MUSLIM FOREIGN HONOR MURDER
MUSLIM LOVE FOR AMERICA HONOR
MURDER
Sweden: Muslim
migrant who received medal from king convicted of honor violence against his
daughter
APR 18,
2021 3:00 PM BY ROBERT SPENCER
Jihadwatch.org
When he
received his award, Rasoul Zarar
Ibrahim was clearly considered a model of assimilation. But as this account
notes, he still carried attitudes and assumptions from the Islamic culture of
violence in his mental baggage. His daughter has paid the price. Will Swedish
authorities try to protect women and girls in similar situations by working to
eradicate such attitudes from Muslim migrants? Of course not. That would be
“Islamophobic.”
The Qur’an
teaches that men are superior to women and should beat those from whom they
“fear disobedience”: “Men have authority over women because Allah has made the
one superior to the other, and because they spend their wealth to maintain
them. Good women are obedient. They guard their unseen parts because Allah has
guarded them. As for those from whom you fear disobedience, admonish them and
send them to beds apart and beat them.” — Qur’an 4:34
Muhammad’s
child bride, Aisha, says in a hadith that Muhammad “struck me on the chest
which caused me pain, and then said: ‘Did you think that Allah and His Apostle
would deal unjustly with you?’” — Sahih Muslim 2127
An another hadith states: “Rifa`a
divorced his wife whereupon `AbdurRahman bin
Az-Zubair Al-Qurazi married her. `Aisha said that the
lady (came), wearing a green veil (and complained to her (Aisha) of her husband
and showed her a green spot on her skin caused by beating). It was the habit of
ladies to support each other, so when Allah’s Messenger came, Aisha said, ‘I
have not seen any woman suffering as much as the believing women. Look! Her
skin is greener than her clothes!’” — Sahih Bukhari 7.77.5825
“Moderate Arab
convicted of honor violence – received a medal by the king,” translated from “Moderat arab dömd
för hedersvåld – fick medalj av kungen,” Fri Kurir, April 13, 2021 (thanks to The Religion of Peace):
In 2014, Rasoul Zarar Ibrahim received a
medal from His Majesty King Carl XVI Gustaf. His “sunshine history” in Sweden
since 1990 earned him the New Builder of the Year award. Now, however, Ibrahim
has been convicted of honor killing against his own daughter. This after almost
30 years in the country where he has, among other things, represented the
Moderates in the municipal council.
It was 16
years ago that Ibrahim had children with a Swedish woman from Sundsbruk who was eleven years younger. In 2008, however,
he began to focus on entrepreneurship, and later separated from his Swedish
girlfriend.
Although
Ibrahim has been in Sweden for around 30 years, he has still not gotten used to
Swedish culture. His daughter has therefore experienced a significant share of
honor culture from his home country. Among other things, he has banned her from
using social media. The daughter’s Facebook account is now reduced to a picture
of a patched teddy bear holding a bouquet of roses.
At the end of
2020, Ibrahim was therefore sentenced by Ångermanland
District Court for harassment.
According to
the verdict, it can be deduced that he:
“Screamed ‘shut
up, fucking idiot’ and similar expressions, took her cell phone and read her
private messages, hit her with the car door so that her cap and glasses went
off her, and caused a red mark on her nose.”
It also
appears that he took his daughter’s mobile phone and started scrolling through
her messages while driving the car. He has angrily “told her to stop being on
social media and questioned which friends she has.”
Judge Susanne Söderström Wallin sentenced
Ibrahim to a fine of SEK 1,500 for his honor crime.
Despite the
fact that Ibrahim runs Subway restaurants with a turnover of 25 million a year,
the district court apparently considers that SEK 1,500 would constitute a
“penalty” and leaves the state to cover his legal costs of SEK 60,000.
Multan
court indicts five for the murder of model Qandeel Baloch, including an imam
Shafique Khokhar
05/04/2018
The famous Pakistani blogger was strangled by her younger brother in the name
of family “honour”. Her easy-going ways were disliked
by orthodox Muslims. “Justice for many other women killed or burnt for ‘honour' waits for years.”
Multan (AsiaNews) – A court in Multan indicted five people in connection with
one Pakistan’s most notorious cases of honour
killing, namely the murder in July 2016 of Qandeel Baloch, a well-known model,
blogger and youtuber.
One of those indicted is Imam Abdul Qavi, who was
investigated for complicity right after the young woman was strangled by her
younger brother Waseem Azaam to restore the family’s
lost “honour".
“Qandeel Baloch’s murder was a tragedy,” journalist Husnain
Jamil told AsiaNews. “In Pakistan the number of honour
killings is increasing due to the inadequate application of existing laws. We
demand a fair and impartial trial to reduce the cases of violence against women."
The young model was a controversial figure and her murder in 2016 was a cause
célèbre. She was an iconic figure of female open-mindedness and courage, but by
the standards of Pakistan’s male-dominated worldview, she was "too
free".
Her selfie with Islamic cleric Qavi (picture 2)
caused scandal and led to a flood of criticism. For the model’s father, Azeem,
the cleric was the instigator of the murder perpetrated by her younger brother
Waseem.
During the trial, Azeem said that the imam offered him money to withdraw the
charges against him. The next hearing is scheduled for 14 May.
