Sep 14 2009
Honor Killings: Not Islamic: Well…
then, from where did the idea come?
Most importantly, why is it prevalent in Islamic dominated countries [Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Syria, Afghanistan, Pakistan]
So much has been written and televised about Faithima Rifqa Bary, the teenage girl who ran away from home in fear for her life.
Rifqa Bary being comforted
I stayed away from the subject, until now. I’m a bit biased I’ve been screaming about this subject for years.
She’s still on front page of the Columbus Dispatch. Now, the headline reads “Amid a holy war”
From my understanding, in America when a teenager becomes sixteen they can be emancipated from their parents.
So, what’s the big controversy? Emancipate her already!
This young woman isn’t stupid. She knows the culture from which she and her family came. Her parents may not want to kill her, but that doesn’t mean a brother, or a cousin or an uncle doesn’t.
Her parents on CNN and Good Morning America stated:
We never threatened to kill Rifqa. We wouldn’t hurt her. We love her and want her back. We are not radical Muslims. She has been brainwashed by radical Christians. READ MORE
Muslims become indignant when the subject of honor killing is brought up. They’re outraged because this barbaric act is linked to their religion.
When the subject is broached the common reply is “it’s a lie made up by Christians” and that Honor killing is not Islamic. Or they claim that this is bigoted nonsense perpetrated by Christians.
Well, what do Muslims say about the women who have been murdered under the guise of Honor ? They can’t say it didn’t happen, these women are dead by the hand of a family member.
What is the Muslim response to that?
If it isn’t Islamic then why are so many Muslim women being killed for honor?
Why are honor killings justified in countries like Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Iraq, Pakistan and Afghanistan by not implementing stiffer penalties for those who commit these heinous crimes. Jordan and Afghanistan sanction this barbarism by law.
Honor killings are justified under Islam in some Muslim countries such as Saudi Arabia. For example, tenth-grade textbooks teach Saudi children that it is permissible to kill adulterers. In April 2008, a girl was killed by her father for talking to a boy on Facebook, an online social networking website. A leading Saudi cleric, Sheikh Ali al-Maliki, was outraged that girls had access to such websites where they could post pictures of themselves and otherwise “behave badly,” but showed no concern over the girl actually killed.
Honor killings are justified as a necessary part of culture in other Muslim countries such as Jordan, which is technically a secular kingdom with a representative parliament. In 2001 King Abdallah presented a bill outlining stiff penalties for honor killings, but parliament rejected it, stating, “it [punishing honor killings] would encourage adultery and create new social problems.” Four years later, honor killings accounted for one-third of all violent deaths in Jordan in 2005, where perpetrators received as little as six months in prison under the penal code. READ MORE
My blogger thought on the subject:
Rifqa Bary didn’t just decide to open up a can of religious worms. This young lady knows much more about the culture from which her family comes than any of us could possibly know.
She knew before she converted to Christianity what was at stake — her life.
I believe her.
If Honor Killing is non-Islamic, then Muslims as a whole need to take a stand against it. After all Muslims rioted over a simple caricature of their prophet. Why not yell, scream, burn down things over the lives of women.
They need to stop, I mean STOP saying Honor Killings don’t happen. Stop saying it’s bigotry initiated by Christians and the West.
It does happen and it’s sanctioned by many Muslim dominated countries. Christians and the Western World didn’t make it up.
This act of blatant sexual discrimination, this horrendous act of misogyny, goes further back than the Byzantine era.
Step up and acknowledge that it is an awful act perpetrated against half the Muslim population. Responsibility cancels out deniability.
STOP VIOLENCE AGAINST WOMEN IN ALL CULTURES AND COUNTRIES — NOW!
MORE ON HONOR KILLINGS
