Here we go again.
Muslims commit 91 percent of honor killings worldwide. 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.
The Palestinian Authority gives pardons or suspended sentences for honor murders. Iraqi women have asked for tougher sentences for Islamic honor murderers, who get off lightly now. Syria in 2009 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.'” And 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.”
In light of all this, until authorities get the courage to tell the truth about honor killing, there will be many more such murders.
“Violence against women: Woman stabbed to death “˜for having an affair,– from the Express Tribune, January 5 (thanks to Lookmann):
SADIQABAD / KHANPUR / FAISALABAD: A man killed his sister in Faisalabad for allegedly having an affair.
Jaranwala Saddar police said that Zarqa Kanwal, a resident of Chak 54-GB, had an argument with her brother, Qayum Shehzad, after he told her not to step out of the house.
They said he had suspected her of having an affair with a boy from the neighbourhood.
Following the argument, he stabbed her, killing her on the spot.
He later hung her body from a fan to make it look like a suicide. Police registered a case against Shehzad, after his father named him as the suspect. Police said they were slooking for him….