Video - A Faith that Dare not Speak Its Name: Honor Killings Documentary 'Banaz A Love Story' Ignores Islam

Video - A Faith that Dare not Speak Its Name: Honor Killings Documentary 'Banaz A Love Story' Ignores Islam. (CJR). by Andrew Harrod, PhD.

To “get to the root cause of an emerging pattern of criminality” precludes “vague terminology,” states a December 18, 2013, petition by British Hindu and Sikh organizations concerning Muslim-dominated child molestation gangs in the United Kingdom.

Yet precisely vagueness plagues not only this ongoing controversy, but also the British honor killing documentary Banaz: A Love Story, demonstrating the difficulties of openly discussing all matters Muslim.

An International Emmy Award winner, this 2012 documentary recently posted online examines the 2006 London murder of Banaz Mahmod, a young woman whose family immigrated in 1998 from Kurdish Iraq.  Banaz’s dissolution of her arranged marriage and relationship with another man had provoked her father and male relatives into murdering Banaz.  “In the countries that we are from, a woman has absolutely no rights,” declares Diana Nammi from the Iranian and Kurdish Women’s Rights Organization (IKWRO) early in the film.

With only her eyes appearing through a black niqab, Banaz’ sister Bekhal elaborates in the film via a disguised voice how her family forbade her things like long nails.  Bekhal’s disobedience brought beatings from male relatives and flight from home.  Like Banaz, Bekhal suffered Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) from family members, something “you wouldn’t wish on your enemy.”  “My life will always be in danger,” Bekhal states given her cooperation in solving Banaz’s murder and film appearance.

A 17-year old Banaz herself had an arranged marriage with a man recently arrived from Iraq whom she had only met once.  This illiterate individual had “absolutely nothing in common” with Banaz, observes prosecutor Victor Temple, and was “strongly adherent to that Kurdish culture” according to Detective Chief Inspector Caroline Goode.

This husband “kicked my head in,” Banaz states in a previously videotaped police interview while describing bleeding lips and ears received for offenses like mentioning her husband’s name before guests.  “He wouldn’t take no for an answer” to sexual advances and “would just start raping me,” Banaz added.  Afterwards “he just acted like nothing has happened…I was his shoe and he would wear it.”

“For a Muslim female like me it’s very hard to get a divorce,” Banaz complained to the police with reference to religion, not ethnicity, pace Goode.  “Leaving my husband in my culture is not allowed.”

The marital breakdown ultimately led the father to arrange with Banaz’s uncle her strangulation by three male cousins.  Banaz’s case demonstrates the “very collaborative nature” of honor killings, Joanne Payton from the Honour Based Violence Awareness Network (HBVA) discusses in the film.  “Verily we belong to Allah,” Banaz’s tombstone reads in the film.

A “landslide of mistakes flowing from…a lack of understanding” hindered authorities in protecting Banaz and investigating her subsequent murder, prosecutor Nazir Afzal criticizes.  Fear of being “branded racists” makes people “wary of stepping into this minefield” of culture-based gender violence.

Afzal similarly wrote in 2014 about accusations of having “given racists a stick with which to beat minorities” for leading the 2012 child molestation gang prosecution of 47 men, mostly from Afzal’s own Pakistani background.

Banaz director Deeyah Khan concurred in an interview that “many young women, like Banaz, are let down by officials in the West.”  A “lack of understanding and training in identifying the signs” of honor killings as well as “fear of upsetting cultural sensitivities” are problems.  Not letting the “issue get swept under the carpet in the name of political correctness” also worries Goode in the film, who calls for specific police honor killing training.

Banaz, though, seems to practice its own political correctness in never directly discussing Islam, a faith omnipresent in the film.  The overwhelming majority of British honor killing victims cited in the film credits, however, are from Muslim backgrounds.  This reflects a 2010 study showing Muslim perpetrators in 91% of 230 surveyed honor killing cases worldwide.

HBVA itself estimates an annual average worldwide of 5,000 honor killings, with 1,000 each in majority-Muslim Pakistan and a much larger, Hindu-majority India.

