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. 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.
That's why these honor killings keep happening -- because they are broadly tolerated, even encouraged, by Islamic teachings and attitudes. Yet no authorities are calling Islamic leaders to account for this.
"Girl buried alive in honour killing in Turkey: Report," from AFP, February 4 (thanks to all who sent this in):
ANKARA - A 16-year-old girl was buried alive by relatives in southeast Turkey in a gruesome honour killing just because she reportedly befriended boys, the Anatolia news agency reported Thursday.Acting on a tip-off, police discovered Medine Memi's body in a sitting position with her hands tied, in a two-metre-deep hole in a chicken pen outside her house in Kahta town, Adiyaman province, 40 days after she went missing, the agency said.
A subsequent post mortem revealed that she had a significant amount of soil in her lungs and stomach, meaning that she was buried alive, foresic experts told the agency.
"The autopsy result is blood-curdling. According to our findings, the girl -- who had no bruises on her body and no sign of narcotics or poison in her blood -- was alive and fully conscious when she was buried," one anonymous expert said.
Medine's father and grandfather have been formally arrested and jailed pending trial over her killing, the agency said.
The father is reported to have said in his testimony that the family was unhappy she had male friends.
In honour killings, most prevalent in Turkey's mainly Kurdish southeast, a so-called family council names a member to murder a female relative considered to have sullied the family honour, usually by engaging in an extra-marital affair.
But the practice has gone so far as to kill rape victims or women who simply talked to strange men.
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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)."
Killing their children, or their "offspring's offspring." Just one of that offspring's offspring, or any or all of them? Infidels have similar problems when they try to make provisions in their wills, for children and also grandchildren, the latter usually taking per stirpes. What a grim per stirpes in Islam, with its permanent fund of un-trust, that un-trust fund, and the rules according to which you can get away with murder, as long as those you are murdering are your nearest and dearest.
A mad Muslim world, my masters!