Journalist Jamil hopes that "the lower court will follow the decision of
the Supreme Court and come to a decision without being influenced by the
pressures of influential people and religious figures.”
“The perpetrator,” he explained, “must be punished according to the law. What
women decide to do with their lives is their business. They should not be used
as an excuse to incite extreme violence against them."
For Naseem Kousar, researcher and writer, “Although
justice is being delivered, this won’t ensure the absolute application of the
law, nor will it mean equality and equity for vulnerable and minority
groups."
"The case of Qandeel Baloch was solved quickly only because she was famous
on social media and the pressure exerted by the national and international
community. Justice for many other women killed or burnt for “honour' waits for years. We need the rule of law to be
applied in a neutral manner."
According to Bilal Warraich, a lawyer and activist,
"it is good that all five were indicted, including the imam, the one who
was the trigger for everything. We must welcome these developments in a
positive way, but with caution.”
"The judicial system has always been very dismal, and the same goes for
the role of the police and the investigation teams. This is a case that the
judiciary should treat as a 'test case', which, if treated judiciously, could
stem the rot of the institution itself.”
In fact, "It could be another landmark, like the 1997 Saima Roparri case*. Conversely, Pakistan’s clergy might weigh in
Imam Qavi’s favour. A big
question mark remains as to whether justice will be served in Qandeel’s case.”
* Saima Roparri challenged the practice of arranged
marriage and married the man she loved.
'Honour crime':
11,000 UK cases recorded in five years
By Divya Talwar and
Athar Ahmad
BBC Asian Network & Victoria Derbyshire programme
9 July 2015
The Iranian
and Kurdish Women's Rights Organisation, which
obtained the data, called for a national strategy for police, courts and
schools to follow.
The
crimes are usually aimed at women, and can include abductions, beatings and
even murders.
Commander
Mak Chishty, head of police
policy on the issue, said there was now a better understanding of the problem.
So-called honour crimes are acts which have been
committed to protect or defend the supposed honour or
reputation of a family and community.
'Crimes
unreported'
The
figures revealed 11,744 incidences of these crimes between 2010 and 2014,
consisting of data from 39 out of 52 police forces in the UK. They included
forced marriage and female genital mutilation (FGM).
The
Metropolitan Police recorded the highest number of incidents at 2,188, followed
by West Midlands Police with 1,269 and Bedfordshire Police with 1,106 examples
recorded.
South
Yorkshire had 1,009 unconfirmed incidents in 2014 alone while Lancashire Police
had 1,049.
Diana Nammi, director of the Iranian and Kurdish Women's Rights Organisation - a charity that provides support to Middle
Eastern women living in the UK who are facing "honour"
violence - said the figures suggested incidence of the crime remained
"consistently high" in the UK and that the issue was "not going
away".
She
said: "Unfortunately they [the figures] do not show the real extent of the
problem. So many crimes are unreported because the perpetrators are often the
victim's own family.
"We
need a national strategy for all agencies - including police forces, courts,
and schools - to be trained and to work together to end this problem."
Anisa's story
Anisa
- not her real name - is a British Asian woman in her early 20s.
She
has been staying in one of only a handful of safe houses in the UK just for
Asian women, run by the charity Hestia, to protect her from her parents.
She
says they believe she has shamed and dishonoured her
family by leaving her abusive husband.
"My
husband would beat me at least twice a week. If he wasn't strangling me, he was
punching me and slapping me. My parents knew what was going on and they let it
happen," Anisa said.
"When
I ran away from my husband, my parents threatened to kill me if I didn't go
back. They see it as a big dishonour, like I've
slated the family name.
"I'm
really scared they are going to find me and force me to go back, and if I
refuse, they will kill me," she added.
'Better understanding'
Her
Majesty's Inspectorate of Constabulary (HMIC) is carrying out its first review
into police handling of these crimes this summer, saying the issue remains
"largely under the radar of most agencies, including the police".
Commander
Chishty said: "There have been huge failings and
we are sorry about those cases."
"I
think we're in a better place because of our training given to all officers -
our understanding is better. Honour-based violence is
no longer a fringe issue.
"I
think if we work hard enough at it together, we can start to eradicate
this," he added.
Crimes against women: ‘There are more honour killings than we know’
LAHORE:
“As many as 500 women and girls are killed for
‘honour’ in Pakistan each year, making Pakistan one
of the most dangerous countries for women,” said Dr Muazzam
Nasrullah, a public health specialist teaching at Emory and West Virginia
University, USA, on Friday.
He was
delivering a lecture on Honour Killings: A Public
Health Perspective at the University of Health Sciences, organised
by the UHS Department of Family Medicine.
Dr Nasrullah
stressed the need to provide a platform to oppressed women. “This will help
create an informed and supportive environment for advocacy for policies to
eliminate violence against women,” he said.
He
said, ‘honour’ killings most often involved women
being murdered by their family members to avenge the ‘shame’ brought on through
infidelity or culturally unacceptable behaviour.
“This is a unique form of violence,” said Dr Nasrullah.
“Domestic
violence is usually carried out by husbands or romantic partners…in this case
the perpetrators are usually brothers or fathers.”