Additionally, Muslim-majority Middle East and North Africa (MENA) countries have a “high recorded level of HBV.”  “India is indeed a striking exception to Islam’s near monopoly on contemporary honor killings,” Phyllis Chelser, the 2010 study’s author, concludes.

“Perhaps the most striking characteristic of Hindu honor killings,” Chelser elaborates, however, “is the fact that Indians abandon the horrific practice when they migrate to the West whereas many Pakistani Muslims carry it with them.”

“Although Islam does not specifically endorse” honor killings, Chelser observes, “some…involve allegations of adultery or apostasy…punishable by death under Shari’a.”

That “women who stray from the path can be rightly murdered” is therefore “consistent with such Islamic teachings.”Read the full story here.

Metal spoon in underwear to help evade Asian forced marriages in Britain.

Metal spoon in underwear to help evade Asian forced marriages in Britain.(E24/7).

As Britain puts airport staff on alert to spot potential victims of forced marriage, one campaigning group says the trick of putting a spoon in their underwear has saved some youngsters from a forced union in their South Asian ancestral homelands.

The concealed spoon sets off the metal detector at the airport in Britain and the teenagers can be taken away from their parents to be searched -- a last chance to escape a largely hidden practice wrecking the lives of unknown thousands of British youths.
The British school summer holidays, now well under way, mark a peak in reports of young people - typically girls aged 15 and 16 - being taken abroad on "holiday", for a marriage without consent, the government says.
The bleep at airport security may be the last chance they get to escape a marriage to someone they have never met in a country they have never seen.
The spoon trick is the brainchild of the Karma Nirvana charity, which supports victims and survivors of forced marriage and honour-based abuse.
Based in Derby, central England, it fields 6,500 calls per year from around Britain but has almost reached that point so far in 2013 as awareness of the issue grows.
When petrified youngsters ring, "if they don't know exactly when it may happen or if it's going to happen, we advise them to put a spoon in their underwear," said Natasha Rattu, Karma Nirvana's operations manager.

"When they go though security, it will highlight this object in a private area and, if 16 or over, they will be taken to a safe space where they have that one last opportunity to disclose they're being forced to marry," she told AFP.

"We've had people ring and that it's helped them and got them out of a dangerous situation. It's an incredibly difficult thing to do with your family around you -- but they won't be aware you have done it. It's a safe way."
The charity is working with airports -- so far London Heathrow, Liverpool and Glasgow, with Birmingham to come -- to spot potential signs, such as one-way tickets, the time of year, age of the person and whether they look uncomfortable.
"These are quite general points, but there are things that if you look collectively lead you to believe something more sinister is going on," said Rattu.
People who come forward can be escorted out of a secure airport exit to help outside.
Marriages without consent, or their refusal, have led to suicides and so-called honour killings, shocking a nation widely deemed to have successfully absorbed immigrant communities and customs.
Officials fear the number of victims coming forward is just the tip of the iceberg, with few community leaders prepared to speak out and risk losing their support base.
One woman, whose identity was protected by Essex Police in southeast England, was forced to get married in India.
She said she was threatened by her father "because he said if I thought about running away he would find me and kill me".
"I was shipped off with a total stranger.
"That night I was raped by my husband and this abuse continued for about eight and half years of my life."
She eventually fled.
Last year, the Foreign Office's Forced Marriage Unit dealt with some 1,500 cases - 18 per cent of them men.
A third of cases involved children aged under 17. The oldest victim was aged 71; the youngest just two.
The cases related to 60 countries: almost half were linked to Pakistan, 11 percent to Bangladesh, eight percent to India, and two percent to Afghanistan. Other countries were Somalia, Turkey and Iraq.
Calls to Karma Nirvana tend to spike before the British school summer holidays and again at the end, said Rattu.
"The holidays are a really good time for young people to go missing because there is nobody accounting for where they are at school," she said.
Since Ramadan ended last week, calls have risen again, including one from an 18-year-old who has fallen pregnant and her family is trying force her into marriage to conceal it.
Burdened by South Asian codes of "izzat", or family honour, youngsters can be under extreme physical and emotional duress to marry relatives in a culture and country they were not brought up in.
If they refuse, they are often threatened with being thrown out of the family -- or worse.
"It really takes a brave person to stand up against their family," said Rattu.

