Archive for the ‘Honour Killings’ Category

by Connie Hair 09/23/2010 Security experts want a new dividing line between “moderate” and “radical” Islam delineated not by violence but by a willingness to hold the U.S. Constitution as the supreme law of the land in America. The new “Team B II report” (Shariah: The Threat to America) just out from a respected group of national security professionals details the threat America faces from Islamic shariah law, an ideology using a stealth approach called “civilization jihad” to subvert the Constitution. The report explains the scope and breadth of an infiltration of America’s government and by the Muslim Brotherhood—a worldwide jihadist entity using violent and non-violent means to force the supremacy of Islamic shariah law. Shariah is the Muslim legal-political-military doctrine. What we’re suggesting is that the dividing line here is not terrorism. The dividing line here is shariah,” Andrew C. McCarthy, former chief assistant U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York recently told HUMAN EVENTS. “Shariah is the Islamic political and legal framework. There are some in the Islamic world who want to take it the way that we take religion in the West, that is that it’s a private matter that isn’t imposed as an institutional, legal, political matter on the rest of society.” “There is a vast swath of the Islamic world that rejects that and takes it as a divine mission to impose shariah whether that’s done by terrorism or whether it’s done by more sophisticated means,” said McCarthy, who successfully prosecuted Omar Abdel-Rahman the blind sheikh who first tried to blow up the World Trade Center in 1993. “Shariah is the focal point that we need to look at, and shariah is extremely important because it is antithetical in very core ways to American values, stating with the fundamental premise of the United States, which is that the governed have a right to make laws for themselves and make choices for themselves irrespective of any religious component. So that’s the dividing line.” Ground Zero mosque would-be imam Feisal Abdul Rauf is a supporter of an America that is “shariah compliant.” From the report: Key Tenets of Shariah The following are some of the most important—and, particularly for Western non-Muslims, deeply problematic—tenets of shariah, arranged in alphabetical order. The citations (in full in the linked report, edited here for length) for these findings are drawn from the Koran, schools of Islam and other recognized sources are offered as illustrative examples of the basis for such practices under shariah. 1. Abrogation (‘Al-mansukh wa al-nasikh’ in Arabic—the abrogated and the abrogating): Verses that come later in the Koran, chronologically, supersede, or abrogate, the earlier ones. In effect, this results in the more moderate verses of the Meccan period being abrogated by the later, violent, Medinan period. 2. Adultery (‘Zina’ in Arabic): Unlawful intercourse is a capital crime under shariah, punishable by lashing and stoning to death. 3. Apostasy (‘Irtidad’ or ‘Ridda’ in Arabic): The established ruling of shariah is that apostates are to be killed wherever they may be found. 4. Democracy & Islam: Any system of man-made law is considered illicit under Islamic law, for whose adherents Allah already has provided the only law permitted, shariah. Islam and democracy can never co-exist in harmony. 5. Female Genital Mutilation. 6. Gender Inequality: Shariah explicitly relegates women to a status inferior to men. • Testimony of a woman before a judge is worth half that of a man. • Women are to receive just one half the inheritance of a male. • Muslim men are given permission by Allah in the Koran to beat their wives. • Muslim men are given permission by Allah to commit marital rape, as they please. • Muslim men are permitted to marry up to four wives and to keep concubines in any number. • Muslim women may marry only one Muslim man and are forbidden from marrying a non-Muslim. • A woman may not travel outside the home without the permission of her male guardian and must be accompanied by a male family member if she does so. • Under shariah, to bring a claim of rape, a Muslim woman must present four male Muslim witnesses in good standing. Islam thus places the burden of avoiding illicit sexual encounters entirely on the woman. In effect, under shariah, women who bring a claim of rape without being able to produce the requisite four male Muslim witnesses are admitting to having had illicit sex. If she or the man is married, this amounts to an admission of adultery. • A Muslim woman who divorces and remarries loses custody of children from a prior marriage. 7. ‘Honor’ Killing (a.k.a. Muslim family executions): A Muslim parent faces no legal penalty under Islamic law for killing his child or grandchild. 8. Hudud Punishments: The plural of hadd, is “a fixed penalty prescribed as a right of Allah. Because hudud penalties belong to Allah, Islamic law does not permit them to be waived or commuted.” • “Shariah stipulates these punishments and methods of execution such as amputation, crucifixion, flogging, and stoning, for offenses such as adultery, homosexuality, killing without right, theft, and ‘spreading mischief in the land’ because these punishments were mandated by the Qur’an or Sunnah.” (Islamic Hudood Laws in Pakistan, Edn 1996, 5.) 9. Islamic Supremacism: belief that Islam is superior to every other culture, faith, government, and society and that it is ordained by Allah to conquer and dominate them. 10. Jew Hatred: Anti-Semitism is intrinsic to shariah and is based on the genocidal behavior of Mohammed himself in wiping out the entire Jewish population of the Arabian Peninsula. 11. Jihad: Jihad is warfare to spread Islam. 12. Lying/Taqiyya: It is permissible for a Muslim to lie, especially to non-Muslims, to safeguard himself personally or to protect Islam. 13. Slander/Blasphemy: In shariah, slander means anything that might offend a Muslim. 14. Underage Marriage: Islamic doctrine permits the marriage of pre-pubescent girls. There is no minimum age for a marriage contract and consummation may take place when the girl is age eight or nine. 15. Zakat: the obligation for Muslims to pay zakat arises out of Koran Verse 9:60 and is one of the Five Pillars of Islam. Zakat may be given only to Muslims, never to non-Muslims. What amounts to a mandatory tax is required to be given to those engaged in jihad which is among the authorized recipients. • According to shariah, there are eight categories of recipients for Zakat: The poor; Those short of money; Zakat workers (those whose job it is to collect the zakat); Those whose hearts are to be reconciled; Those purchasing their freedom; Those in debt; Those fighting for Allah (Jihad); Travelers needing money (‘Umdat al-Salik, h8.7-h8.18) • “It is not permissible to give Zakat to a non-Muslim.” (‘Umdat al-Salik, h8.24)

