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'Honor' killing is NOT an Islamic practice

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Author Topic: 'Honor' killing is NOT an Islamic practice  (Read 627 times)
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Zainab_M
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« on: March 03, 2008, 04:51:09 am »

 BismEm


Coming straight to the point.  'Honor' killing is not an Islamic practice and has no connections with Islam.

The following is a detailed clarification.

Female infanticide and honor killings originate from tribal customs or traditional social values and have no links with religion.  An analyst states  "Tribal customs, not religion are the reason we find these practices among Hindus, Jews, Christians, and Muslims from certain areas of the world. These tribal customs subsume religions and without close examination it can appear that a particular religion endorses these tribal customs, but that is a mistaken assumption."

Iftikhar Ahmed from the London School of Islamic Studies correctly states "Honour killings and female infanticide come from Pagan-|Hindu-Judeo-Christian traditions. There is nothing in the Holy Koran or the Hadiths that may encourage people to kill their daughters. Islam came to abolish the dark ages of Pagan-Hindu-Judeo-Christian traditions."

Ghazala Hayat, one of the chairpersons of CAIR mentions, "This despicable practice occurs in Muslim and non-Muslim countries. Non-Muslims in Egypt, Jordan and Palestine have committed the same crimes. Only a few decades ago in Brazil and Colombia, these crimes were carried out without fear of prosecution. This crime was committed for centuries before Islam. Misguided people, including some Muslims, use religion as a shelter to justify heinous acts."

The roots of the practice of "honor" killing can be traced from the ancient patriarchal societies in the pre-Christian era and illustrated as an ancestral linkage.  From Europe to Japan, it really had no geographical boundaries.  Those communities that have gradually embraced the permissive culture and have promoted social promiscuity at a legislative level do not profess to uphold their "honor" through this practice any longer.  Nonetheless, similar crimes continue to take place in these societies with different names and excuses.  Professor Rabab Abdulhadi, head of Arab-American Studies at the University of Michigan at Dearborn, stated at the July, 2006 "Al Awda” conference in San Francisco: “What you call honor killings would be called crimes of passion in the West.”

Though not given enough coverage by the media, the rate of honor killings is highest in India.  Read this website to know how rampant this practice is in India. (http://www.lehigh.edu/~amsp/2004/10/githa-hariharan-honor-killings-still.html)

Also check our post "The Murdered Bride."

It makes the mind wonder why is Islam always blamed whenever a Muslim carries out a violation?

Religion as an Excuse for Violence against Women
Like already stated, "honor" killing has nothing to do with religion. It has everything to do with closed communities and patriarchal family values, and an inability of communities to examine these values carefully & critically.  The culture of "honor" killing is also shaped by certain social factors namely poverty and women's status.  It has not been too long since it was common place in conservative Ireland for wayward daughters to spend their lives in 'Mary Magdalene homes.'   There, they still have inmates whose only "illness" was disobeying their fathers,  brothers or husbands.

"Honor killings" are not condoned by any Islamic texts, but are rooted in customary law that pre-dates Islam and Christianity.  As another analyst writes "Identifying Islam or "Muslim culture" as the source of violence against women serves to dehumanize Muslims and justify violence against them. It also deflects attention from factors (such as politics, economics etc.) that influence the prevalence of gender-based violence, and obscures the ways that US actions have exacerbated conditions that give rise to violence against women."

An article from Guardian UK mentions "The killing of women as the ultimate method of exerting control over them is not the preserve of any one class, community, race or religion. The Met estimates that there were 12 "honour" killings last year across all communities, including Sikh, Christian and Muslim, while more than 100 women are killed by their partners in England and Wales every year. All domestic murders of women take place within a "cultural" context. Yet culture is the prism through which we view only the actions of minorities. In 1994, Roy Greech, a white man, stabbed his wife 23 times and left the knife in her throat because she was having an affair. Crime of passion? Jealousy? Honour? Different labels, but they are all about the control of a woman's body and mind."

According to many twisted minds, a man's honor depends on the behavior of the female members of his family.  If a woman loses her honor (either by an extra marital affair or marrying someone of her choice or even being raped), the implication is that her father, brothers or husband have failed. Her shame and their honor can only be redressed by punishment.  Often not being brave enough to confront the men guilty of violating the women of their family, the male members turn to these women for revenge.  As described by Guardian UK, it's all about jealousy and control.  A chauvinistic male often feels that his masculinity has been insulted when he is not in a position to brag about his relationships with the opposite gender, while his sister or daughter or mother get admiration from other men.  Even if that admiration comes about to these women in the most respectful manner, and it usually does, it's enough to bruise the fragile ego of conventional males of their families.

Also, it might not be too correct to label honor killing as an act that's always perpetrated by men against women.  Any number of honor killing incidents have revealed that women are as likely as men to condemn the behaviour of their daughters, sisters or nieces and advocate punishment.  Not just that, but in several such cases, the men who are involved with these women also suffer terrible consequences. 

An interesting article that appeared in the website of 'Answering Christianity' by Sami Zaatari is quoted below.

Quote --

Honor Killings in the Bible

Many Christians are often fond of accusing Muslims of committing several honor killings in the name of Islam; they then use this line of argument as a reason to discredit Islam in their eyes. In this article we shall once again turn the table on the Christian showing that honor killings can be found in the Bible, and that the Bible is for honor killings! Hence by their own criteria, Christians will have to abandon their own book.
 