Canada - Honor killing prevented - "I wanted to give her the peace that she needed."

                                                      Bahar Ebrahimi with her father. 

Canada - Honor killing prevented - "I wanted to give her the peace that she needed."(NP).MONTREAL – For months, Bahar Ebrahimi had been rebelling against her parents, complaining their Afghan culture and Muslim religion were suffocating her. “I want to enjoy my life. I want to feel what the other ones feel,” she told them, according to her mother’s statement to police. It was June, 2010, Grand Prix weekend in downtown Montreal, and on two straight nights the 19-year-old stayed out past dawn against her parents’ wishes.
For her mother, Johra Kaleki, the behaviour confirmed that all her efforts to steer her eldest daughter on the right path had failed. “I felt like she would never be fixed,” she told Sgt.-Det. Alexandre Bertrand in an interrogation video played Wednesday in Quebec Court. As her crying husband spoke to Bahar in the basement of their Dorval home, Ms. Kaleki went upstairs and grabbed a large knife from the kitchen counter, the one she used to chop meat, she recounted. “I said, ‘This is the time.’ ” She hid the knife under her T-shirt, returned to the basement, and told her husband the problem would best be resolved between mother and daughter. “Just leave us alone for five minutes,” she said she told him. “Don’t come until I call you.”
 He left and she cuddled her first-born and told her to lie on her stomach so she could give her a back massage. “Then I stab her, stab her neck,” she confessed. “She said, ‘No Mom!’ I said, ‘It’s for your good. Let me finish.’ ” Earlier in the interrogation, Sgt.-Det. Bertrand has asked whether the knife blade was sharp. “No, it wasn’t,” she replied. “I wish it was. I wanted to give her the peace that she needed.” Bahar survived the attack, suffering serious knife wounds to her head and shoulder. Ms. Kaleki, 40, is charged with attempted murder, aggravated assault and illegal use of a weapon. Her husband, alerted by Bahar’s screams, rushed downstairs and grabbed the knife from Ms. Kaleki, the court heard. “I said to my husband, let me finish her.’ ” She tried to choke her daughter, she said, and after Bahar escaped, she chased her upstairs and tried to break down the locked door to the bedroom where she was calling 911.Read the full story here.

Video - Taliban publicly execute 'Adulteress' woman near Kabul to 'Cheers of Jubilation'.

Video - Taliban publicly execute 'Adulteress' woman near Kabul to 'Cheers of Jubilation'.(Reuters). A man Afghan officials say is a member of the Taliban shot dead a woman accused of adultery in front of a crowd near Kabul, a video obtained by Reuters showed, a sign that the austere Islamist group dictates law even near the Afghan capital. In the three-minute video, a turban-clad man approaches a woman kneeling in the dirt and shoots her five times at close range with an automatic rifle, to cheers of jubilation from the 150 or so men watching in a village in Parwan province. "Allah warns us not to get close to adultery because it's the wrong way," another man says as the shooter gets closer to the woman. "It is the order of Allah that she be executed". Provincial Governor Basir Salangi said the video, obtained on Saturday, was shot a week ago in the village of Qimchok in Shinwari district, about an hour's drive from Kabul. Such rare public punishment was a painful reminder to Afghan authorities of the Taliban's 1996-2001 period in power, and it raised concern about the treatment of Afghan women 11 years into the NATO-led war against Taliban insurgents. "When I saw this video, I closed my eyes ... The woman was not guilty; the Taliban are guilty," Salangi told Reuters. When the unnamed woman, most of her body tightly wrapped in a shawl, fell sideways after being shot several times in the head, the spectators chanted: "Long live the Afghan mujahideen! (Islamist fighters)", a name the Taliban use for themselves. Violence against women has increased sharply in the past year, according to Afghanistan's independent human rights commission. Activists say there is waning interest in women's rights on the part of President Hamid Karzai's government. "After 10 years (of foreign intervention), and only a few kilometres from Kabul... how could this happen in front of all these people?" female lawmaker Fawzia Koofi said of the public execution in Parwan. "This is happening under a government that claims to have made so much progress in women's rights, claims to have changed women's lives, and this is unacceptable. It is a huge step backwards," said Koofi, a campaigner for girls' education who wants to run in the 2014 presidential election. Salangi said two Taliban commanders were sexually involved with the woman in Parwan, either through rape or romantically, and decided to torture her and then kill her to settle a dispute between the two of them. "They are outlaws, murderers, and like savages they killed the woman," he said, adding that the Taliban exerted considerable sway in his province. Earlier this week a 30-year-old woman and two of her children were beheaded in eastern Afghanistan by a man police said was her divorced husband, the latest of a string of so-called "honour killings".Hmmm......Secretary of State Hillary Clinton declared that Afghanistan is now a “major non-NATO ally” of the United states, doesn't that make us proud ?Read the full story here.