Dr
Nasrullah said his study had tried to quantify the problem since data on the
matter was hard to come by. He said he had used newspaper reports compiled by
the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan for his study. He said 1,957 incidents
of honour killings had been recorded over the past
four years.
Most
of them had occurred in response to alleged extramarital relations.
Dr
Nasrullah said he was sure that the number of incidents reported was lower than
the actual number of incidents, as not every incident makes it to the media.
“The problem is much worse than what this study makes it out to be,” he said.
The
average rate of honour killings in women between
15-64 years was found to be 15 per million women per year.
He said murders for ‘honour’
occurred all over the country under various names kala-kali (Punjab), karo-kari (Sindh), tor-tora (Khyber
Pakhtunkhwa) and Siyakari (Balochistan).
Human
Rights Commission of Pakistan Director IA Rehman said although honour killings were illegal, there were loopholes in the
law that often prevented full punishment for the
crime.
He
said it was very important to have reliable data about honour
killings.
Published
in The Express Tribune, February 15th, 2014.
Commission details 675 honour
killings in Pakistan in nine-month period
AFL December 20, 2011
AT least 675 Pakistani women and girls were
murdered during the first nine months of the year for allegedly defaming their
family's honour, a leading human rights group said
today.
The statistics highlight the scale of violence
suffered by many women in conservative Muslim Pakistan, where they are
frequently treated as second-class citizens and there is no law against
domestic violence.
Despite some progress on better protecting
women's rights, activists say the government needs to do far more to prosecute
murderers in cases largely dismissed by police as private, family affairs.
"A total of 675 women and girls were
killed in the name of honour across Pakistan from
January to September," a senior official in the Human Rights Commission of
Pakistan said.
They included at least 71 victims under the age
of 18.
The official, who spoke on condition of
anonymity because he is unauthorised to speak to the
media, said figures were still being compiled for the period covering October
to December, and that a full report would be released in February.The
Commission reported 791 honour killings in 2010 and
there was no discernible decrease this year, the official added.
Around 450 of the women killed from January to
September were accused of having "illicit relations" and 129 of
marrying without permission.
Some victims were raped or gangraped before
being killed, he said. At least 19 were killed by their sons, 49 by their
fathers and 169 by their husbands.
Rights groups say the government should do more
to ensure that women subject to violence, harassment and discrimination have
effective access to justice.
Ali Dayan Hasan, Pakistan director at Human
Rights Watch, said the state's inability to enforce rule of law, leaving
matters in the hands of tribesmen and local elders, was a major factor.
"We have a system in Pakistan where the
state and judicial recourse are absent and the vacuum is filled by local
elders," Hasan said.
"A combination of legal reforms, exercise of
administrative authority and social awareness can greatly help check the honour killings," he added.
Earlier this month, a Belgian court sentenced
four members of a Pakistani family to prison for the murder of their daughter
and sister, who defied them by living with a Belgian man and refusing an
arranged marriage.
Alarming rise of Muslim 'honour
attacks' in the UK as police reveal thousands were carried out last year
By DAILY MAIL REPORTER
Last updated at 1:15 PM on 3rd December 2011
London sees the highest number of honour crimes, with
West Midlands second
Call for more support for victims as cases rise
by more than 300 per cent in some areas
Culprits hailed 'heroes' in the community for
carrying out the attacks
Nearly 3,000 so-called honour attacks were recorded
by police in Britain last year, new research has revealed.
According to figures obtained by the Iranian
and Kurdish Women's Rights Organisation (Ikwro), at least 2,823 incidents of 'honour-based'
violence took place, with the highest number recorded in London.
The charity said the statistics fail to provide
the full picture of the levels of 'honour' violence
in the UK , but are the best national estimate so far.
The data, taken from from
39 out of 52 UK forces, was released following a freedom of information request
by Ikwro.
In total, eight police forces recorded more
than 100 so called honour-related attacks in 2010.
The Metropolitan Police saw 495 incidents, with
378 reported in the West Midlands, 350 in West Yorkshire, 227 in Lancashire and
189 in Greater Manchester.
Cleveland recorded 153, while Suffolk and
Bedfordshire saw 118 and 117 respectively, according to the figures.
Between the 12 forces able to provide figures
from 2009, there was an overall 47 per cent rise in honour
attack incidents.
Police in Northumbria saw a 305 per cent increase
from 17 incidents in 2009 to 69 in 2010, while Cambridgeshire
saw a 154 per cent jump from 11 to 28.
A quarter of police
forces in the UK were unable or unwilling to provide data, Ikwro
said.
The report stated: 'This is the first time that
a national estimate has been provided in relation to reporting of honour-based violence.
'The number of incidents is significant,
particularly when we consider the high levels of abuse that victims suffer
before they seek help.'
'Honour' attacks are
punishments usually carried out against Muslim women who have been accused of
bringing shame on their family and in the past have included abductions,
mutilations, beatings and murder.
Ikwro director Diana Nammi
told the BBC that families often deny the existence of the attacks.
She said: 'The perpetrators will be even
considered as a hero within the community because he is the one defending the
family and community's honour and reputation.'
Calling for more support for victims, she
added: 'For some cases, police and some organisations
just help them up to a length of time, then they will stop. With honour-based violence, the threat may be a lifetime threat
for them.
The problem is that there is no systematic
training for police and other government forces in the UK, such as social
services, teachers and midwives.
