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AN AMERICAN 'HONOR KILLING' - Will you ignore another one?
by René | July 23, 2008 at 03:14 pm | 544 views | 19 comments
America must make a stand, because many Europeans either can't or won't.
An OP-ED by John Avlon, New York Post
By JOHN P. AVLON
Posted: 4:02 am
July 23, 2008ON July 6, police say, a Pakistani named Chaudhry Rashid strangled his 25-year-old daughter San- deela Kanwal with a Bungee cord in her bedroom because she wanted to end her arranged marriage. This "honor killing" came not in Pakistan, but in Jonesboro, Ga. - a suburb 16 miles outside Atlanta.
some further excerpts
When a blonde girl goes missing, cable networks stop in their tracks - but when a Muslim woman is murdered by her father, there's not a ripple of sustained interest. Where's the outrage?
... multiculturalism hits a crossroads when honor killings come to America.
... the greatest danger to civil liberties in the world today comes not from the United States, but from a medieval tribalism that's still murdering people around the world under the guise of enforcing piousness.
"America is an assimilating nation," affirms author and exile Ayaan Hirsi Ali, "and so when immigrant Muslim men assimilate into American society they are applauded for it. But when some immigrant Muslim women assimilate into American society, they find themselves ostracized - beaten and even killed by their own families. And the American public ignores their plight to protect the immigrant Muslim community from stigma."
There should be wall-to-wall coverage when Rashid's pretrail hearings begin tomorrow in Atlanta. By any standards, this is a sensational crime.
Instead it will probably be swept under the rug, just old news or just domestic violence
These rationalizations cover up a discomfort with wading into cultural judgment - and a desire to avoid the risk of violence that always comes with criticizing radical Islam.
There's a cost to such squeamishness. In England, Lord Chief Justice Phillips, the country's top judge, has said that sharia law should be incorporated into British law, while the Archbishop of Canterbury described such incorporation as "inevitable."
This slippery slope threatens to undermine liberal democracy and even the concept of civilized norms. America must make a stand, because many Europeans either can't or won't.
As Ayaan says: "As an immigrant Muslim woman running for your life, from your own family, I think America is a better place for us, because we know that Americans are individualist enough that they will ultimately choose to protect us - while Europeans choose to stick their heads in the sand and pretend nothing is going on."
'Running for your life', just because she wants to be more American, and thinks we will give her the freedom to be free.
Who in the 'free press' will stand up for these women? Who in America?
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July 23, 2008 at 03:14 pm by René, 544 views, 19 comments
Crowd Power
Barry Artiste
Vancouver, Canada
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Comments (19)
at 16:17 on July 23rd, 2008
Just one of many passages from the bible that talk about honor killings. A Christian bible.
Proverbs 20:20
Whoso curseth his father or his mother his lamp shall be put out in obscure darkness
Exodus 21:17
And he that curseth his father or his mother shall surely be put to death
Honor killings have been part of American society for a long time. One prominent KKK leader said it is right to god to kill blacks. And if a white woman slept with a black man or polluted their blood it was right to kill them. Ever here of the one-drop law. It was used to identify people with minority blood, and also to justify killing somebody who was mixed as saying they weren't white because they had Italian, Indian, African, or Spanish blood.
Honor killing took place in Greek mythology as well. Honor killings have occurred in every culture, modern, premodern, Western, Asian, African, Muslim, Christian, Jewish. It still happens with Jews in Israel if they get involved with Palestinian.
Nazi and KKK groups still surviving in America advocate this type of behavior, and they are Christian organizations. How scary is that?
