Hawkmoon,
Yes, it is intereting reading indeed. I would like to highlight some of the things in your articles:
From the CS monitor:
But Zahra's murder in part because it happened in the capital and not a rural area has compelled Syria's grand mufti, cleric Ahmad Hassoun, to publicly condemn the crime, calling for the first time for the immediate protection of girls at risk and for legal reform on the basis that such crimes are un-Islamic.
From gendercide:
Most "honour" killings of women occur in Muslim countries, the focus of this case study; but it is worth noting that no sanction for such murders is granted in Islamic religion or law. And the phenomenon is in any case a global one.
And from the NGC:
In India, for example, more than 5,000 brides die annually because their dowries are considered insufficient, according to the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF). Crimes of passion, which are treated extremely leniently in Latin America, are the same thing with a different name, some rights advocates say.
"In countries where Islam is practiced, they're called honor killings, but dowry deaths and so-called crimes of passion have a similar dynamic in that the women are killed by male family members and the crimes are perceived as excusable or understandable," said Widney Brown, advocacy director for Human Rights Watch.
The practice, she said, "goes across cultures and across religions."
I guess all those articles are "eye opening" because, according the logic being used here, they must be defending honor killing, since like me, they noted that it has no basis in Islam and that it cuts across religions and cultures as a phenomenon. Does that mean Hawkmoon gave us a list of articles that are "apologizing for murder"?
And just look-the head Muslim in a country with mostly Muslims condemns this as un-Islamic. No one noticed that though; just the killing and that it was Muslims involved. I guess that's proof that as a Muslim I'm partly to blame, or that Islam is? Or not.
MechAg,
Note that I am not here saying "Christianity is bad because Christians off their pregnant wives in record numbers!" or any similarly ridiculous thing. What I am pointing out is that when this crime of honor killing occurs (and it does) in places where the parties aren't Muslim, it is reported fairly-as the result of domestic violence and violence against women,
and it is not identified with the religion of the murderer, even when the murderer is religious. That is the right way to deal with these crimes, since they have no basis in anyone's religion-Christian, Jewish, or Muslim.
But when a Muslim commits this crime, Islam is automatically in the headline, on the faulty presumption that being Muslim has something to do with being prone to murder one's family. It is a preposterous assumption, and it gets made only with regard to Muslims-even when the crime committed is identical to a crime commonly committed by non-Muslims. That is unfair treatment and hype on the part of the media, and if Christians were routinely treated this way, you can bet that they'd rightfully be up in arms about it.