Video - "Unworthy Creature" takes a look into the culture of violence against women in South Asian communities.

“I Had To Run Away”

“I Had To Run Away” - The Imprisonment of Women and Girls for “Moral Crimes” in Afghanistan.(HRW).This 120-page report is based on 58 interviews conducted in three prisons and three juvenile detention facilities with women and girls accused of “moral crimes.” Almost all girls in juvenile detention in Afghanistan had been arrested for “moral crimes,” while about half of women in Afghan prisons were arrested on these charges. These “crimes” usually involve flight from unlawful forced marriage or domestic violence. Some women and girls have been convicted of zina, sex outside of marriage, after being raped or forced into prostitution. 
The fall of the Taliban government in 2001 promised a new era of women’s rights. Significant improvements have occurred in education, maternal mortality, employment, and the role of women in public life and governance. Yet the imprisonment of women and girls for “moral crimes” is just one sign of the difficult present and worrying future faced by Afghan women and girls as the international community moves to decrease substantially its commitments in Afghanistan.
(Kabul) – The Afghan government should release the approximately 400 women and girls imprisoned in Afghanistan for “moral crimes,” Human Rights Watch said in a new report released today. The United States and other donor countries should press the Afghan government under President Hamid Karzai to end the wrongful imprisonment of women and girls who are crime victims rather than criminals. The 120-page report, “‘I Had to Run Away’: Women and Girls Imprisoned for ‘Moral Crimes’ in Afghanistan,” is based on 58 interviews conducted in three prisons and three juvenile detention facilities with women and girls accused of “moral crimes.” Almost all girls in juvenile detention in Afghanistan had been arrested for “moral crimes,” while about half of women in Afghan prisons were arrested on these charges. These “crimes” usually involve flight from unlawful forced marriage or domestic violence. Some women and girls have been convicted of zina, sex outside of marriage, after being raped or forced into prostitution. “It is shocking that 10 years after the overthrow of the Taliban, women and girls are still imprisoned for running away from domestic violence or forced marriage,” said Kenneth Roth, executive director of Human Rights Watch.
“No one should be locked up for fleeing a dangerous situation even if it’s at home. President Karzai and Afghanistan’s allies should act decisively to end this abusive and discriminatory practice.” The fall of the Taliban government in 2001 promised a new era of women’s rights. Significant improvements have occurred in education, maternal mortality, employment, and the role of women in public life and governance.
Yet the imprisonment of women and girls for “moral crimes” is just one sign of the difficult present and worrying future faced by Afghan women and girls as the international community moves to decrease substantially its commitments in Afghanistan.
Human Rights Watch interviewed many girls who had been arrested after they fled a forced marriage and women who had fled abusive husbands and relatives. Some women interviewed by Human Rights Watch had gone to the police in dire need of help, only to be arrested instead.
“Running away,” or fleeing home without permission, is not a crime under the Afghan criminal code, but the Afghan Supreme Court has instructed its judges to treat women and girls who flee as criminals. Zina is a crime under Afghan law, punishable by up to 15 years in prison. Women and girls interviewed by Human Rights Watch described abuses including forced and underage marriage, beatings, stabbings, burnings, rapes, forced prostitution, kidnapping, and murder threats. Virtually none of the cases had led even to an investigation of the abuse, let alone prosecution or punishment. Human Rights Watch said that women and girls accused of “moral crimes” face a justice system stacked against them at every stage. Police arrest them solely on a complaint of a husband or relative. Prosecutors ignore evidence that supports women’s assertions of innocence. Judges often convict solely on the basis of “confessions” given in the absence of lawyers and “signed” without having been read to women who cannot read or write.
After conviction, women routinely face long prison sentences, in some cases more than 10 years. Afghanistan’s 2009 Law on the Elimination of Violence Against Women makes violence against women a criminal offense. But the same police, prosecutors, and judges who work zealously to lock up women accused of “moral crimes” often ignore evidence of abuse against the accused women, Human Rights Watch said. “Courts send women to prison for dubious ‘crimes’ while the real criminals – their abusers –walk free,” Roth said. “Even the most horrific abuses suffered by women seem to elicit nothing more than a shrug from prosecutors, despite laws criminalizing violence against women.” The plight of women facing domestic violence is made still worse by archaic divorce laws that permit a man simply to declare himself divorced, while making it extremely difficult for a woman to obtain a divorce, Human Rights Watch said. The Afghan government made a commitment to reform these laws in 2007 under its National Action Plan for Women in Afghanistan, and a committee of experts drafted a new Family Law that would improve the rights of women. This new law, however, has been on hold with the government since 2010, with no sign of movement toward passage.
 “It is long past time for Afghanistan to act on its promises to overhaul laws that make Afghan women second-class citizens,” Roth said. “Laws that force women to endure abuse by denying them the right to divorce are not only outdated but cruel.” “The Afghan government and its international partners should act urgently to protect women’s rights and to ensure there is no backsliding,” Roth said. “President Karzai, the United States, and others should finally make good on the bold promises they made to Afghan women a decade ago by ending imprisonment for ‘moral crimes,’ and actually implementing their stated commitment to support women’s rights.”Hmmmm.......Good luck with the latter.Read the full story here.

