Jihad Watch reader James has alerted me to an email campaign by Leftist and Islamic supremacists, complaining to USA Today for quoting me in [1] this article. Never mind that the smooth dissembler Salam al-Marayati of MPAC is also quoted -- the Leftist/Jihadist thugs are increasingly desperate that the truth not come out, anywhere, and so are calling upon their drones to write to these addresses at USA Today:

Brent Jones, Reader Editor: accuracy@usatoday.com

Oren Dorell, the author of the piece on honor killing: odorell@gmail.com

The object of the Leftist campaign is twofold: to discredit me and to claim that honor killing is universally condemned in Islam. There are the usual Libelblogger Charles Johnson lies about my supposedly supporting fascists and genocide, and flimsy and fanciful claims about inaccuracy in my work, but that is not important -- if USA Today falls for that farrago of lies, distortions, and guilt by association attacks, more fool they. What is more important is that the Leftists and jihadists want to make sure that the truth doesn't get out about the support for honor killing in Islam.

There is a very ugly edge to this campaign: women's lives are at stake, and these Leftists and Islamic supremacists want to ensure that no one knows why, and that no one does anything about it. So I am asking you to write to USA Today also. Thank them for offering the truth about Islamic honor killing. You may wish to offer them some of this information in support of my assertion in the article that "there is broad support and acceptance of this idea in Islam":

[2] Syria recently scrapped a law limiting the length of sentences for honor killings, but "the new law says a man can still benefit from extenuating circumstances in crimes of passion or honour 'provided he serves a prison term of no less than two years in the case of killing.'"

That's right: two years for murder! You can serve more time than that for serial double parking.

In 2003 the Jordanian Parliament voted down on Islamic grounds a provision designed to stiffen penalties for honor killings. [3] Al-Jazeera reported that "Islamists and conservatives said the laws violated religious traditions and would destroy families and values."

And a manual of Islamic law certified as a reliable guide to Sunni orthodoxy by Al-Azhar University, the most respected authority in Sunni Islam, says that "retaliation is obligatory against anyone who kills a human being purely intentionally and without right." However, "not subject to retaliation" is "a father or mother (or their fathers or mothers) for killing their offspring, or offspring's offspring." ('Umdat al-Salik o1.1-2).

In other words, someone who kills his child incurs no legal penalty under Islamic law.

Please write to USA Today, thanking them for their coverage and, if you wish, offering them some or all of this supporting material. Thank you.