Two years ago, Islamic State caliph “Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi killed himself and his own children with a suicide belt before US troops could get to him in a horrifying but unsurprising ‘escape.’”

Although described as “shocking” and “twisted” in the Daily Star report below, this is only shocking and twisted by Western standards. It’s perfectly normal behavior for jihadists, who embrace death as the ultimate Islamic religious sacrifice in the way of jihad, which is rooted in Islamic texts. Yet Westerners delude themselves into thinking that normative Islam is a religion of peace.

Recall the “slip” of the Washington Post, which referenced Baghdadi as an “austere religious scholar.” That he was, except that the WaPo’s spin on the story wasn’t to present him as the despicable “religious scholar” that he was, who followed Islamic texts to the letter. WaPo wanted to show its respect.

Al-Baghdadi had a library full of copies of the Qur’an and other Islamic books in his hideout. At the end of his life, he “had to go out in the way of his choosing,” so he blew up himself rather than face being captured by the kaffir, and took his children with him to what he believed was paradise for martyrs.

For Westerners, his act was monstrous and shocking, but for al-Baghdadi and fellow jihadists (now living throughout the West in undetermined numbers), his final act was heroic and deeply religious.