Video - 50 ways to beat your lover.

Canada - Muslim book that teaches men how to beat women flying off the Shelves.

Canada - Muslim book that teaches men how to beat women flying off the Shelves.(SUNNews).TORONTO - A local bookstore has "sold out" of a controversial marriage guide that advises Muslim men on how to beat their wives.
The 160-page book, published by Idara Impex in New Delhi, India, is written by Hazrat Maulana Ashraf Ali Thanvi, who's described in the book's foreword as a "prolific writer on almost every topic of Islamic learning."
The store's manager, who didn't give his name, said the book had been sold out for some time, and the store's owner, whom the manager identified as Shamim Ahmad, refused to comment for the story.
It wasn't clear whether the shop has ordered more copies of the book, but it's available at online Islamic bookstores and even through eBay.
In the book's opening pages, it is written that "it might be necessary to restrain her with strength or even to threaten her."
Later, its author advises that "the husband should treat the wife with kindness and love, even if she tends to be stupid and slow sometimes."
Page 45 contains the rights of the husband, which include his wife's inability to leave "his house without his permission," and that his wife must "fulfil his desires" and "not allow herself to be untidy ... but should beautify herself for him ... "
In terms of physical punishment, the book advises that a husband may scold her, "beat by hand or stick," withhold money from her or "pull (her) by the ears," but should "refrain from beating her excessively."
Moderate Muslim voice Tarek Fatah says the shopkeeper should be charged for selling such a book.
"I wouldn't say it's hate, but it is inciting men to hit women," said Fatah, who identified the book's author as a prominent Islamic scholar. "This is new to you, but the Muslim community knows that this is widespread, that a woman can be beaten. Muslim leaders will deny this, but... "
Eric Brazau says he was flipping through the marriage guide while in the bookstore around a month ago.
Brazau bought it out of curiosity but was taken aback when he found dozens of chapters and passages giving Muslim husbands advice on controlling, restraining, scolding and beating their wives.
"At first, I thought that it is incredible that this kind of thing can be found in Canada," said Brazau. "And then I thought, radical Islam is not coming to Canada, it is already here."Read the full story here.

Nearly 1,000 Pakistani women ‘killed for honor’ in 2011.

                                          Pakistani Women's Human Rights Organisation.


