Yes, it was a "cultural" thing. The culture comes from 7th century Arabia.

Posted by: Crusader at July 9, 2008 9:05 AM

Zudi Jasser was on Glenn Beck last night. He said the killing was not "Islam" but was a killing by a "Neanderthal" with backward cultural ways from Pakistan. Well he is partly right.

Posted by: Sounder at July 9, 2008 9:07 AM

Thanks for shining a light on this idiotic Tribune story. I would comment to the Trib itself, but their webpage is not terribly "Voice-of-the-People" friendly, and besides I think I'd be wasting my time.

I suspect that the reason we get sanitized stories like this is that most journalists, good college-trained liberals that they are, simply cannot fathom the idea of religion's -- religion! -- inspiring anybody to do anything so, well, serious. It's okay for a religion to make somebody silly, like Christian fundamentalists are. But to be made serious enough to kill -- no, that can't be. It must be cultural. At least a culture is something you can outgrow. If it's religious, and some religions don't inspire this, then some religions are different than others, possibly even better or worse. And that can't be either, because when we're tolerant we don't judge people. Least of all about religion, which is so fundamentally silly anyway ... it all gets way too complex, and the circle closes itself.

As an aside, I'd love to have somebody add up the statistics to tell us the median age of professional journalists in this country. I bet we'd be appalled at how young most of them are.

Posted by: lucia at July 9, 2008 10:25 AM

Dick Morris was on FOX promoting his new book "Fleeced" and mentioned a journalist organization that on its website urges journalist to avoid using certain terms that would connect terrorism with Islam.The Muslim "honor killing" story appears to be the same type of cultural "sensitivity".

Posted by: Roxane at July 9, 2008 10:37 AM

This refusal to tell the truth is one of the reasons so many newspapers have one foot in the grave and the other on a banana peel. They can not be trusted to accurately report the news. Kind of like Pravada in its prime. Thankd God for the internet.

Posted by: MP at July 9, 2008 11:01 AM

Sounder,

I saw that as well. He called it tribal and pre-Islamic and was taken to task for it by the co-hosts sitting in for Beck.

Jasser said:

"Well, this is -- you know, you`re trying to understand the pathology of a Neanderthal that basically comes out of the mountains of Pakistan and has a pre-Islamic mentality of -- where the sexuality of his family and the purity of his daughter is much more important to him than actually murdering her and her life."

"And this is -- actually, it has nothing to do with Islam. This is a tribal, medieval mentality that is seen in tribes in Pakistan and India, and often is not even seen in Islamic communities. It`s basically part of the ignorance of the tribal community."

Transcript of the exchange below.

http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0807/08/gb.01.html

Tribal. Sure.

Posted by: awake at July 9, 2008 11:11 AM

OK---so let me get this straight---This "tribal" member had the wherewithall to stumble out of the mountains and into an American Embassy and applied for US residency--and opened a pizza shop?

Posted by: Ladywolfnl at July 9, 2008 11:19 AM

Too bad that Glenn Beck, a Mormon, could not have bemoaned the fact that the media is still going on about the polygamist compound in Texas and calling its residents an "extremist Mormon sect" when Muslims are moving here in droves and practicing polygamy.

How many honor killings have their been in North America, all by Muslims? These killings didn't happen in the stone age, but in the 21st century--by Muslims.

You can say that the media has 'one foot in the grave, and the other ona banana peel, MP, but they are extremely adept in shifting gears when it comes to goring their favorite oxen--republicans, Christians, homeschoolers, white men, and talk radio.

Posted by: CapitalistGig at July 9, 2008 11:33 AM

Awake,

I caught that Glenn Beck show, too. But I took a different message from it.

Joe Pagliarulo, another clueless 'big talker', demonstrated his gross ignorance of Islam.

Of course, there was no Robert or Hugh there to challenge either him or Jasser.

From the transcript:

PAGLIARULO: Zuhdi, I`ve got to ask you, though. We talked about the 19 hijackers on 9/11. They perverted the religion. You talk about al Qaeda. They`re perverting the religion. You talk about the Taliban. They`re perverting the religion.

I probably wouldn't call that taking Jasser to task.

I appreciate that Jasser speaks in opposition to CAIR, and wish he would stick with that.

Unfortunately, while continuing to pretend that his Islam is different from UBL's Islam, he never provides evidence to support that assertion.

I don't think he can.

Posted by: PRCS at July 9, 2008 11:38 AM

OT-sorta
UN Watch reported this week:
The UN Human rights Committee will not allow any human right abuse described as "Shari'a" or "Islamic" in its chambers.

The UN said abuses such as forced marriages, child marriages, honor killings, female genital mutilation, homosexual executions, torture, etc. must not be preceded by the adjectives Shari'a or Islamic.

Why talk about these abuses at all, where they occur or who perpetrates them, AT ALL?

Posted by: CapitalistGig at July 9, 2008 12:15 PM

Posted by: PRCS at July 9, 2008 11:38 AM

Actually, I was referring to Amy Holmes basically cutting off Jasser and asking that if it is tribal, why is it only prevalent in Islamic communities. They did get him to back-track a bit.

That said, I almost never defend Beck on Islam and I am not about to start for Pags, but they both certainly did not concede to Jasser's attempted white-washing.

I like Jasser's criticisms of CAIR as well.

Posted by: awake at July 9, 2008 12:24 PM

"Last I checked my history books common Europeans didn't go around killing their daughters for marrying "wrong" and neither did their ages old Monarchs...."