- reply
long_tongue_toadat 16:25 on July 23rd, 2008
i think you will find those passages are about a spiritual lamp being put out and being in spiritual darkness and unable to understand gods ways rather than about physical killings
at 21:59 on July 23rd, 2008
Granted what you say is true V Rod, but surely in a civilized society, we have progressed to understand a Dark Age religion which always seems to preach the death of a woman or child, including passages in Christianity as you say, certainly has no place in todays society. We used to burn witches too, as for the KKK, well we are certainly not alone in the looney rituals which seem to plague our society and would report the same atrocities and expect the same punishments to be meted out to Right Wing Christian Zealots and others who preach the death of another over what someones Imaginary Friend reportedly once said 2,000 years ago. MOst holy books were written by those who took great artistic licence in interpreting what their Imaginary Friends had once said, and for the most part these passages were written centuries after said Imaginary Friend had passed on to the great Fiord in the sky. I am sure many have seen Monty Python's The Life of Brian, certainly worth a second viewing, when understanding how so called Messiah's are born. Nice Plumage, the Norwegian Blue, Gov'nor!
at 16:34 on July 23rd, 2008
So death refers to a spiritual lamp. Couldn't I just get a match and relight it? I guess "death" doesn't mean killing or murdering anybody. I would have never thought that God would take a water hose to my inner lantern.
at 16:41 on July 23rd, 2008
René, I like this story. It's good stuff. Horrific Rene
at 17:08 on July 23rd, 2008
Thanks, Barry, I hope Al/politsite can motivate some of his people over in that area to check on this trial.
Where are you Al? Got an email that you commented or added something here, but it is not here
at 17:41 on July 23rd, 2008
René, I like this story. It's good stuff.
at 21:23 on July 23rd, 2008
i do not understand what this has to do with Europe, since this happened in the US, US Law has to apply and that is all! I agree that this is a horrible story and that this should not even exist, at least not in the Western World. I just fail to see the connection though!
at 21:40 on July 23rd, 2008
Perhaps you should read the whole original article. I only excerpted part of it.
here's a pertinent part:
at 21:52 on July 23rd, 2008
Similar killing have ac-cured in Canada, Toronto as well and fall under the local criminal code and will be and are being persecuted as first degree murder cases! Any one failing to obey local laws or breaking them will be perceccuted in Europe as well as in Norh America or else where! Now In some countries even though the law ferbbits this sorts of Honour killings like India, for excemple, it is still very difficult to enforce the laws due to the culture of some groups and the lack of evidence, since most of those victims simply wanish!
at 22:04 on July 23rd, 2008
What you say is so True Paschen, what seems to happen in Canada, is they send the intended Victim back to their Country of origin on the premise of a holiday, and then are never seen again, or in the case of a Maple Ridge BC family, they had a hit squad in India to kill their own daughter. All for honour. Somehow both parties have escaped Canadian Prosecution because it happened in a foreign land.
at 22:13 on July 23rd, 2008
Yes I remember that case, i think they killed their dotter as well as her Husband, the Man she married against her parents will because he was of a lower cast!
at 21:08 on July 23rd, 2008
René, I like this story. It's good stuff.
at 22:11 on July 23rd, 2008
René, I like this story. It's good stuff.
at 22:17 on July 23rd, 2008
René, I like this story. It's good stuff.
A sad story. Honor killing...What's the honor in killing deliberately a close family member? ..This is our western point of view. The solution is not obvious: .."Police have found such crimes almost impossible to solve because of a strict code of silence"...see here.
at 22:42 on July 23rd, 2008
Korzac, without a doubt you are indeed a master wordsmith, that link though tragic, certainly puts things in perspective.
at 23:39 on July 23rd, 2008
In Israel? They think they are exempt from the law? you do have laws against murder? And they claim they are people of the book? So I guess their book trumps all laws in their eyes.
Do you know what happened to the woman who decided enough was enough? IMAMA ABU GHANEM? is she still alive? have charges been brought?
at 05:49 on July 24th, 2008
Here is another link on the case and interviews Rene. With the same Inspector Korzac mentioned, but with an ABC reporter. I think IMAMA ABU GHANEM is still alive.
The second link is the ABC video of the interview
http://www.abc.net.au/7.30/content/2007/s1900891.htm
http://www.abc.net.au/reslib/200704/r138335_472247.asx
at 13:32 on July 24th, 2008
You should list it as op-ed or something. It's confusing otherwise.