She said that honour-based
violence is an 'organised or collective crime or
incident' which is orchestrated by a family or within a community.
Honour crimes mostly happen
in South Asian, Eastern European and Middle Eastern communities, she added.
Ms Nammi
added that 'lots of things' are considered to be dishonourable
including; having a boyfriend, being a victim of rape, refusing an arranged
marriage, being gay or lesbian and in some cases wearing make-up or
inappropriate dress.
The association of Chief Police Officers (Acpo) said they were working hard to offer support to
victims, and front-line staff had been specially trained to deal with
complaints.
Commander Mak Chishty, lead for honour based violence, said: 'In 2008 Acpo
published a strategy which recommended consistent reporting across England and
Wales. We are satisfied that this is being done.
We're now in consultation on a new strategy.
All frontline staff have received awareness training and every force has a
champion on honour-based abuse.
Acpo is confident that any
victim who comes to us will receive the help they need.'
A Home Office spokesman said: 'We are
determined to end honour violence and recognise the need for greater consistency on the ground to
stop this indefensible practice.
Our action plan to end violence against women
and girls sets out our approach to raise awareness, enhance training for police
and prosecutors and better support victims.'
A Metropolitan Police Service (MPS) spokesman
said: 'Honour-based violence cuts across all
cultures, nationalities and faith groups - it is a worldwide problem.
Our fundamental aims are always: to preserve
life, protect those at risk, and seek to bring perpetrators to justice.
The MPS has been on a significant journey
regarding how we police honour-based violence over
the past decade, and has played an instrumental part in developing work in this
field.
We have used our organisational
learning over the years to inform our current policies, staff training and
operating procedures.
We know that like other hate crimes, honour-based violence is under-reported however, and remain
very concerned about this. We continue to work with victims' groups,
non-governmental organisations and statutory agencies
to ensure that we are providing the best assistance possible to victims - they
are at the heart of all we do.
The spokesman added there were
specially-trained officers who carry out daily reviews of reported incidents in
London.
He said: 'The MPS has incorporated honour-based violence and forced marriage into its
mandatory domestic violence training for all constables, sergeants and
inspectors; there has also been specific training for PCSOs and senior
officers, and regular training sessions for other specialist officers such as schools officers and Safer Neighbourhoods'
Teams.'
In 2006, Banaz Mahmod, from Mitcham, south London, was strangled on the
orders of her father and uncle because they thought her boyfriend was
unsuitable.
Cousins Mohammed Saleh Ali and Omar hussain, both 28, were jailed last year for a minimum of 22
and 21 years respectively for the honour killing of
the 20-year-old Iraqi Kurd.
The victim's father Mahmod
Mahmod and uncle Ari Mahmod
were jailed for life at the Old Bailey in 2007.
Honor Killings: The Islamic Connection
FrontPageMagazine.com
Thursday, November 13, 2008
She knew.
She told her friends that her father was going to kill her. She ran away,
stayed at a shelter, stayed with friends. She was lured back home by honeyed
sentences. Her family could not sleep without her. Late last year, on December
10th, in Toronto, sixteen year-old Aqsa Parvez's
father. Mohammed, and her brother, Waqas, collaborated in her murder.
Aqsa's crime? She refused to wear hijab, she was
becoming too assimilated.
Mohammed and Waqas Parvez are currently in jail awaiting trial.
This seems to be an open-and-shut case of an
honor killing. Islamists in Canada disagree and have launched a protest against
a popular Canadian magazine, Toronto Life,
for daring to describe Aqsa's murder as an honor killing. An announcement,
ostensibly penned by Michelle@urbanalliance.ca
went out over Facebook
calling for people to barrage the magazine's editor, Sarah Fulford, with email
and telephone criticism and to attend a Speak Out and press conference which
was to have taken place last night. And to write to a new pro-Muslim magazine
titled Aqsa-Zine.
Ironically, the new zine is open to Muslim women
only. No Christians, Jews, or Hindus need apply.
This is the problem: Islamist separatism --
aka Islamic religious and gender apartheid. It is practiced in Muslim countries
and transported by immigrations globally. Tradition and religion have a storng hold, especially on immigrants in a strange,
new land. However, many religious and cultural
groups have managed to both integrate and to retain their own religious identities.
Muslim immigrants (and their third generation
descendants) seem to have a much harder time with this balancing act.
If we understand Islam as an all-encompassing
political, military, religious, social, and cultural entity (which it is), then
things become clearer.
Known honor killings first arrived in North
America in 1989, when Palestina Isa's father, an Abu
Nidal Palestinian terrorist and his wife, her mother, both slaughtered their
hard-working and much-abused 16 year old daughter Palestina. Her crime? She was becoming too
"American," too independent, too academically ambitious--and she had
a friend, a boy, who was an African-American. Her mother held her down and her
father butchered her with tremendous animal ferocity.
On January 1st of this year, Yasser Said shot
his daughters Sarah and Amina to death in Dallas and probably escaped back to
Egypt. Like Palestina, they were teenagers (aged 17
and 18). Their mother collaborated in their murder by luring them back home to
their deaths. The FBI has been hunting for Said and recently featured him on
their Ten Most Wanted List. They described Said as having committed an
"honor killing."
