John L. Esposito and Sheila B. Lalwani
Washington -- Women are murdered in so-called honor killings everyday, and the public has a right to know more about these crimes and their victims.
Take India for example. On Saturday, the first-ever Indian Peoples' Tribunal on so-called 'Honour Killings" gathered prominent lawyers and activists from major Indian non-government organizations, including the Human Right Law Network, the Women's Legal Forum and the Women's Christian Association of India, to raise awareness for these crimes. The event followed an incident earlier this summer when two young people from different backgrounds pledged to marry one another but were killed by their loved ones. Family members perpetrated the so-called honor killing to restore their communal standing. Some praised the murderers as heroes, and authorities treated the crime with impunity.
Were the victims Muslim?
No. That's the point.
Gender equity and violence against women are two issues rightfully attracting more attention in the mainstream press, but in the court of public opinion, Islam is seen as an instigator of women's oppression. Studies show that gender equity is cited as a reason for the public's mistrust of Islam. Mass media message and biased campaigns -- such as the one Ms. Pamela Geller waged in Chicago in August -- that link so-called honor killings to Islam miss the opportunity to address what is truly intolerable: Gender-based violence. Such violence refers to crimes committed against females and cuts across numerous faiths, cultures and societies.
According to the 2009 United Nations Human Development report, approximately 5,000 people -- the vast majority of them girls and women -- fall victim to so-called honor killings annually. So-called honor killings are murders, usually committed against female family members accused of impugning the family honor. These crimes are symptomatic of highly patriarchal systems, where women are held responsible for maintaining personal, family and community honor.
These murders occur in the Islamic World; but, they also take place in other countries, such as India and victims can be Muslim, Christian, Hindu or Sikh. The killings are often treated as a family matter and become extra-judicial. Even in rare cases in which perpetrators are prosecuted, sentences are often disappointingly light.
When so-called honor killings are linked to Islam, they ignore non-Muslim victims and ascribe the issue to "Islam" when these crimes are a cultural phenomenon with a past that pre-dates Islam. So-called honor killings occurred in ancient civilizations, including Babylonia, Biblical Israel and Rome.
In fact, there is no justification for so-called honor killing in Islamic law or religion. Similarly, there is no scriptural reasoning for these crimes in Hindu or Sikh sacred texts.
The Geller ad campaign omitted that in recent years, Muslim scholars, commentators and organizations have condemned these so-called honor crimes as an un-Islamic cultural practice. To illustrate, the Grand Ayatollah Mohammed Hussein Fadlallah, a prominent Shii spiritual leader, issued a fatwa banning so-called honor killing and describing it as a "repulsive act, condemned and prohibited by religion." Shaykh Ali Gomaa, Egypt's grand mufti, also has spoken out against these crimes.
The United Nations has also taken actions to comprehensively address gender justice and has not addressed so-called honor killings are an exclusively Islamic problem.
These statements rarely get the attention they deserve and the public is left to contend with false information that fuel personal agendas and undermine the progress that has been made over the last several years to build global awareness on violence against women. Muslim fathers love their daughters just as much as fathers elsewhere.
We live in an unequal world, and women of every religion are victims of cruelty. Let's keep that at the forefront of the debate and address how to make so-called honor killings and other forms of gender violence history, which is exactly where these crimes belong.
Everyone -- Muslim and non-Muslim -- would be better served that way.
Follow John L. Esposito on Twitter: www.twitter.com/johnlesposito
Raymond Heard: In the Beginning, the Idea, the Word, Then Babble
David Lose: Misogyny, Moralism and the Woman at the Well
This sort of public-relations-drivel-as-opinion may fly at the HuffPo, but I think most people's BS detectors will see this for what it is.
A communist thinker said we could judge a society by the equality of its women. Logic would agree that there is no such thing as gender in the makeup of the human soul.
But the notion of "honor killings" and the sentiments which fuel it, however, draw attention because of the sheer depth of anger and hatred they seem to display.
I was watching the movie Rob Roy the other day. Starring Jessica Lange and Liam Neeson, it is-- among other things-- a wonderful portrayal of love and respect between a man and a woman. In the early part of the film there is a conversation between Rob Roy and his sons about honor. "Honor is what no man can give you and what none can take from you. All men with honor are kings, but not all kings have honor." One of the character's sons then asks, "Father, do women have honor?" To which Rob Roy replies, "They are the heart of honor. You must protect them and cherish them."
How would men who hate and fear women, both Muslim and non-Muslim, even understand this?
They all subjugate women.
That seems to be the empirical and visceral heart of patriarchy wrapped up in "tradition," "culture" and religion.
