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The Spectacle Blog
This story didn’t receive much attention here but it has dominated the headlines in Canada since October when the Shafia Family trial began in Kingston, Ontario. Mohammad Shafia, his second wife Tooba Yahya and his son Hamed Shafia were accused of the June 2009 murders of his teenaged daughters Zainab, Sahar and Geeti (ages 19, 17 & 13) and his first wife Rona Amir Mohammad. Their bodies were found submerged inside a car in a lock along the Rideau Canal outside of Kingston.
The Shafias were originally from Afghanistan but fled to Dubai before moving to Australia and then finally to Canada in 2007, settling in Montreal. On Sunday, the three defendants were found guilty of four counts of first degree murder and each sentenced to life in prison with parole eligibility in 25 years. The Crown prosecutor (the Canadian equivalent of a D.A.) argued these murders were honor killings. The three Shafia daughters had shamed the family by adopting Western lifestyles and the two elder daughters had boyfriends.
Not surprisingly, most Muslim organizations have rejected that the Shafia murders were an honor killing and argue that they are an act of domestic violence. Alaa Elsayed, Director of Religious Affairs at the Islamic Centre of Canada in Toronto, claims, “It’s a domestic violence issue, bottom line. It has nothing to do with religion, specifically Islam.” Meanwhile, Alia Hogben of the Canadian Council of Muslim Women calls the killings “femicide.”
But Tarek Fatah, founder of the Muslim Canadian Congress, sees things quite differently. Fatah told The Toronto Star the system had failed the Shafia girls:
If these four women were white women, they would still be alive today.
If a white student would go to the principal or the police and say they would be beaten up, no one would go to their parents and say ‘can you repeat what you said to us?’ These girls went to the school, the cops, child services and everyone wanted to protect multiculturalism - not the lives of these young women.
(I should note here that I knew Fatah during my NDP days and am glad to hear he is in better health.)
It’s also not surprising that some Canadian feminists aren’t willing to call the Shafia murders honor killings and that many liberal Canadians are unwilling to call these acts honor killings for fear of being called racist. But here are a couple of articles that take these arguments apart - one by Barbara Kay of The National Post and the other by Naomi Lakritz of The Calgary Herald.
Kay explains why Western feminists won’t speak out on behalf of Muslim women:
Such a step is difficult for ideological feminists to take, because they are also great champions of multiculturalism. As well, it would mean admitting that violence against women is not inherent impuluse in men, but contingent on historical and cultural circumstances. Worst of all for Western feminists, it would mean colluding with women who want to improve their standing, security and dignity within their cultural communities, but don’t want to throw the baby out with the bathwater. By that I mean they don’t want to be abused, but they don’t want to have to walk away from their culture and community to stop it.
Meanwhile, Lakritz pulls no punches and tells the West to get over its white, liberal guilt:
And while some westerners pussyfoot around, afraid to use the term “honour killing,” no such reticence exists among women in the countries where these crimes occur….The women in these societies use the term “honour killings.” Why shouldn’t we?
Both articles are well worth reading. Unfortunately, this won’t be the last time we will face honor killings in both Canada and the United States.
View all comments (25) | Leave a comment
More Blog Posts by Aaron Goldstein
http://spectator.org/blog/2012/01/31/the-shafia-family-honor-killin
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Kingofthenet| 1.31.12 @ 12:55PM
We to be fair, Americans do 'Honor Killings' too, it's just the instigator isn't religion. How many Husbands have killed an unfaithful spouse?
David H | 1.31.12 @ 1:27PM
"kingofthenet"...you've managed to miss the whole point of the article. You feel compelled to make a statement drawing a moral equivalency between the Islamic culture and the (US) Christian culture. News Flash; Islam is morally inferior to Christianity, unless of course, you are in favor of denying human rights to people based on gender or ethnicity; putting people to death for switching from Islam to Christianity or killing three beautiful young women for the crime of bringing "shame" on the father and family...hence the term "honor killing". This despicable act is supposed to restore lost "honor?" Don't be pathetic.
Skippy| 1.31.12 @ 2:23PM
In America, KOF, men kill women for lots of pretty pedestrian reasons. Jealousy, money, kids, affairs, etc.
This is purely a Muslim thing.
Americans get divorces or send their errant kids out on their own.
Muslims murder them. All the time.
Their fathers teach them to. Did yours tell you to kill your daughter or sister if she shamed your family?
If so, you might be a Muslim.
In any case you're an equivocating schmuck.
When will we get permission to murder those, like you, who shame traditional American values?
Answer: never.
Killing folks just 'cuz they're jerks is not a good thing.
I'm warming up to it though.
Occam's Tool| 1.31.12 @ 4:50PM
King: it is written into Islamic law that these killings are appropriate in cold blood; not a crime of passion. They also get very little punishment in Islamic countries. Who's using the family brain cell today?
Trish| 1.31.12 @ 8:29PM
How right you are! American Muslims do indeed honor kill. Two daughters in Texas were murdered by their Muslim taxi driving father for dating infidels. He has fled the country. The head of 'Bridges' television in NY beheaded his wife for dishonoring him by demanding a divorce. He is in prison for the honor killing. Bridges is the propaganda platform to dispell those pesky notions of the barbarism in Islam. Then there was the Arizona Muslim father who ran over his daughter for being too western. Yes, American Muslims do systematically follow the requirement to murder their own for dishonor. But then, women are worth 1/2 that of a man according to the koran.
