Why only 22 years? "'Master of deceit' gets 22 years," by Katrien Smit in News24 (thanks to WriterMom):
Johannesburg - Riaz Kadwa walked into his parents' bedroom on the night of October 5, 2005, shot his father eight times and his mother twice.Kadwa, 23, was found guilty on Thursday of murdering his parents and sentenced by Judge Fritz van Oosten in the Johannesburg High Court to 22 years in jail.
His sister Nabila, 19, was found guilty of defeating the ends of justice.
Nabila was sentenced to 12 months in jail, suspended for five years.
Kadwa's version that his mother, Munirah, had shot his plastic surgeon father Anwar before turning the gun on herself and shooting herself in the face was rejected in full by the court.
Repulsed by the blood
Kadwa had testified earlier that he'd heard shots in the house and found his mother bending over his father in their bedroom.
Dr Kadwa had still been alive. His son said he wanted to phone for help, but that he had been repulsed by the blood on the telephone.
He took a dressing gown out of his mother's cupboard because she was wearing only a flimsy nightgown and in terms of the Muslim faith he shouldn't have seen her like that.
She'd grabbed the firearm out of his hand when he'd handed her the gown.
He wrestled with her for the firearm, but she managed to shoot herself in the face.
The defence maintained that Dr Kadwa's extra-marital affair, the possible divorce of his parents, his father's murder and his mother's suicide were seen as such serious crimes in the Muslim faith that it could adequately explain Kadwa's action that night, trying to make the scene look like a robbery had taken place, to hide the truth.
Meanwhile, despite all this, another non-Muslim judge takes it upon himself to explain Islam to a Muslim:
Van Oosten, however, described Kadwa as "a master of deceit"."He used every opportunity to deceive and manipulate without a twinge of remorse and with one goal in mind: to protect himself.
"He betrayed and vilified the principles of the Muslim faith by doing so."
Really? Which ones?
The only way he "betrayed" his Muslim faith was by not being proud of his "honor" killings.
Greetings:
Why only 22 years?
The judge was lenient because he was a religious Muslim orphan.
Why did the sister walk?
Related to the Islamic concept of honor, which was used as Riaz Kadwa's defense to explain why he tried to stage the crime scene as a robbery-gone-bad:
(See this article by Ali Sina at FaithFreedom.org)
http://www.faithfreedom.org/oped/sina70723.htm
Mr. Sina makes a point about the West being guilt-based, so we try not to do that which makes us feel guilty. (Guilt is an internal inhibitor upon our actions.) He explains that Islam is shame-based; it's about image, not-losing-face. (Shame is an external inhibitor.)
He says "If your ethos is shame based, all you care is to preserve your image ... You can do wrong but as long as no one sees it, your image is not tarnished and you can still be seen as an honorable person. In a shame based culture, wrong and right have no meaning. It is all about shame and honor. If the stain of shame is removed, even if it means the murder of your own daughter, honor is restored. These are two very different worldviews. Unless we understand them we will not be able to make sense of Muslims and their minds."
Later in the article Sina also says "Islam is an illogical doctrine that is based on fear and is defended through honor ... Muslims are not concerned about the irrationality of Islam or about good or evil. They are mostly concerned about losing face and upholding the image of Islam."
I've been puzzled about Muslims being so sensitive to/ threatened by such "external" things as the Mohammed cartoons, or a sister dating a man the family didn't choose, or Salman Rushdie's novels. This article clarifies it for me: If the Islamic world view considers "honor" to be "no shame" (no criticism/complaint/mockery of me, my family, my religion); and if in this system "honor" can be restored by destroying the thing that causes "shame"; then attacking a Danish embassy, or killing the sister/daughter/wife who brings shame, or declaring a death fatwa on Rushdie, or marching around with signs threatening to "kill those who insult Islam" make sense (within the shame/honor system).
So, obviously, all this Islamic "acting out" is trying to destroy the "shame" that Western ideas inflict upon the Muslim world: we don't take Islam seriously, we don't take Allah seriously, we don't take their superficial/external concept of honor seriously; we think for ourselves, we govern ourselves, we invent, we cooperate, we laugh, we debate, we write books; we let people "do their own thing", we're not intimidated by Islamic bluster. We're doing the right things! And we need to do more: We need to keep pointing to the contradictions in the Koran. We need to keep mocking the silly fatwas. We need to point out the cruelty and corruption of so many of their rulers and clergy. We need to emphasize our belief that "all men are created equal", and this means women as well as men. We need to promote our Constitution and Bill of Rights, our framework of laws, our checks-and-balances government, as opposed to the Islamic belief that "Allah alone should rule, and Muslims should obey their rulers as they would obey Allah". We in the West have a say in our own lives, so we have less need of the fatalistic "Inshallah" (hoping Allah wills something to come about, rather than rolling up one's own sleeves and working to make it happen.)
Hey, 22 years in a South African prison is nothing to sneeze at. Their prison conditions aren't exactly pristine. It's basically a life sentence.
To be fair.... I don't know of ANY Western country where this kind of [or any other similarly depraved] murder would have been subject to a similar or higher penalty.
Let's be real here.
In Germany, for example.. so-called "honor killings" usually carry less than ten years, if even - and the judges often comment about "cultural issues".
In my mind the OPPOSITE should be done - so as to REMIND people that.. YOU ARE IN THE WEST NOW!!!!
And we DON'T DO THAT SORT OF THING AROUND HERE, NOR DO WE TOLERATE IT!!
I guess it takes more courage and balls to exercise one's COUTH by handing down a STIFF sentence than it does to open and hold a door for an attractive female.. very sad indeed..
I wish to remind everyone that Ted "The Red" Kennedy RE-DEFINED Couth at Chappaquiddick!! The same lout who engineered the originally disastrous immigration "reform" in the early 6os..
A real Man would either have died trying or surfaced with the body - dead or alive - after causing such an accident.
Just my opinion of course.
DIE, Ted Kennedy.. DIE you FILTH!!!
Ted Kennedy----PTHTHTHTHTHTHTHTHTHTH....