Here is yet another fruit of the culture that offers divine sanction for the beating of disobedient women (Qur’an 4:34) — yet nothing is more certain than the denials of any connection with Islam that will come from Islamic spokesmen. They could acknowledge that Islam inspires cultural attitudes that lead to this sort of thing, and start working to eradicate them. But they won’t.
“Jail for the in-laws who turned a blind eye to arranged bride’s murder,” from the Evening Standard (thanks to all who sent this in):
A family who stood by as a husband systematically battered to death his young bride through an arranged marriage have been found guilty of failing to help her in the weeks before she died.
Sabia Rani, 19, suffered horrendous injuries at the hands of new husband Shazad Khan, 25, but her plight was ignored by his other relatives who shared their home in Leeds.
Khan was convicted for the teenager’s murder a year ago after she was discovered with bruising to 90 per cent of her body and up to 15 broken ribs.
Khan’s mother Phullan Bibi, 52, his two sisters Uzma Khan, 23, and 28-year-old Nazia Naureen, and Naureen’s husband Majid Hussain, also 28, lived with the couple in Oakwood Grange, Roundhay.
Leeds Crown Court was told during their three-week trial for allowing the death of a vulnerable adult that they had tried to blame her injuries on evil spirits and curses.
It took the jury nine hours of deliberation to come back with four unanimous guilty verdicts.
As they were read out in court, the group screamed and thumped the dock. Khan’s sisters started wailing and hugging each other before screaming: “Not guilty, not guilty.”
His mother stood up and started crying and had to be restrained by officers after repeatedly banging both hands down on the dock.
Ms Rani only arrived in England five months before her death. She had been brought up in rural Pakistan and did not speak English.
The jury was told she had not been allowed out of the house she shared with her husband and his family without a chaperone.
They also heard that the teenager would have been in severe pain and very ill in the weeks up to her death in May 2006.
After her death, pathologist Christopher Milroy described her injuries as being similar to those suffered by someone in a serious road accident.
Prosecutor Simon Myerson QC said the defendants tried to blame them on evil spirits and curses.