For reasons that remain unclear, within a week,
the FBI removed that description. Some say that the Bureau caved into Islamist
pressure. Others, myself included, suggest that it would not necessarily help
them capture Said if he were seen as a "Muslim hero," who was
being persecuted because he is a Muslim.
After Parvez was honor killed, Mohammed Elmasry, of the Canadian Islamic Congress, was quoted as
saying: "I don't want the public to think that this is an Islamic issue or
an immigrant issue. It is a teenager issue."
Islamists insist that honor killings have
nothing to do with Islam. They say that it is a "cultural" but not an
"Islamic" crime. They are wrong. Islamists also say that honor
murders are the same as domestic violence. All men, all religions engage in it.
Wrong. Most honor killings are committed by Muslims who believe that what they are
doing is a sacred, religious act. They may misunderstand the Qu'ran but as yet, no mullah or imam has stood up in the
global, public square to condemn such murders as dishonorable and anti-Islamic.
No fatwa has ever been issued against a Muslim honor killer.
In terms of domestic
violence, western-style domestic batterers rarely kill their daughters.
That is a characteristic of an honor killing. And, western style domestic
batterers act alone when they kill their adult partners. An honor killing is a
collaborative act between several or many members of the same family.
It is unfortunate, even shameful, but not
surprising that Islamists seek to cover up this sin against Muslim girls and
women by attacking those who would dare expose it as "Islamophobes."
We cannot afford to fall for this deception. A
crime is a crime. The shame resides in the criminal, not in his victim. The
shame will become ours if we justify the brutal sacrifice of Muslim girls and
women in order to remain multi-culturally and politically correct.
MUSLIM DAD SETS UP SON TO MURDER DAUGHTER'S BOY
FRIEND
By J. Grant
Swank, Jr. MichNews.com Dec 15, 2005
She had his child. The boy friend then was killed by her father. In other words,
the family was "dishonored."
Dishonoring a Muslim family can
yield a killing. Whoever did the dishonoring is to be slain. Sometimes it’s by
bullet or knife or whatever. But the dishonoring must be vindicated. Therefore,
Allah is satisfied. This goes on every day. It is happening while I type.
Such devilish customs are frightening
cultures not used to such barbarism. Therefore, as Muslims move to non-Muslim
societies, they keep their traditions such as "honor killing." That
of course cuts through the civility of cultures that do not tolerate such
devilment.
Arash Ghorbani-Zarin, 19, was cut through with a knife 46 times.
He had been seated in an automobile in Oxford in November 2004.
The reason he was slain is because
he was accused of impregnating Manna Begum, his girl friend.
With that, her two brothers slaughtered the boy friend.
Her father, Chomir
Ali, 44, set it all up. He convinced the brother to slay the girl’s boy friend. "It’s just the way Muslims are," Cheherazad Jmil reported to the
press. In other words, such doings are common place. It is expected from the Muslims
in certain communities.
When honor killing takes place,
often the press does not report it. Often the police do nothing. Often even the
females in the Muslim community shield the murderer. If anyone protests the
honor killing, he is turned upon by Muslim males in particular.
Females are not considered worth
that much by Islamics. The women are possessions of
the clan’s males. If they get out of line, they may find themselves killed. In
this case, it was the boy who was accused of impregnating the girl who was
slain in order to retrieve the honor of the clan.
The girl would walk through the
neighborhood holding the boy’s hand. That is not permitted by Muslims who are
legalistic in adhering to their customs. Therefore, the boy had to be gotten
rid of.
A friend warned the girl not to
hold hands in public. Nevertheless, she continued. "It’s shameful for the
family," a friend to the girl informed the media.
According to the Guardian: "A
father and his two sons were today found guilty of the murder of a university
student ‘to vindicate the family's honor.’
"A jury at Oxford Crown Court
ruled that 44-year-old Bangladeshi waiter Chomir Ali
ordered his two sons Mohammed Mujibar Rahman, aged
19, and Mamnoor Rahman, aged 16, to kill Arash Ghorbani-Zarin, a 19-year-old
university student who was in a long-term relationship with Ali's daughter,
Manna Begum, on November 20 last year.
"The three will be jailed for
life.
"The body of Mr. Ghorbani-Zarin - an Iranian Muslim studying electronic
engineering at Oxford Brookes University - was found in his car in Spencer
Crescent, Rosehill - an Oxford suburb. He had been stabbed 46 times, mostly in
the chest."
With Muslims moving increasingly
throughout Europe and Africa as well as North America, concern from non-Muslims
is rising. The non-Muslims are coming to realize that the chief aim of fanatic
Muslims is Islamic world rule. There are 4000 web sites spewing forth hatred
against non-Muslims. Jews in particular are hated, being called
"Jew-pigs." All non-Muslims must be slain, according to Allah’s
dictates in the Koran.
There are sleeper cells throughout
the free countries. These could explode at any time, thus imploding the culture.
There are schools where Islamic teachers instruct boys and girls how to hate
and kill for Allah’s sake. There are TV programs in the Middle East instructing
the same.
Females who do not follow the
legalistic Islamic customs are in danger of being wiped out. For instance,
"Ms. Begum's close friend Cheherazad Jmil described her as a ‘strong character’ who never wore a head scarf or Muslim clothes, but opted instead for jeans
and hooded tops.