 Muslim Examiner – Harris Zafar 12-1-09

new article in USA Today raises a big flag by surfacing a growing phenomenon of honor killings among Muslim male immigrants in this country. This comes amid news in November of an Iraqi immigrant in Arizona who killed his daughter for having become “too westernized.”

Faleh Hassan Almaleki, 48, is accused of running over his daughter, 20-year-old Noor Almaleki, with his car because she brought dishonor upon the family by reportedly marrying a man in Iraq and then returning to Arizona to live with her boyfriend and his mother.

Honor killings are generally defined as murders of women by relatives who claim the victim brought shame to the family. This certainly is not limited to “Islamic” countries, as this even occurs in countries like Brazil, Ecuador, Israel, Italy and Sweden. Yet, the occurrences of honor killings in the US have been largely committed by immigrants who are Muslims.

Where do these families get such an outrageous idea to murder their own flesh-and-blood for bringing shame and dishonor to the family? Is it steeped in their native culture? Is it advocated by their faith?

Unfortunately many people are blaming the religion of Islam for the existence of such a barbaric custom. “There is broad support and acceptance of this idea in Islam, and we’re going to see it more and more in the United States,” says Robert Spencer, founder of Jihad Watch and prominent antagonist of Islam.

This unfair and false statement not only exhibits Mr. Spencer’s bias against Islam but also exposes his lack of knowledge about this faith.

There is absolutely nothing in Islamic literature or jurisprudence that advocates, sanctions or even allows honor killings. Islam protects the sanctity of human life and abhors any attempt to take the life of an innocent person. The Holy Quran teaches that whoever intentionally kills another will be punished by God because the killing of one person is equated to killing all mankind.

What becomes increasingly frustrating for practicing Muslims like myself, then, is hearing about Muslim men who kill wives, sisters and/or mothers who have brought shame and dishonor to the family. This epidemic cannot be ignored and must be tackled.

Amnesty International once reported a case in which a husband murdered his wife based on a dream that she had betrayed him. Elsewhere, a young woman’s throat was slit in the town square because a love song had been dedicated to her over the radio. In another case, a 16-year-old mentally retarded girl was raped and then turned over to her tribe’s judicial council. Even though the crime was reported to the police and the man was arrested, the tribesmen council declared she had brought shame to her tribe, and she was killed in front of a tribal gathering.

This is disgusting.

Muslims across the world must unite to end such atrocities that have absolutely no basis in Islam. We must work to eradicate this ancient cultural custom from any society still plagued with it. It is a Muslim’s duty to uphold peace and tolerance, and any cries from hate mongers, like Robert Spencer, claiming that Islam supports and accepts this practice are ignorant at best and dishonest at worst.

People like Faleh Hassan Almaleki deserve a stiff punishment for murder. Their acts of savagery are almost always coupled with defiant pride and no remorse at all. Such acts demonstrate a complete lack of faith in God. If these men had any faith in God, they would not take matters into their own hands. The Holy Quran makes this clear and says “Verily, the most honorable among you, in the sight of Allah, is he who is the most righteous among you” (49:14).

These ignorant people are not serving their faith. They tarnish the image of Islam by only serving themselves in this vile manner. It is my hope that these ignorant people learn how their faith has warned against such acts of cruelty and that the world at large understands that we Muslims are just as repulsed by these actions as they are.

http://www.examiner.com/muslim-in-portland/honor-killings-islam