14 October 2008

January Murders Now Called "Honor Killings" By The FBI

The January murders of Amina and Sarah Said in Irving, Texas are finally being called "honor killings" by the FBI. Do you want to guess who isn't pleased with that?

Almost a year after two teenage girls were found dead — allegedly executed by their father — in the back seat of a taxicab in Texas, the FBI is saying for the first time that the case may have been an "honor killing" — and the bureau is angering Muslim groups by calling it that.

Sarah Said, 17, and her sister Amina, 18, were killed on New Year's Day, but for nine months authorities deflected questions about whether their father — the prime suspect and the subject of a nationwide manhunt — may have targeted them because of a perceived slight upon his honor. [...]

"As far as we're concerned, until the motive is proven in a court of law, this is [just] a homicide," Mustafaa Carroll, the executive director of the Council of American-Islamic Relations in Dallas, told FOXNews.com.

He said he worries that terms like "honor killing" may stigmatize the Islamic community. "We (Muslims) don’t have the market on jealous husbands ... or domestic violence," Carroll said.
Look, Mustafaa, what ends up stigmatizing the Islamic community is when organizations like CAIR have mouthpieces like you coming out to try to play word games and claim Islamophobia, instead of actually speaking out vociferously against honor killings that occur within your community. Nobody said that Muslims have cornered the market on jealous husbands or domestic violence. The fact that Mustafaa conveniently skips over, however, is that places in which honor killings continue to occur with some frequently (and often with a pass granted to the murderers) are places in which the vast majority of the population are members of the Islamic community.

The United Nations reports that family members kill more than 5,000 women and girls around the world each year in so-called honor killings. It is the punishment often meted out to women suspected of unsanctioned sexual behavior and believed to have brought shame on the family. Honor killings are most prevalent in strictly traditional societies in the Middle East, North Africa and South Asia. But they also occur in the West.

Source
And what of the communities in which honor killings occur in the West? Well, let's look at the Baitul Salaam shelter in Atlanta, Georgia for more on that.

Within our community we are still struggling with the issue of domestic abuse," says Hadayai Majeed, who runs the Baitul Salaam shelter in Atlanta, which caters to Muslim women.

She says women and girls who come to the shelter sometimes have been physically punished for what their fathers, husbands and brothers believe is behavior that dishonors the family.

Dating a non-Muslim or not wearing a traditional head scarf can trigger a beating.

"This can be interpreted as being extremely rebellious or be an excuse for abuse," Majeed says.

Not only is this behavior culturally accepted in many Islamic countries, but it is encouraged. Last year a prominent Saudi cleric went on television to tell Muslim men how to properly beat their wives.
Whether or not Mustafaa likes it, this is a problem for the Islamic community. And the longer that organizations like CAIR try to play the victim while attempting hush-up these dirty, little secrets, the more people will look at the Islamic community with a skeptical, and even accusatory, eye.

USMC 9971 OUT

1 comment:

Joe of St. Thérèse said...

people wonder...it's real simple, no in the muslim community speaks out against violence like this, and as a result they're participating by omission.