"She said she had warned Ms.
Begum her actions would cause embarrassment to her family."
Many Muslim communities expect
their females to cover their bodies from head to toe. In some cases, if a
Muslim female shows her ankles she will be beaten by
her husband. She may even be slain. There are cases where a brother slays his
sister because in some fashion she has dishonored her
clan. Then the brother will take the dead body, hugging it and crying, for he
did not want to slay his sister. Nevertheless, "honor killing"
demanded it.
In non-Muslim cultures this sort of
behavior is anathema. National non-Muslim national leaders are slowly coming to
realize that this infusion of such carnage cannot be tolerated in a non-Muslim
society.
Muslim leaders in Muslim countries
usually turn their backs on such horrible customs. It has become so ingrained
in such countries as Pakistan, that it is difficult to get villages and rural
areas to change to a civil manner of living.
BERLIN -- Life was just starting to look up for
23-year-old Hatun Surucu
when the bullets cut her down.
After four years of grueling courses in
vocational school, coupled with the demands of single motherhood, she was only
weeks away from receiving certification as an electrician, a trade that would
give her the independence she desperately craved.
It had been a rough road: Eight years earlier,
her parents, Turkish immigrants, had yanked Surucu
from eighth grade, bundled her off to Istanbul, and forced her to marry an
older cousin. Miserable in Turkey, she had fled her husband and returned to
Berlin with her infant son, determined to make her own way as a modern woman in
a secular society, according to friends.
For a Muslim barely out of girlhood, it was an
act of extraordinary defiance against her family. And it cost Surucu her life.
As Europe's Muslims become increasingly
conservative, growing numbers of women are being killed or mutilated in the
name of ''family honor," according to law enforcement agencies, women's
activist groups, and moderate Islamic organizations. These cases usually involve
an attack on a Muslim woman by a close relative -- typically a brother or
father -- angered by her refusal to accept a forced marriage or her insistence
on leading a Western-style life.
There were at least eight such slayings in
Berlin alone in 2005, and 47 honor killings of Muslim women across Germany in
the past six years, according to police, media reports, and activist groups.
Not coincidentally, activists say, tens of thousands of European-born Muslim
women are annually forced into unwanted marriages, often to
much older men, in their family's home countries. Refusal to submit to such
marriages can bring a death sentence.
Following a spate of headline-grabbing cases,
including Surucu's murder, European countries are
slowly coming to recognize honor killings as a distinct crime.
In Great Britain, for example, a police review
of 22 domestic homicides last year resulted in 18 being reclassified as
''murder in the name of so-called 'honor.' " Scotland Yard has reopened
probes into 109 suspicious deaths, covering a 10-year span, that seem to have
been family conspiracies to kill Muslim women.
The violent trend, say authorities, reflects
the strengthening grip of religious fundamentalism among the continent's 16
million Muslims, many of whom suffer from rising unemployment, inadequate
education, and -- perhaps above all -- the sense of being unwelcome outsiders
in their adopted homes. As Muslim men embrace radical Islam and return to
age-old customs, women are paying a cruel price.
''There is a lost generation of Muslims in
Europe," said Eren Uensal,
spokeswoman for the Turkish Federation of Berlin. ''Ten years ago, Muslims here
were more modern, more secular than those 'back home.' Now the situation has
reversed. The younger men feel there is no place for them in Europe, but they
also feel there is no place else for them."
Islamic radical groups are filling the vacuum.
''The most alarming thing they teach is that violence is an acceptable way to
enforce religious views or social customs," Uensal
said. ''Much of that violence is against women."
Hatun Surucu's
murder was fairly typical of Europe's recent honor killings.
Her parents and brothers in Berlin were
outraged when Surucu abandoned her husband and
returned to Germany with her infant son, Can. Even deeper than the anger was
the family's sense of disgrace at this display of female independence,
according to court testimony and family friends.
But Surucu wanted to
make her own way. She stayed at a Berlin women's shelter only long enough to
complete middle school. Then she found a part-time job, moved into a tiny
apartment, and enrolled in a vocational program.
Further enraging her family, she abandoned the
hijab -- the traditional head scarf worn by some Muslim women -- in favor of
earrings, makeup, and blue jeans. Her son, now 6, was the light of her life,
friends say. But Surucu also loved movies and going
out dancing.
''All she wanted, really, was to be an ordinary
person, just a normal young woman," said Georg Neumann, a friend of Surucu's at the vocational school.
On the night of Feb. 7, 2005, at a bus stop two
blocks from her apartment, Surucu was waiting under a
street lamp when bullets tore into her chest and face at point-blank range.
The slaying, according to police, was a family
affair.
Three of Surucu's
five brothers have been charged with murder. One has already confessed in a
chilling court statement. ''She wanted her own circle of friends" outside
the family, Ayhan Surucu, 18,
said of his sister. ''It was too much."
Ayhan, the youngest brother,
is charged with pulling the trigger. An older brother is charged with acquiring
the gun, and a middle brother is accused of luring his sister to the murder
scene with a phone call in which he said the family wanted to discuss
reconciliation.
''She was still so much wanting to be one with
her family," Neumann said. ''She didn't want to be cut off from them. She
only wanted them to accept that she could have her own life."
