by Iraq has a Ministry of Human Rights that is working to end gender discrimination in that country. That’s a tall order in a country in which Islam-inspired honor killings – the ultimate form of misogyny – are common and on the rise. The Guardian reports that 81 known honor killings have occurred in Basra alone in 2008. That there’s no honor whatsoever in killing your daughter or wife is lost on these fools. One interesting tidbit is that Iraqi men, lacking the courage of their perverse morality, have begun to turn to murder for hire in these killings.
So far this year, 81 women in the city have been murdered for allegedly bringing shame on their families. Only five people have been convicted.
During 2007 the Basra security committee recorded 47 ‘honour killings’ and three convictions. One lawyer in the city described how police were actively protecting perpetrators and said that a woman in Basra could now be murdered by hired hitmen for as little as $100 (£65).
The figures come despite international outrage which followed The Observer’s coverage of the death of 17-year-old Rand Abdel-Qader, who was murdered by her father last April in an ‘honour killing’ after falling in love with a British soldier in Basra. The 4,000 British troops stationed in the city since the invasion that toppled Saddam Hussein in 2003 withdrew to the airport last September.
Rand Abdel-Qader was killed after her family discovered that she had formed a friendship with a 22-year-old infantryman whom she knew as Paul. She was suffocated by her father then hacked at with a knife. Abdel-Qader Ali was subsequently arrested and released without charge.
Rand’s mother, Leila Hussein, who divorced her husband after the killing, went into hiding but was tracked down weeks later and assassinated by an unknown gunman.
I’m curious what apologists for Islam have to say about honor killings. Murder of women who allegedly bring disrepute on their families is, if perhaps not in the mainstream, certainly all too common in Islamic society, whether in Iraq, Europe, or America.
Honor killings are reprehensible acts of childish, malformed men with no moral center worthy of the name. Their only value whatsoever is to act as a gauge of Islam’s progress toward moderation. On the day when honor killings disappear from the Muslim lexicon, then we can say that one important criteria of a moderate, civilized social order has been achieved.
What possible justification is there for the cold-blooded murder of one’s loved ones?
That’s a serious question and I’d like to have real, truthful answers to it on the record. If anyone has a position that you would like to attempt to defend, let me have it. Give it to me straight – I really want to hear it.