Let us now see the honor killings in the Bible:
 
Lev 21:9  And the daughter of any priest, if she profane herself by playing the whore, she profaneth her father: she shall be burnt with fire. 
 
So note, if the priests daughter commits a bad sexual act, she is to be burned because of her fathers reputation, because it is against his honor. What will Christian say now? This is one example of honor killing in the Bible, in fact the act is ordered by the Bible itself.

"And he that curseth his father, or his mother, shall surely be put to death. (Exodus 21:17)"
"For every one that curseth his father or his mother shall be surely put to death: he hath cursed his father or his mother; his blood shall be upon him. (Leviticus 20:9)"
 
So here the children are put to death for insulting their parents, this is another example of honor killings, the children are put to death for dis-honoring their very own parents and the punishment is death.

So we have seen 3 examples of honor killings in the Bible. While condeming honor killing, the Christians always blame the  Quran because of a few misguided Muslims who indulge in this practice, although the Quran does NOT permit honor killing at all.  But as for the Christian community, their altered Bible itself carries the dictates for honor killing as per the wishes of the Bible writers. 

Unquote --


Honour killing outside the world of Islam
Source: Islam Awareness

Many of the countries most notorious for honour killing are Arab or Muslim countries; Pakistan, Turkey, Iraq, Jordan and Palestine. This feeds a general impression that honour killing is somehow related to Islam, which feeds into a general xenophobia against Muslims; and the phenomenon is used by racists and xenophobes as yet another stick with which to beat Muslims, attempting to characterise these murders as a 'pious act', approved by Islam.

There is, however, no single text in the Quran that justifies these crimes. By contrast, in the Bible, Numbers 26:6-8 show the approval of Phineas's public murder of a couple who marry outside tribal boundaries. Most Muslims reject honour killing as a brutal distortion of Islam; discussions of this in terms of the spiritual texts of Islam can be found at the Muslim Women's League, by Dr Mohammed Fadel and at alt.muslim, amongst many others. Many Muslim scholars have condemned such crimes as a vile and backward distortion of their faith.

Like all other religions, Islam strictly prohibits murder and killing. Allah, Most High, says, “Whoso slayeth a believer of set purpose, his reward is Hell for ever. Allah is wroth against him and He hath cursed him and prepared for him an awful doom.” (An-Nisa’: 93) The so-called “honor killing” is based on ignorance and disregard of morals and laws, which cannot be abolished except by disciplinary punishments.

Moreover, the custom predates the Islamic faith, and is by no means unique to Muslim cultures; also, there is little evidence of honour crime occurring in other Muslim countries such as Indonesia. The extent of cultures following the 'honour ethic' is more geographical than ideological, comprising the Indian subcontinent, the Middle East, Eastern Europe and the Mediterranean regions.

In India, for example, many such murders are committed by Hindus and Sikhs. For some Hindus, an honour killing may be motivated by a woman marrying across caste boundaries. In 2003, a young couple fell in love at University and contracted a secret marriage. Her family disapproved of the match due to his low status in the caste system. They were both forced to drink poison with scores of witnesses to their agonising deaths. Most cases in India occur in Punjab and Haryana (in which two provinces one out of every ten murders is an honour killing) and parts of western Uttar Pradesh. Many of these murders are ordered by an informal judicial system of caste panchayat, which is a self-proclaimed body consisting of village elders, from which women are excluded. Mangal Singh, a Sikh interviewed in Amritsar, claimed that the 17 women and children killed within his family were willing 'martyrs' in the name of family pride.

Honour killing also happens in Christian communities in the Mediterranean and other regions. The culture of Ancient Rome allowed the father to kill his children if he deemed necessary. Honour killing was only abolished as a specific category in Italy in 1981, and murders in the name of honour still occur in the country. In 2006, Bruna Morito was shot six times in the face by her brother for bearing a child outside marriage. In Brazil, men could be acquitted for murdering their wives up until 1991, and there have been 800 recorded such murders in a single year. Even in 1991, a lower court ignored the ruling of the Supreme Court and acquitted Joao Lopes for the double homicide of his wife and her lover. In fact, the opposition of the woman as the vessel of familial honour and the man as its protector was widespread throughout the southern European region, although it is not clear how many murders are committed in the name of honour at the present time.

Even within the Middle East, honour killing is not restricted to Muslims. In Yemen, a Jewish father killed his daughter after a rebuke from the rabbi for her extra-marital pregnancy, and in Palestine, in 2005, Faten Habash was beaten to death with an iron bar, wielded by her Christian father because she wanted to marry her Muslim boyfriend.

While there is no Quranic justification for honour killing, it is unfortunately true that many of the perpetrators try to justify themselves by using their faith. All religions are influenced by the patriarchal culture under which they were created and so codify some of the oppressive practises of their time. All religions are interpreted by reactionary elements who wish to defend and retain patriarchal dominance. It is in the name of Christianity that reactionary elements in some American states and European countries restrict abortion rights; it was in the name of Islam that reactionary elements in Jordan and Pakistan blocked legal amendments which would have closed loopholes that allow honour killers to escape with token punishment. As Nilofar Bakhtiar, adviser to Pakistan's prime minister on Women's' Development says, men find it "very convenient to say that what they don't want to do is against Islam and what they want to do is in the name of Islam."
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Heba E. Husseyn
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« Reply #1 on: March 04, 2008, 04:30:31 am »

MaashAllah, superb post.  Explains everything.

Thanks a billion sister
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