Posted on 12/12/2007 5:07:39 AM PST by Clive
News of her death was not an hour old when the words "honour killing" were bandied about.
Thanks to freedom, and the fair justice that comes with that, it could be years before we know the exact reason why 16-year-old Asqa Parvez had her life savagely stolen.
But we do know her father, Muhammad Parvez, 57, has been charged with her strangulation murder and her brother Waqas, 26, is charged with obstruction of justice.
Her schoolmates talk of disagreements over not wanting to wear the traditional hijab and other cultural and religious clashes in her home.
Whatever the truth, this is no time to hide behind political correctness but instead have an honest, fair, reasonable and effective discussion on what is believed to have transpired to help ensure it doesnt ever happen again.
"In my mind this was an honour killing," Tarek Fatah, the founder of the Muslim Canadian Congress, says adamantly about what he calls a blight on Islam.
Honour murders, which is really a ruthless form of misogyny, are a problem in some Islamic countries where women have become victims for going against family or for succumbing to perceived Western decadence or defying the Koran.
But could this really happen in Canada? It has happened in Germany, which also has extensive immigration from Muslim countries.
"The Federal Crime Office (Germany's FBI) registered 48 honour homicides between 1996 and 2006 with a further 22 people surviving attempted honour killings. The youngest victim was a 14-year-old, married Muslim girl," writes Stephen Brown in a powerful feature story in the U.S.-based FrontPage Magazine called, Horror Under the Head Scarf.
"The reasons for honour killings are varied. They range from the female victim living too Western (re: independent) a lifestyle, to wanting a divorce, to having left the family home to escape domestic violence or an abusive forced marriage. One of the problems is some arrive in a new country but never live in it."
Make no mistake, says Fatah: "This has happened before" and will again.
"It is going to get worse before it gets better," he said. "There needs to be honest debate about it."
Fatah says these murders have been covered up. "Sometimes they involve a balcony and they say it's suicide and other times they just don't find the body."
Perhaps a federal inquiry will be needed here. However, several Muslims told me such an idea is way over the top.
One teen said while her parents would not appreciate her removing her hijab, it would never go beyond a minor disagreement. But Fatah said the "media should not just talk to ones wearing the head scarfs but ones who don't want to."
In denouncing domestic abuse in a joint release with The Canadian Council on American-Islamic Relations and the Islamic Society of Toronto, Islamic Social Services Association president Shahina Siddiqui said "if religion and culture has played a part in this, it cannot be ignored."
Calls from teens come "often enough to concern me" and she wants to ensure there is never another Asqa case.
"Girls should not be left on their own to deal with this," she said. "They need a place to go for help."
Ontario Opposition leader Bob Runciman said he will speak with the premier about setting up sensitive help lines or even a "safe house" for protection if necessary.
Siddiqui favours this idea saying, "in some cases people are caught between two cultures. Sometimes I fear we were so busy building the mosques and Islamic schools we neglected the family and social services area."
While it is too late to change things to save Asqa Parvez, there are others who could benefit from such protection.
In her memory, ensuring that would be the honourable thing to do.
It is difficult to have an “honest, fair, reasonable and effective discussion” when one side of the debate stands mute for fear of being put to the trouble and expense of defending vexations proceedings before human rights tribumals.
Islam is and has always been an insane murder cult.
There are lots of Western parents with a “my house, my rules” philosophy, but you don’t often hear about them killing their rebellious kids. Ahhh, the religion of peace...
We keep reading of these monstrosities and still the defenders of Islam remind us it is a religion of peace. In the sixties the Ku Klux Klan was declared a subversive organization(and rightly so) because of it’s propensity toward violence. I think Islam has reached that threshold. I am tired of this group of fanatics being given a pass. If the Islamist can’t clean up their act they need to take their show on the road. This is premeditated cold blooded murder.
I think islam has not merely reached the threshold but way exceeded the Klan in its propensity toward violence.
Islam is predicated upon violence. If you take the killing and jihad out of Islam, you cut off its head.
How appropriate. It’s just what it needs.
I could not agree more!
Quite interesting story. I’ve seen similar stories coming in from England and Europe. I guess the real question is that when these sorts of things start happening in North America, how are and how should the governments respond. Considering the source of terrorist attacks, I see it as something of a Catch-22.
These people are absolutely bonkers. This type of zealotry is not religious. It’s insanity. And CAIR (in all its trappings) is at the forefront. The so-called Religion of Peace must be held in check, quickly.
We all must understand that this is not a new development. Islam has been at war with the entire non-Islamic world since the 7th Century. And, we have no reason to believe that whatever voices of moderation may come from their ranks will ever be mainstream, or in a position to influence the conduct of remainder.
“I don’t want the public to think that this is really an Islamic issue or an immigrant issue,” said Mohamed Elmasry of the Canadian Islamic Congress. “It is a teenager issue.”
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.