Britain opened a review of the suspicious cases
after a Kurdish immigrant from Iraq, Abdullah Yones,
held his 16-year-old daughter over a bathtub and slashed her throat in 2004
after discovering that she was trading love letters with a boy in her high
school class in London. In court last year, Yones
insisted that his daughter brought her fate on herself. On the day he was
sentenced to life imprisonment, dozens of approving Kurdish men came to court
to show solidarity with Yones, according to media
accounts.
In a more recent German case, Goenuel Karabey, 20, the daughter
of Turkish immigrants living in Berlin, refused a forced marriage last June and
disappeared with her boyfriend, a Christian.
Humiliated, her father and brothers tracked her
down in Wiesbaden, in western Germany, at the home of the boyfriend's mother. Karabey was shot dead in the garden after agreeing to speak
with her family. Her brother, Ali, later surrendered the murder weapon to
police, according to media reports.
Along with last year's subway bombings in
London by home-grown Islamic zealots and riots in the Arab suburbs of France,
the honor killings in Europe have horrified a continent that, until recent
years, has paid little heed -- many politicians now concede -- to the religious
fundamentalism breeding in its midst.
Moderate Islamic groups and some European
leaders are warning that honor killings reflect a trend of fundamentalism that
sneers at Western laws and values.
''There are two societies with two different
value systems living side by side -- but wholly apart -- in Europe," said
Seyran Ates, a Berlin lawyer of Turkish origin who
often works with women trying to escape forced marriages.
The first two generations of immigrants, Ates said, found plentiful jobs and were generally content.
But the generation of European-born Muslims now coming of age, Ates said, ''never integrated into Western society [and]
are becoming more and more conservative, not less so."
A Berlin group, Wildwasser,
provides hiding places for girls ages 12 to 18 who feel their lives are in
danger, mainly because of their refusal to enter forced marriages or to quit
school in favor of duties at home.
''So many cases we see involve young [Muslim]
girls who are exposed to ideas of equality and freedom, and take to these ideas
like flowers to the sun," said Mehriban Ozer, a social worker for Wildwasser. ''They want to go to school. They want a life.
The violence comes from fathers and brothers . . . who now see the tiniest step
toward freedom by a female to be a terrible break from tradition."
Although Muslims represent less than 5 percent
of the German population, about half of the girls who come to Wildwasser fleeing violence at home are Turks, Arabs, North
Africans, or West Asians from strict Islamic families, according to Trina Leichsenring, the group's director.
The rise of fundamentalism among Muslims in
Europe can be blamed, at least partially, on the failure of countries to
integrate the millions of Muslims who started arriving in large numbers in the
1960s. Two generations later, most lead lives largely segregated from the
mainstream. ''It's been taboo to discuss integration. It offends those who say
every expression of cultural difference is somehow wonderful," said Heinz Buschkowsky, mayor of the Berlin borough of Neukoelln, where more than a third of the residents are
Arabs and Turks. ''But now, with culture being expressed by covering women's
faces or killing a girl who refuses to marry some old man in the home village,
perhaps it is time to break the taboo."
In Neukoelln's
largely immigrant Thomas Morus school, not far from
the place where Hatun Surucu
was murdered, students greeted news of her slaying with loud approval. Her
brothers were hailed as local heroes.
The principal, Volker Steffans,
was so disgusted by the display that he sent a letter to parents, to be read
and signed, explaining what he had always regarded as obvious -- that girls should not be harassed for refusing to wear head
scarves; that girls should not be attacked for wanting to pursue careers; that
women should not be murdered for expecting tolerance and equality in a Western
society.
''A murder happened nearby; a young woman was
killed. She died because she wanted to live freely," Steffans
said. ''But we are shocked by the fact that students approve of this murder and
say [Surucu] deserved to die because she 'lived like
a German.' "
Petra Krischok, a news assistant in the Globe's Berlin bureau, contributed to this report.
German court jails man for "honor
killing"
Thu Apr 13,
2006 11:05 AM ET
By Kerstin Rebien
BERLIN (Reuters) - A German court
sentenced a man of Turkish origin to more than nine years in prison on Thursday
for the so-called "honor killing" of his sister but found two other
brothers not guilty of conspiring in the murder.
The murder of 23-year-old Hatun Surucu, who was shot while
standing at a bus stop in a Berlin suburb last year, shocked Germany and
sparked intense debate about a conservative Muslim immigrant community at odds
with mainstream society.
Forced to marry a cousin in Turkey
as a young girl, Hatun Surucu
later broke with her Turkish-Kurdish family in Berlin and was living
independently with her five-year-old son, to the intense disapproval of her
relatives, prosecutors said.
Ayhan Surucu, 20, who confessed to pulling the trigger, was
sentenced to nine years and three months, close to the 10-year maximum
allowable as he was a minor at the time of the killing.
"This young woman, who loved
life, was a victim because she lived life as she saw fit, and that's why she
was shot by her brother right here among us," Judge Michael Degreif said.
The older brothers, Mutlu, 26, and Alpaslan, 25, who were accused of aiding him
in the murder but who denied any involvement, were found not guilty after the
court ruled prosecutors had not proved they had conspired to organize the
murder.
