WUNRN
DISHONORABLE MUSLIM MASS MURDER IN
CANADA
by Phyllis Chesler
Pajamas Media
July 27, 2009
_______________________________________________________________
http://www.ottawacitizen.com:80/news/This+domestic+violence/1834941/story.html
CANADA - THIS IS NOT DOMESTIC VIOLENCE
- If
we are to stop honour killings in the West, we must see them for what they are.
July 28, 2009
By
Raheel Raza, The Ottawa Citizen
Flowers mark the site at the
Kingston Locks on the Rideau Canal where 3 teenagers - Zainab, Sahari, and
Geeti Shafia - and Rona Amir Mohammad, were found dead. The girls' parents and
brother have been arrested on murder charges. Many are reluctant to discuss the
possibility that family honour was a motive.
Photograph by Marcos Townsend,
Canwest News Service, The Ottawa Citizen
Two
men appear in court in London charged with throwing acid in the face of the
suspected lover of a British Muslim woman, blinding him; on the same date, in
Canada, a brother, father and mother are accused of murdering three teenagers
and their stepmother in Kingston; in Texas two teenage sisters are shot and
killed, and their father is wanted, accused of murdering them because he was
upset by their "western ways"; In New York the founder of Bridges TV,
Muzzammil Hassan, is arrested for allegedly having beheaded his wife, Aasiya Z.
Hassan, who had recently filed for divorce.
Domestic violence?
Drug- related murders? Not by a long shot. These cases have two things in
common. They were allegedly perpetrated by Muslims against Muslims, and the
motive in each case seems to be "honour."
Following the recent
case in Kingston, where three sisters and their stepmother were killed, there
is the usual denial by individuals and organizations about use of the term
"honour killings."
Usual because these
are the same voices that spoke out when Aqsa Parvez was brutally murdered in
Mississauga. Her father allegedly strangled her for not conforming to his set
of rules and regulations.
Muslim groups called
this "a teenage problem" and "domestic violence." In their
rush to deny that this was an honour killing, I believe they dishonour the memory
of Aqsa Parvez and miss the opportunity to speak out against the rise of
violence against other Muslim women which is immoral, unethical and unjust.
These murders are
also totally un-Islamic, as the Koran says taking one life is like killing all
of humanity.
Yet it is misguided
to ignore the rise in such cases out of the fear that doing otherwise would
tranish the community image. So people sweep this problem under the carpet and
if there is insistence from outside the Muslim community, they raise the red
flag of Islamophobia. This has stifled all debate and discussion about honour
killings.
That honour killings
are on the rise in the West is well documented in a report in The Middle
Eastern Quarterly, Spring 2009 issue, titled "Are honour killings simply
domestic violence?"
The author of the
report, Phyllis Chesler has studied more than 50 instances of honour killings
in North America and suggests that honour killings are distinct from wife
battering, child abuse and other forms of domestic violence. Her research has
shown that honour killings in North America stem from the same background and
for similar reasons as they do in other parts of the world.
Honour killings are
mostly perpetuated by males of a family against young women for not conforming
to their rules and regulations.
For example, when
girls who resist arranged marriages are considered "too westernized,"
show independence of thought and action and mingle with the opposite sex, they
are ostracized and become targets of a so-called honour cleansing.
In some instances
these men from strong patriarchal backgrounds believe they are the guardians of
the women's virtue and it's their obligation to control their sisters, wives,
daughter and sometimes their mothers and force them to "obey the rules."
When the women
disagree or resist, they may be given a warning, followed by a physical attack
of some sort (such as acid thrown on their faces) and then they are killed --
sometimes in collusion with female family members because morality is
considered a collective right, not an individual choice.
In some parts of the
world, the perpetrators of these murders are seen as heroes and honour killing
is not stigmatized. This raises serious questions about the value of a woman's
life.
In Canada, where
immigrants are welcomed from many parts of the world, they sometimes bring with
them their fundamentalist ideologies in the form of excess baggage -- cultural
and tribal practices that are alien to Canadian democracy.
This is a serious
problem and there are ways in which it can be handled. There should be a
two-pronged approach. One, by the ethnic and religious communities involved.
They must educate their youth and community leaders about the true meaning of
respect for women, giving them the equal rights accorded to them under the
Canadian Charter.
Secondly, it's
imperative that Canadian immigration authorities and policy makers be aware of
problems that may strike at the heart of Canadian values of gender equality and
freedom of expression.
Potential immigrants
must be informed of practices that are outside the realm of human rights and
the law, and murderers and their accomplices must be given heavy punishments,
to set an example that Canada will not tolerate violations of human rights in
any way or form.
Raheel Raza is a
women's rights activist and author of Their Jihad ... Not My Jihad.
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