Muslims Enjoy Public Beheadings and Executions  

By Barbara J. Stock    

     Did I get your attention?  I hope so.  Are there Muslims who have not only enjoyed beheadings and executions but celebrated them?  Yes.  Does this mean all Muslims enjoy such things?  I hope not.  Do I believe that it is the goal of Islamic pages to make sure its readers hate Americans?  Absolutely.   

     Not long ago, I read an article on the website of The Muslim Weekly titled, " U.S. Now Shoots Iraqis for Fun."  I wondered: When readers see that title, what visual picture does it present?   

     The picture given was exactly the picture the website wanted the reader to have:  That American soldiers are picking off innocent Iraqi citizens and probably placing bets on whether they would score a hit.  Perhaps the soldiers got more points for a child.  After all, a child is a smaller target.  The article that followed had absolutely nothing to do with the title.  The title had one goal.  That goal was to enrage and inflame Muslims against Americans.  

    When I complained to the site editors, I was told that their sources were trustworthy and that nothing from their sources had been changed.  The basis of the article is the statement of an American Marine General.   The BBC had written:  “US 'War-Is-Fun' General Rebuked.” Fox News stated:  “Marine General’s Comments Stir Outrage.”  The Sierra Times article had this title:  U.S. General Says It Is 'Fun to Shoot Some People.'”  From this array of articles came the article title:  “ U.S. now shoots Iraqis for fun.”  I would be very interested in learning how that title was chosen.  The sources for the article are a moot point, since they had nothing to do with the outrageous title.

     I would also like to point out that the general was referring to Afghanistan , not Iraq .  In fact, in a letter to his men while in Iraq , General Mattis told his men: “The enemy will try to manipulate you into hating all Iraqis. Do not allow the enemy that victory. With strong discipline, solid faith, unwavering alertness, and undiminished chivalry to the innocent, we will carry out this mission.''   His mission was to seek out and destroy the terrorists now killing innocent Iraqi civilians, police, and national guardsmen.  Does that sound like a man who kills indiscriminately?  Does that give one the impression that Americans are shooting Iraqis for the fun of it? 

   After the fall of the Taliban in Afghanistan , videos were found showing the public executions of men and women in soccer stadiums. Women were brought in the back of pick-up trucks and forced to kneel on the ground.  They were then shot in the back of the head for the entertainment of the men gathered there.  What were their crimes?  Who knows.  It didn’t take much to be executed under the harsh Islamic rule of the Taliban.  The simple act of a child flying a kite was considered a sin and “un-Islamic.”   

       Iraq , under the Saddam regime, was no better.   One description of a prison in Iraq reads:  “Pictures of dead Iraqis, with their necks slashed, their eyes gouged out and their genitals blackened, fill a bookshelf. Jail cells, with dried blood on the floor and rusted shackles bolted to the walls, line the corridors.”  It has been estimated by Iraqi officials that nearly a million Iraqi citizens died at the hands of Saddam Hussein.  Yet, Muslim web sites imply American soldiers “shoot Iraqis for fun.”  Just two days ago, an American soldier gave his life trying to rescue a wounded Iraqi woman injured by a suicide bomber.  Oddly, I did not see that reported on any Muslim website.  

      I cannot speak for General Mattis, but my late brother was a career officer in the Army of the Untied States and I suspect I know what General Mattis meant when he said “it’s fun to shoot some people.”  

      Our soldiers are among the best trained and most disciplined soldiers on the face of the planet.  They are prepared to meet any enemy on the battlefield.  Contrary to Muslim popular belief, our soldiers never target women and children.   American soldiers are disgusted by cowards who call themselves warriors as they blow up cars with the intention of killing innocent civilians.  Our soldiers would spit on a man who ties another man’s hands behind his back and then executes him by sawing his head off with a dull knife.  It is disgusting that some Islamic coward yells over the screams of his helpless victim that God is great.  Afraid to face real soldiers, these brave Islamic terrorists can only blow up children and behead helpless people.  

     And yes, it is very possible that many of our soldiers would gladly shoot any man who finds pleasure in shooting an innocent woman in the head and then disemboweling her and throwing her body in the street to rot after torturing her for days.  Such was the fate of Margaret Hassoon, the director of C.A.R.E.  She was an Iraqi.  She was a Muslim.  Her body was found by Marines on a street in Fallujah--a little “gift” left by the brave “freedom fighters.”   Before any readers ask, “What about Abu Ghuraib,” let me remind them that there are over 150,000 American troops in Iraq .  Those who committed those crimes are few, and they are on trial and facing long prison terms   Those that killed Margaret Hassoon are revered as heroes by many in the Muslim world.  To our soldiers, they are low-life cowards, not men of honor.  These murderers are to be despised, not placed on pedestals.   

       Also found in Fallujah was the horrific scene of over 200 beheaded bodies in a mosque.  They were murdered at the hands of Muqtada Al Sadr and his band of merry men called the Mehdi Militia.  Al Sadr was judge, jury, and executioner--in a mosque.   A supposed holy place became a place of brutal death reminiscent of a Roman coliseum.  Bodies were found stuffed in a bread oven.  They had been burned to death.  This is the image Islam presents to Americans.   

     What we Americans are constantly told is that Islam is only peace and love.  Tell that to the 1300 Iraqi policemen executed over a two month span.  Tell that to Margaret Hassoon who had spent her adult life helping the people of Iraq .  Tell that to the Afghani men who were beaten because their beards were too short, or those executed because they were caught listening to music.  Tell that to the families of those burned to death in a bread oven.  Tell that to the child beaten for flying a kite.   

      With all this death and carnage being carried out in the name of Islam, it seems to me that websites such as The Muslim Weekly should be working overtime to convince Americans that there is some redeeming value to be found in Islam, not lying to its readers about how evil Americans are killing Muslims for “the fun of it.”  Every day in Iraq , Muslims are killing fellow Muslims and it is those Islamic terrorists who seem to be enjoying every minute of it.