co-founder and chief cleric at the Dar
Al Hijrah mosque in Falls Church, Va., toldUSA Today. Yvonne
Haddad, a professor at the Center for Muslim-Christian
Understanding at Georgetown University agreed, tellingNew York
Newsday,"There is absolutely nothing in Islam that justifies
cutting off a person's head."  If reporters bothered to open up
a copy of the Quran, say, N.J. Dawood's Penguin Classics
translation, they'd find at least two relevant passages:  God
revealed His will to the angels, saying:"I shall be with you.
Give courage to the believers. I shall cast t