{"id":6223,"date":"2013-07-18T10:59:18","date_gmt":"2013-07-18T17:59:18","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/?p=6223"},"modified":"2013-07-19T09:32:45","modified_gmt":"2013-07-19T16:32:45","slug":"syrias-graphic-beheading-videos","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/syrias-graphic-beheading-videos\/","title":{"rendered":"Syria’s Graphic Beheading Videos"},"content":{"rendered":"

by Raymond Ibrahim \/\/\u00a0FrontPage Magazine<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n

Based on a widely circulated video and statements from the Vatican, it was believed that Fr. Francois Murad, a Catholic Syrian priest, was recently beheaded in Syria.<\/p>\n

It was not long before others \u201cvigorously denied<\/a>\u201d the story, saying that the Christian priest was actually shot dead.\u00a0 And now that\u2019s fast become the \u201cbig\u201d news. \u00a0For example, according to the\u00a0Telegraph<\/a>, \u201cThe footage, said to show Father Francois Murad, 49, as the victim in a brutal summary execution by foreign jihadists is likely to be an older video that bares no relation to the death of the Catholic priest. Father Murad \u2018died when he was shot inside his church\u2019 in the northern Syrian\u00a0Christian village of Ghassaniyeh on June 23, three separate local sources, who did not wish to be named, told the Telegraph.\u201d<\/p>\n

So apparently that makes it better?\u00a0 That seems to be the Telegraph\u2019s take, for it continues: \u201cClaims that Father Murad was one of two men to be decapitated by a foreign jihadist group went viral, with outrage expressed in blogs and articles worldwide.\u201d<\/p>\n

So now that he wasn\u2019t beheaded, only shot dead inside his church, there\u2019s no longer any call for \u201coutrage\u201d?<\/p>\n

At any rate, welcome to the \u201cdistraction\u201d tactic being exploited by the many elements\u00a0trying to minimize the atrocities<\/a>\u00a0being committed by the jihadis\u2014also known as the \u201cFree Syrian Army\u201d (FSA)\u2014in Syria.\u00a0 Supporters of these jihadis exploit the fact that, in a time of war, as currently in Syria, news is not always reliable.\u00a0 They also claim that any news that portrays the Syrian government as the \u201cgood guys\u201d\u2014such as nonstop videos of the FSA committing atrocities\u2014is just pro-Assad propaganda, that cannot be trusted (they never seem to see the flipside to this logic, that Western media can be disseminating false anti-Assad propaganda).<\/p>\n

Thus, let\u2019s not focus too much on the exact particulars\u2014for indeed, exact information is not always clear\u2014and rather acknowledge the\u00a0big picture<\/em>: namely that beheadings have become very common in Syria, even if we don\u2019t always know the identities of those beheaded.\u00a0 But we do know who are doing the beheadings: al-Qaeda linked jihadis who are trying to transform Syria into a Sharia-ruling emirate.<\/p>\n

Consider\u00a0the video<\/a>\u00a0which some are now saying was not Fr. Murad\u2014who was only shot (whew!)\u00a0 Whoever the men being beheaded are, what you are witnessing is the true face of the Syria \u201crebellion\u201d\u2014jihadis, most of them obviously foreigners.\u00a0 The ring leader appears perhaps Chechnyan, and can hardly speak proper Arabic (but one of the few phrases that he utters that is understandable is \u201cwe are enforcing the rules of Allah\u201d).\u00a0 The bound men are then beheaded to wild cries of \u201cAllahu Akbar!\u201d<\/p>\n

To appreciate the frequency of such beheadings, do a quick YouTube search with words like \u201cSyria\u201d and \u201cbeheadings,\u201d and you will see any number of graphic videos of Syrians being beheaded by U.S.-backed jihadis.\u00a0 These are the videos that have still not been identified and removed by YouTube, but which likely soon will.\u00a0 Before them, there were many others that are now gone.<\/p>\n

Among some of the ones currently up, are:<\/p>\n