Margie| 1.31.12 @ 1:09PM
To be FAIR???
Ugh.
Kingofthenet| 1.31.12 @ 1:39PM
No you misunderstood what i am saying, all I'm saying is some people commit violent crimes against others because of some perceived slight, disrespecting someone, or being unfaithful. It shouldn't matter why the crime occurred, it's all the same thing.
albert constantine jr| 1.31.12 @ 2:11PM
I guess that means you oppose "hate crime" legislation, then.
Kingofthenet| 1.31.12 @ 3:37PM
I'll go with that if the Police don't get it either.
Occam's Tool| 1.31.12 @ 4:53PM
King: actually, it does matter---if a psychotic person loses control, that's one thing. But if the law provides that I have the COMPLETELY LEGAL right to kill you in sound mind, in cold blood, if certain conditions are met, because you "besmirched" my honor, that's a different thing, yes?
For example, if you go out my daughter one day (G-d forbid), and I feel that there is a problem of besmirched honor because she dated a low life pig, would I be entitled to kill her legally? I would in Syria.
Trish| 1.31.12 @ 8:32PM
Of course it matters why. If the religion codifies and endorses the oppression, subjugation, and murder of women or infidels it is part of the institution. Islam's goal is worldwide subjugation. As a woman and an 'infidel' I most certainly say it matters why.
Dixie Pixie| 1.31.12 @ 1:54PM
In the spirit of the darkest of “Black” comedy, does any else see the resemblance between the Muslim concept of “Honor Killing” and what the Republican Elite did to the TEA Party Conservatives?
Palin, Bachmann, Cain and Gingrich all “Dishonored” the Republican Party Establishment by not becoming slavish to its whims, customs and traditions.
Thus the Republican Party must remove that “Dishonor” by politically executing the despoilers of Republican Honor.
After all, the Republicans can not beat Obama with Republican Honor tainted or soiled.
To do so would lose the chance to be the controller of over 5 Trillion dollars of political swag.
!!!!All Hail Mittens Romney!!!!
[[ Keeper and Bearer of Republican Honor. ]]
btims| 1.31.12 @ 1:57PM
So tell me Aaron, why do Republican moderates and assorted Neocons like you, always, always, always, support more and more immigration.
Duh.
Occam's Tool| 1.31.12 @ 4:54PM
I do. Hindus from India are great, especially when well trained.
btims| 1.31.12 @ 5:01PM
You're just a lib-tard boy who doesn't know any better.
Occam's Tool| 1.31.12 @ 8:49PM
No lib-tard, btims---where are we going to get the troops to destroy the Caliphate in the long years ahead? Gurkhas make the best man-to-man combatants in the world.
Poor gunrunners are one thing---skilled, well educated immigrants are another. The war against the Caliphate is going to last a minimum of 40 years.
albert constantine jr| 1.31.12 @ 2:19PM
An issue that may be missed by Mr. Goldstein’s treatment (though it is in the article he links to) is that Mr. Shafia was a polygamist as well as a murderer. He also had engaged in immigration fraud to be his second wife into the country along with his first.
For those liberals who despise western culture and worship at the altar of multiculturalism, this case points out the danger of embracing other cultures whose shortcomings and undesirable characteristics dwarf any perceived or real in the west.
albert constantine jr| 1.31.12 @ 2:19PM
that should be bring, not be...
Trish| 1.31.12 @ 8:37PM
The first wife could not produce offspring evidently. I truly weep inside for these poor young girls who did everything they were told to do to get protection. This damn pc treatment of Muslims has blood on its hands!
Trish| 1.31.12 @ 8:42PM
BTW, in reports from Associated Press and the others no mention of Muslim is made!
Occam's Tool| 1.31.12 @ 8:51PM
Of course not, Trish. To see what will happen and how things will change, get ahold of my friend Tom Kratman's Caliphate, available on Amazon, and no, I'm not Tom or financially interested. It is a weirdly wild piece of science fiction that gets truer with each passing day.
Trish| 1.31.12 @ 9:34PM
I will get it Occam. Each passing day seems to produce the weirdly wild, especially in light of the slow moving blitzkreig of the current day Nazis. BTW, evidently CAIR was able to have Gen. Boykin gagged so that he could not participate at the West Point Prayer gathering. Bowing to brownshirts once again.
Rich Rostrom| 1.31.12 @ 9:10PM
Neither sharia law nor Islamic scripture permit or mandate "honor killings". They are generated by the archaic, patriarchal, "honor/shame" culture of the Middle East and South Asia. Non-Moslems from this region (Yezids, Druze, Sikhs, Hindus) also commit honor killings.
Honor killings are, nominally, illegal everywhere, even in "sharia" jurisdictions. Many honor killers claim a religious sanction for their acts; they lie. The misogyny of Islam facilitates the effective toleration of honor killings. But it is not the cause.
(The "PC" response of western-country authorities to threats of honor murder is multiculturalist; and is exploited by Moslems who falsely claim religious authority to demand such deference. Dishonesty exploiting ignorance and cowardice.)
Trish| 1.31.12 @ 9:35PM
Recent interpretation of Sharia in Australia permits beating of the wives. No prosecution of honor killings in Muslim controlled countries institutionalizes the honor murders.
fromnj23| 2.1.12 @ 3:44PM
id kill my kids too if they were sluts at 13.