They cheered briefly on hearing the
judgment, while their brother, who said he acted alone, laughed. Prosecutors
said they would appeal against the decision.
Public outrage at the murder was
exacerbated when boys at a nearby school with many pupils from immigrant
families were reported to have openly applauded the killing shortly afterwards
because the victim had lived "like a German".
ALIEN
The case has added fuel to a
simmering debate over the descendants of the mainly Turkish "guest
workers" whose labor helped fuel Germany's post-war "economic
miracle" but who remain in many ways foreigners in the country.
The Surucu
family lived for years in the Berlin district of Kreuzberg but "wasn't
really living in Germany," Degreif said.
The case is one of a series of
incidents that have added to concerns that Germany's large immigrant community,
many out of work, poorly educated and not holding German citizenship, may be
drifting further away from the rest of the country.
As details of the Surucu case emerged over the past year, the trial opened a
window onto a world whose values are completely alien to most Germans, who
since the end of World War Two have prided themselves on an open, tolerant
society.
"It's a view that assumes that
what it considers the moral integrity of the woman has to be defended at all
costs and sees the honor of the family is the highest good," said Eren Unsal, of the Turkish
Federation in Berlin and Brandenburg, which has condemned the murder and worked
to foster integration.
No reliable statistics exist on how
widespread the phenomenon is but several cases of "honor killings"
have been recorded in Germany in recent years.
The Surucu
verdict comes just weeks after an uproar in a notoriously disorderly school in Neukoelln, a rough district of Berlin with high
unemployment and a large Turkish and Arab population, where teachers said they
had lost control.
Politicians from all sides have
jumped on the issue with a slew of proposals, including making immigrants take
compulsory language training and tests to ensure they share basic social and
cultural values.
Some conservatives, who say lax
"multicultural" policies have encouraged authorities to turn a blind
eye to abuses, have also said that immigrants guilty of serious breaches of
German law should be deported.
But many experts say the problems
have been allowed to build up under successive governments of all parties,
which for a long time acted as though foreigners would one day return home.
German court jails man for "honor
killing"
Apr 13, 2006
By Kerstin Rebien
BERLIN (Reuters) - A German court sentenced
a man of Turkish origin to more than nine years in prison on Thursday for the
so-called "honor killing" of his sister but found two other brothers
not guilty of conspiring in the murder.
The murder of 23-year-old Hatun Surucu, who was shot while
standing at a bus stop in a Berlin suburb last year, shocked Germany and
sparked intense debate about a conservative Muslim immigrant community at odds
with mainstream society.
Forced to marry a cousin in Turkey
as a young girl, Hatun Surucu
later broke with her Turkish-Kurdish family in Berlin and was living
independently with her five-year-old son, to the intense disapproval of her
relatives, prosecutors said.
Ayhan Surucu, 20, who confessed to pulling the trigger, was
sentenced to nine years and three months, close to the 10-year maximum
allowable as he was a minor at the time of the killing.
"This young woman, who loved
life, was a victim because she lived life as she saw fit, and that's why she
was shot by her brother right here among us," Judge Michael Degreif said.
The older brothers, Mutlu, 26, and Alpaslan, 25, who were accused of aiding him
in the murder but who denied any involvement, were found not guilty after the
court ruled prosecutors had not proved they had conspired to organize the murder.
They cheered briefly on hearing the
judgment, while their brother, who said he acted alone, laughed. Prosecutors
said they would appeal against the decision.
Public outrage at the murder was
exacerbated when boys at a nearby school with many pupils from immigrant
families were reported to have openly applauded the killing shortly afterwards
because the victim had lived "like a German".
The case has added fuel to a
simmering debate over the descendants of the mainly Turkish "guest
workers" whose labor helped fuel Germany's post-war "economic
miracle" but who remain in many ways foreigners in the country.
The Surucu
family lived for years in the Berlin district of Kreuzberg but "wasn't
really living in Germany," Degreif said.
The case is one of a series of
incidents that have added to concerns that Germany's large immigrant community,
many out of work, poorly educated and not holding German citizenship, may be
drifting further away from the rest of the country.
As details of the Surucu case emerged over the past year, the trial opened a
window onto a world whose values are completely alien to most Germans, who
since the end of World War Two have prided themselves on an open, tolerant
society.
"It's a view that assumes that
what it considers the moral integrity of the woman has to be defended at all
costs and sees the honor of the family is the highest good," said Eren Unsal, of the Turkish
Federation in Berlin and Brandenburg, which has condemned the murder and worked
to foster integration.
No reliable statistics exist on how
widespread the phenomenon is but several cases of "honor killings"
have been recorded in Germany in recent years.
The Surucu
verdict comes just weeks after an uproar in a notoriously disorderly school in Neukoelln, a rough district of Berlin with high
unemployment and a large Turkish and Arab population, where teachers said they
had lost control.
Politicians from all sides have
jumped on the issue with a slew of proposals, including making immigrants take
compulsory language training and tests to ensure they share basic social and
cultural values.
Some conservatives, who say lax
"multicultural" policies have encouraged authorities to turn a blind
eye to abuses, have also said that immigrants guilty of serious breaches of
German law should be deported.
But many experts say the problems
have been allowed to build up under successive governments of all parties,
which for a long time acted as though foreigners would one day return home.