While I should take comfort in all of the horror expressed in Western media at the sensationalized news of ISIS beheadings, I suspect not a little hypocrisy at play.
Let us not forget that the association of beheadings with liberty has a long and distinguished history in liberal, secular culture and politics, beginning with the guillotine--which quickly became the symbol of republican France.
In addition, of course, beheadings and mutilations occur whenever our military engages "enemy combatants" (i.e., civilian populations) throughout the world.
Not to mention the unflagging support of the United States for Saudi Arabia, a country that routinely employs beheading as a form of capital punishment.
One of the reasons that I enjoy historical research is that it reminds us where the bodies are buried.
Unless you take an unqualified stand against violence, you will always, inevitably, find yourself standing with the killers.
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