Look beyond religion to find some reasons for honour killings (it has nothing to do with Islam!)

It is dangerous to write off such barbarism as merely being a flaw of Islam, writes Waleed Aly.

You are familiar with the horror stories. A woman is suspected of a premarital relationship or refuses an arranged marriage, and is blamed for bringing shame and dishonour to her family. Her relatives rule that family honour can be restored only with her blood, and assault or kill her. Sometimes she is beheaded, burned to death, or driven to suicide. Sometimes she is maimed, disfigured by acid, beaten or raped. Sometimes she is as young as seven.

Called honour killings, there is nothing honourable about them. The United Nations estimates that this kind of criminal injustice claims 5000 lives every year. Gerd Johnsson-Latham, a Swedish foreign ministry expert on gender issues, believes the true figure could be considerably higher.

Her comments came ahead of a conference last month of international experts in Stockholm, organised by the Swedish Government, on the topic of honour-related violence. The conference focused on the most fundamental step in ending this criminal behaviour: identifying its causes.

The tendency in the West is to attribute honour killings to some intrinsic flaw of Islam. As a result, it is often considered an exclusively Muslim problem with an uniquely Muslim cause. This impression is drawn principally from the fact that honour killings tend to occur in parts of the Middle East, Pakistan and Afghanistan.

That Islamic orthodoxy has been unanimous in its condemnation of this behaviour for more than a millennium is either forgotten or ignored. So, too, the fact that honour crimes occur only within small pockets of these countries. The result is a crude diagnosis defined by the kind of caricatures that lie at the heart of such literature as Norma Khouri's now infamous Forbidden Love.

The facts tell a different story. Many honour killings do happen among Muslim families - a fact which should anger every Muslim - but Muslims do not have a monopoly on this blight. It is present among Christian families in the Middle East.

In the subcontinent, similar crimes occur among some Sikh and Hindu communities, particularly surrounding inter-caste relationships. Crown prosecutors in Britain say cases also come from Eastern European, Greek and Italian communities.

Honour crime is a phenomenon that crosses national and religious borders. Nor are Western societies immune. Last month, a British court jailed a Sikh man for 14 years for a plot to kill his daughter and her Jewish boyfriend. It has become such a problem that the British police recently set up a specialist research unit, and have re-opened 122 cases. The Swedish Government's interest in honour crime was sparked by the Stockholm murder of a Swedish Kurd in 2002.

The Stockholm conference concluded that honour killings are rooted not in religion, but in feudal social structures and violently patriarchal, tribal culture. This may be true even of those crimes committed in Western countries because they tend to occur among diverse but poor, ghettoised, migrant communities.

In particular, the role of feudalism rings true. Especially in countries like Pakistan and Afghanistan where in some regions feudalism has created poverty of an entrenched kind. It may involve whole villages and societies that have been desperately poor and consequently illiterate for generations. Notably, Afghanistan and Pakistan are among the few countries where illiteracy has been increasing. These socio-economic circumstances, tragically but inevitably, create a social dynamic where might is right. The strong therefore dominate the weak whether the dividing line is drawn through race, majority or gender. Accordingly, the rights most infringed upon belong consistently to minorities, women and children. This result is barbarism, and the violent repression of women is a natural corollary.

So, it is dangerous to regard honour killings as the inevitable result of some defect of Islam. This prevents us from addressing the real causes, and can only mean the oppression will continue. It would undermine what is otherwise a righteous and vitally important struggle.

But similarly, Muslims cannot now wash their hands of the issue. It may be folly to say honour killings are inherently or exclusively a Muslim problem, but it would be foolish and immoral for Muslims to hide behind this fact and pretend the problem does not concern them.

The point is that none of us can any longer leave this to be the concern of others. The fight must be owned by us all.

Waleed Aly is a lawyer and is on the executive of the Islamic Council of Victoria.

... created poverty of an entrenched kind. It may involve whole villages and societies that have been desperately poor and consequently illiterate for generations. ... where illiteracy has been increasing. These socio-economic circumstances, tragically but inevitably, create a social dynamic where might is right. The strong therefore dominate the weak whether the dividing line is drawn through race, majority or gender. Accordingly, the rights most infringed upon belong consistently to minorities, women and children. This result is barbarism, and the violent repression of women is a natural corollary.

Behold the *words of power* by which UN wonks can right every wrong, dry every tear, slay every dragon... and screw every self-sufficient societal group that doesn't take pride in its inability to flourish.

That Islamic orthodoxy has been unanimous...

How is Islamic orthodoxy determined? Does an ecclesiastical hierarchy determine orthodoxy? Or is the Koran the ultimate authority?

Mohammedanism now comprises various theological schools and political factions. The Orthodox (Sunni) uphold the legitimacy of the succession of the first three caliphs, Abu Bakr, Omar, and Uthman, while the Schismatics (Shiah) champion the Divine right of Ali as against the successions of these caliphs whom they call "usurpers", and whose names, tombs, and memorials they insult and detest. The Shiah number at present about twelve million adherents, or about one-twentieth of the whole Mohammedan world, and are scattered over Persia and India. The Sunni are subdivided into four principal theological schools, or sects, viz., the Hanifites, found mostly in Turkey, Central Asia, and Northern India; the Shafites in Southern India and Egypt; the Malikites, in Morocco, Barbary, and parts of Arabia; and the Hanbalites in Central and Eastern Arabia and in some parts of Africa. The Shiah are also subdivided into various, but less important, sects. Of the proverbial seventy-three sects of Islam, thirty-two are assigned to the Shiah. The principal differences between the two are: as to the legitimate successors of Mohammed; the Shiah observe the ceremonies of the month of fasting, Muharram, in commemoration of Ali, Hasan, Husain, and Bibi Fatimah, whilst the Sunnites only regard the tenth day of that month as sacred, and as being the day on which God created Adam and Eve; the Shiah permit temporary marriages, contracted for a certain sum of money, whilst the Sunnites maintain that Mohammed forbade them; the Shi'ites include the Fire-Worshippers among the "People of the Book", whilst the Sunnites acknowledge only Jews, Christians, and Moslems as such; several minor differences in the ceremonies of prayer and ablution; the Shiah admit a principle of religious compromise in order to escape persecution and death, whilst the Sunni regard this as apostasy. There are also minor sects, the principal of which are the Aliites, or Fatimites, the Asharians, Azaragites, Babakites, Babbis, Idrisites, Ismailians and Assassins, Jabrians, Kaissanites, Karmathians, Kharjites, followers of the Mahdi, Mu'tazilites, Qadrains, Safrians, Sifatians, Sufis, Wahabis, and Zaidites. The distinctive features of these various sects are political as well as religious; only three or four of them now possess any influence. In spite of these divisions, however, the principal articles of faith and morality, and the ritual, are substantially uniform...
B. Tenets
The principal tents of Mohammedanism are laid down in the Koran. As aids in interpreting the religious system of the Koran we have: first, the so-called "Traditions", which are supposed to contain supplementary teachings and doctrine of Mohammed, a very considerable part of which, however, is decidedly spurious; second, the consensus of the doctors of Islam represented by the most celebrated imâms, the founders of the various Islamic sects, the Koranic commentators and the masters of Mohammedans jurisprudence; third, the analogy, or deduction form recognized principles admitted in the Koran and in the Traditions. Mohammed's religion, known among its adherents as Islam, contains practically nothing original; it is a confused combination of native Arabian heathenism, Judaism, Christianity, Sabiism (Mandoeanism), Hanifism, and Zoroastrianism.
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