These days when I read whitewash pieces like this one at the LA Times, they strike me as the work of people so lost in denial that they are indistinguishable from schizophrenics: Beheading for Sake of Fear, Not Islam. (Hat tip: denbike.)

LONDON — Daniel Pearl, Nicholas Berg, Paul M. Johnson Jr. and now a threat against a South Korean: Militants in the Middle East and South Asia have adopted beheading, vaguely invoking religious justifications or Arab tradition for the method of killing. Yet most Muslims would consider that a gross misinterpretation of their religion.

There is nothing particularly Islamic about decapitation, no exhortation in the Koran to carry out beheadings, and no religious prescription for the killing of innocents in any form, religious scholars and academics say.

“Vaguely invoking religious justifications?” The mujahideen, no matter what else they may be, are very thoroughly schooled in Islam and there is absolutely nothing vague about their pronouncements. Has this clueless LAT writer ever even read their words?

To combat this shining example of willful blindness, read The Sacred Muslim Practice of Beheading by Andrew G. Bostom.

According to Muhammad’s sacralized biography by Ibn Ishaq, Muhammad himself sanctioned the massacre of the Qurayza, a vanquished Jewish tribe. He appointed an “arbiter” who soon rendered this concise verdict: the men were to be put to death, the women and children sold into slavery, the spoils to be divided among the Muslims. Muhammad ratified this judgment stating that it was a decree of God pronounced from above the Seven Heavens. Thus some 600 to 900 men from the Qurayza were lead on Muhammad’s order to the Market of Medina. Trenches were dug and the men were beheaded, and their decapitated corpses buried in the trenches while Muhammad watched in attendance. Women and children were sold into slavery, a number of them being distributed as gifts among Muhammad’s companions, and Muhammad chose one of the Qurayza women (Rayhana) for himself. The Qurayza’s property and other possessions (including weapons) were also divided up as additional “booty” among the Muslims, to support further jihad campaigns.

I’m so sick of this nonsense from our weak-minded media.