I don't know; medieval Europeans did some nasty things and so did Europeans after the middle ages: a great king of England beheaded one wife after another, which is horrible.

But even if medieval Europeans did something like honor killings, it's irrelevant: we have changed and improved, Muslims are not changing and improving.

Posted by: DenverRodeo at July 9, 2008 12:30 PM

CapitalistGig - A mortally wounded snake can still bite. My point was that increasingly people distrust the traditional sources of news - major tv networks and traditional newspapers. This is a good thing. The internet and talk radio have done much to break the death grip "the media" has had on information sharing. Watch out for the potential resurrection of the fairness doctrine. Can the genii be forced back into the bottle?

Posted by: MP at July 9, 2008 12:31 PM

Anthropologists have often speculated about what happened to the Neanderthals. Now we know, thanks to Mr. Jasser: they took refuge in Pakistan, and 30 or so millenia later converted to Islam.

Changing the subject a bit: in Papa's pizza parlor, did he serve pepperoni or sausage pizzas?

Posted by: ebonystone at July 9, 2008 12:43 PM

MP

We are in agreement. Adults (most) believe their eyes rather than their ears when the media spins.

The key is in the schools--K through university.

I just moved and am looking at schools. The local public school, which we toured, had an entire wall display devoted to Mohammed. The students designed the wall with artwork and poster essays. I asked the principal if there were many muslims in the school--"less than 2%" she said. But after 9/11, all students were encouraged to celebrate THE PROPHET'S birthday as a "bridging gesture."

How would a poster of the slaying of Jews at Medina, Khaybar Oasis, little Aisha, etc. be received? Incidentally, NO celebration of Jesus' birthday, Christmas, is allowed.

Some private and parochial schools are not good but public schools are churning out this garbage and lies by the truckload.

Posted by: CapitalistGig at July 9, 2008 1:02 PM

Awake,

Pagliarulo's parroting of the 'perverted the religion' line really bothered me.

He can't properly take Jasser to task if, in his own mind, he thinks Islam has been perverted by what we know are true believers.

I'm not sure what Amy believes about the 'perverted' line.

Now, almost seven years since those 19 Muslims hijacked those aircraft, for him to still believe the Taliban (whose goal was the establishment of a pure Islamic state in Afghanistan), and others, have perverted Islam is really troubling.

Posted by: PRCS at July 9, 2008 1:33 PM

Posted by: PRCS at July 9, 2008 1:33 PM

Agreed, until one realizes that Beck is a CNN vehicle and that far too few people can embrace the concept that Islam wants to convert, subjugate or kill all non-Muslims.

Holmes and Pagliarulo did compel Jasser to talk about honor-killings as it related to the Islamic community whereas he initially tried to dismiss and completely disassociate them as pre-Islamic.

Whatever whitewashing he attempted, he was still reminded that these pre-Islamic acts are being perpetrated almost exclusively by Muslims and Jasser was not particularly happy about that admission.

Jasser gets carte blanche treatment from Beck now and I am not sure if it is indicative of what the co-hosts truly believe, but your criticism is noted and agreed with to a point.

Posted by: awake at July 9, 2008 2:45 PM

'Holmes and Pagliarulo did compel Jasser to talk about honor-killings as it related to the Islamic community whereas he initially tried to dismiss and completely disassociate them as pre-Islamic.'

That is true, and certainly welcome; but Pagliarulo then made the inference (in my mind) that, like UBL and others, Chaudhry Rashid's behavior perverts true, wonderful Islam.

I sent an email to J.D. Hayworth's show some months ago, during which Jasser was the guest. I asked why American military personnel must wear white gloves in order to handle a Gitmo detainee's taxpayer provided Qur'an.

Hayworth was completely clueless; Jasser made excuses.

Posted by: PRCS at July 9, 2008 9:21 PM

I just did a web-search on "Jonesboro Murder", and was given 6 items, 4 from TV sources, and 2 from newspapers. Not once did any of the words "Moslem" or "Islam(ic)" appear. "Pakistan" was mentioned 11 times. So apparently editors feel comfortable in linking Pakistani nationality with honor-killing, but not in linking it with Moslem religion. Funny how it's o.k. to smear some people but not others.

Posted by: ebonystone at July 9, 2008 11:35 PM

The first report I heard about this was on the radio Sunday. We were coming home from a trip and I think the radio was on an AM Atlanta station that gives traffic reports. We were stuck in a seemingly endless, unmoving traffic jam on I-85. Anyway, the reporter clearly stated that it was an islamic honor killing. As best I recall, he said that a muslim father killed his daughter because she wanted to divorce her husband and she refused to return to Chicago and reconcile with him. He also mentioned that it was an arranged marriage and that her father was humiliated by her behavior.

There was a brief summary of the incident in my local paper, which also mentioned the key words "muslim" and "honor killing". Neither source is exactly mainstream media but it's encouraging to know that there are still a few sources out there that actually report the news as it is, not as they want the public to perceive it.

Posted by: Susanp at July 10, 2008 1:11 AM

CapitalistGig - Re. The Great Wall o'Mo: It's amazing how many idiots are happy to put thier neck in the yoke voluntarily in the name of feel-good nonsense. I'm combative enough to pitch a bitch at this sort of thing. I'd also drop a line to the ACLU to see if they could take enough time out from supporting CAIR to pontificate on this matter. We must raise hell with these nitwits at every challenge. I've taken great pains to make my kids aware of propaganda. The young cynics are now able to sniff it out like a dead rat, and take delight in doing so.

Posted by: MP at July 10, 2008 10:33 AM