The Washington Post eulogized the barbaric Islamic State leader today by calling him an “austere religious scholar.”

In a bizarre move, WaPo briefly changed its headline of its obituary of ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi from “terrorist-in-chief” to instead describe him as an “austere religious scholar.”

Washingtonexaminer.com reports: U.S. forces killed Baghdadi Saturday after a successful raid on a compound in northern Syria.

While many celebrated the death of the serial rapist and murderer, the Washington Post left many confused by giving him the title of “austere religious scholar at the helm of the Islamic State.”

The Post acknowledged Baghdadi led ISIS with “shocking brutality” but focused much of its obituary on his academic career. “The man who would become the founding leader of the world’s most brutal terrorist group spent his early adult years as an obscure academic, aiming for a quiet life as a professor of Islamic law,” the Post wrote.

The reasons behind the newspaper’s decision to tout Baghdadi’s academic career rather than his brutal leadership were unclear. The first version of the story described Baghdadi as the “Islamic State’s terrorist-in-chief,” before it was changed to “austere religious scholar.”