Once society is honest with itself about that, then an honest discussion can take place and self-aware, conscious decisions can be made about gender equity in law, religious doctrine and cultural practice.
Homosexuals and homosexuality are natural and created by God, thus permissible within Islam, a discussion concluded here Thursday.
Moderate Muslim scholars said there were no reasons to reject homosexuals under Islam, and that the condemnation of homosexuals and homosexuality by mainstream ulema and many other Muslims was based on narrow-minded interpretations of Islamic teachings.
http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2008/03/27/islam-039recognizes-homosexuality039.html
Women are natural and created by god, thus equal in the eyes of god and society.
I don't believe in god, but I do believe that all beings are entitled to equal rights. Thanks for your post.
http://thefiresidepost.com/2010/08/22/youth-violence-not-just-fight-or-flight/
We prosecute parents who allow their children to die because their religion forbids medical attention. That seems to go against the "freedom of religion" that most believe is a cornerstone of our laws.
What if an imam presens a fatwa in an Islamic place of worship and that fatwa designates 99 lashes for a woman who does not wear a face veil? Should we not prosecute that imam or any followers who act on that fatwa?
"Congress cannot pass a law for the government of the Territory which shall prohibit the free exercise of religion. The first amendment to the Constitution expressly forbids such legislation." Of federal territorial laws, the Court said: "Laws are made for the government of actions, and while they cannot interfere with mere religious beliefs and opinions, they may with practices."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Free_Exercise_Clause_of_the_First_Amendment
TED: Science Can Answer Moral Questions
Sam Harris speaking at TED 2010 - What the World Needs Now
http://www.samharris.org/site/full_text/ted-science-can-answer-moral-questions/
The following quote is at 10:15-12:50:
"Who are we to say that the proud denizens of an ancient culture are wrong to force their wives and daughters to live in cloth bags? Who are we to say even that they're wrong to beat them with lanks of steel cable or throw battery acid in their faces if they decline the privilege of being smothered in this way?"
"Who are we NOT to say this? Who are we to pretend that we know so little about human well being that we have to be non-judgmental about a practice like this?"
________________________________
TED 2010: The Price in Human Suffering of Being Open-Minded
by Kim Zetter, Wired
February 11, 2010
http://www.wired.com/epicenter/2010/02/universal-morality/”
My comments are pending approval and won't be displayed until approved!
.
---
Exactly so. Tolerance, in and of itself, absent any context is hardly a virtue. Cultural relativism, in and of itself, is hardly an intellectually defensible position.
The UN Declaration of Human Rights should be read by everyone participating in this discussion. Any society or social group that violates its clear, commonsensical statements needs to be called out for what they are saying and doing that is WRONG.
To be silent in the face of evil is to be complicit in its perpetuation.
I fully expect the rationalizations and excuses to respond shortly.
But patriarchy is hardly the only problem. There is also the more generic problem of hatred and rejection of the other.
Whether it be Jews given license by Jehovah to commit genocide in order to inhabit the Promised Land, Christians demonizing Jews as the killers of Christ for twenty centuries, Hindu oppression of the Dalits (untouchables) which continues to this day, or the various hate crimes perpetrated with state sponsorship or tacit approval upon religious minorities and freethinkers in Islamic countries - sll of these examples both in the core religious texts and our 21st century world argue eloquently (and tragically) for a need for ALL religions to be thoroughly declawed and defanged.
No religion in any nation-state should be allowed to dominate and define civil law. All nation-states should agree in principle and in practice to the UN Declaration of Human Rights. These standards should be declared and applied universally - without fear or favor - by all right thinking men and women, regardless of one's own race, religion, color or citizenship.
No whitewashing - either of our sins as Americans - or the sins of others. Let all declarations and all actions be judged impartially in the clear light of day. This is the 21st century, not the 12th.
I would have appreciated here efforts about campaigning against honor killing in general irrespective of religion. She is either ignorant about the honor killings in other cultures, religion or societies or she intentionally ignores that issues, since as I mentioned earlier, her intentions is to malign Islam.
A NYTimes article on honor killings in India http://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/10/world/asia/10honor.html?scp=1&sq=khap&st=cse one might get surprise to see the following sentence in the article "New cases of killings or harassment appear in the Indian news media almost every week."
Another article from a leading newspaper in india http://www.thehindu.com/news/national/article509792.ece that suggest 1000 honor killing every year in India. I am not surprised why these cases are not discussed when one talk about honor killings.
It's a horrible practice that pre-dates Islam.
I few examples of brutality in other religious culture against women doesn't give Islam a pass on their predominant abuse of women. Looks like the Catholics are trying to intervene. Maybe they can help pull Islam into the current century. I'm sure some an intelligent 'mullah" will issue a fatwah against the Pope.