I think he was only speaking of beheading in islam, and the fact that they deny it is part of their practice, which IS the REAL demonstrable truth here.
He didn’t say no one else ever did it. What he said was it was a direct order from momadman hisself. (And most of it is not in the q-ran, but in the hadiths.)
An example: Paul of Tarsus was given the privilege of beheading rather than crucifixion because he was a Roman citizen. Non-Romans were crucified, sometimes upside down (as tradition says St. Peter died) or after scourging (as with our Lord Jesus.
So why is the author selecting beheading and holding it up as if it cruel or unusual?
I don't think that sensational headlines (Beheading was Mohammed's Idea and he practice it) helps.
I think he was only speaking of beheading in islam, and the fact that they deny it is part of their practice, which IS the REAL demonstrable truth here.
That's not even true, though. Individuals may deny whatever they like, but Saudi Arabia uses beheading as an official form of punishment. They aren't hiding it at all. They beheaded some robbers a few years ago and crucified the bodies afterwards. Made international headlines: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-437424/Saudis-behead-foreigners-crucify-bodies-display-deter-crime.html
And again in 2009: http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,523364,00.html It's far from rare in Saudi; do a search for "Saudi Arabia beheading" for tons and tons of news stories.
Nick Berg was beheaded in Iraq on tape in 2004.
Far from hiding anything, Al Qaeda makes of point of publicizing it, often with video tapes.
For people who are supposed to be hiding stuff, they make an awful lot of noise about it.
BTW: The "capital" in "capital punishment" makes reference to 'caput', which is Latin for "head", to cut the head off. Beheading has been so common and so accepted throughout history that it's where we get the words to describe execution.