Nearly 1,000 Pakistani women ‘killed for honor’ in 2011.(AlArabiya).At least 943 Pakistani women and girls were murdered last year for allegedly defaming their family’s honor, the country’s leading human rights group said Thursday.
The statistics highlight the growing scale of violence suffered by many women in conservative Muslim Pakistan, where they are frequently treated as second-class citizens and there is no law against domestic violence.
Despite progress on better protecting women’s rights, activists say the government needs to do more to prosecute murderers in cases largely dismissed by police as private, family affairs.“At least 943 women were killed in the name of honor, of which 93 were minors,” wrote the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan in its annual report.Seven Christian and two Hindu women were among the victims, it said.The Commission reported 791 “honor killings” in 2010.Around 595 of the women killed in 2011 were accused of having “illicit relations” and 219 of marrying without permission.
Some victims were raped or gang raped before being killed, the Commission said. Most of the women were killed by their brothers and husbands.
Only 20 of 943 killed were reported to have been provided medical aid before they died, the Commission wrote.Despite the rising number of reported killings, activists have praised parliament for passing laws aimed at strengthening women’s protection against abuses.
Rights groups say the government should do more to ensure that women subjected to violence, harassment and discrimination have effective access to justice.Last year, a Belgian court sentenced four members of a Pakistani family to prison for the murder of their daughter, who defied them by living with a Belgian man and refused an arranged marriage.Read the full story here.

Some 30 LGBT arrested from Dubai hotel, reports indicate.

Some 30 LGBT arrested from Dubai hotel, reports indicate. (BM).The United Arab Emirates Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender group has received reports that 30 people who are believed may be gay were arrested in private ‘after’ party last at 5 AM, last Friday (March 9) in the Shangri La Hotel, Dubai.
It was said the party was ambushed and all present were taken for questioning. Some of the men are reported to be from prominent Emirati families.
It is unclear at this point if the men are still in detention or have been freed, nor if any charges have been brought against them. Neither UAE LGBT nor Gay Middle East have not been able to verify the details and hotel staff were cagey when questioned about the incident by us.
The United Arab Emirates has strict federal laws regarding homosexuality and each emirate has their own specific laws. While the Emirate of Dubai has technically severe laws they are usually not strictly enforced.“It was a private party in a private hired space where people were behaving and not even engaging in any public display of affection, so I can’t imagine why they got arrested,” said Adilah, a lesbian member of UAE LGBT to GME.
“The CID [police] don’t just bust private parties, either someone ratted the party out or some hotels guests or staff complained about the noise in the middle of the night, I am just shocked that this happened!” she protested.“We waited a few days,” she continued, “to see if it would get a note in the press. It didn’t as the authorities knew it would create uproar. We only knew that they were kept in detention for a few days, but have no idea if they are still locked up.“Plus some of the boys are from prominent Emirati families, so something may have been arranged with the police and the press to silence this story, its very difficult to find out accurate details.
“My heart goes out to the boys, who must be feeling humiliated and in terror have sat or even still sitting in a cell. No one deserves to be incarcerated for being who they are, especially when it doesn’t hurt anyone around them.“This was a private party, one amongst hundreds if not thousands taking place in the UAE on a Friday night. The boys risk huge consequences and discriminations in their future careers if their names get out, not to mention the lives of some of them are at risk if their families are conservatives, as it may lead to so called ‘honor killings’.”
Abdulla, the chair of UAE LGBT told GME: “As an activist This is disheartening, the government’s actions towards our community are horrid and deplorable especially at a time where the public has expressed willingness to engage in a debate about the issues our community faces, just for being lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender!”Hmmmm........."The religion of peace".Read the full story here.

In Honor killing Shafias' hometown, PM Harper talks about honour crimes.

In Honor killing Shafias' hometown, PM Harper talks about honour crimes.(Yahoo).MONTREAL - Prime Minister Stephen Harper recalled the Shafia killings while visiting the family's hometown of Montreal to underscore Ottawa's support of a program to prevent so-called honour crimes.
Harper visited a Montreal centre for victims of family violence Friday to denounce crimes against women and girls committed in the name of "honour."
He called honour crimes "barbaric" and "heinous" before promising nearly $350,000 to help fund a program led by The Shield of Athena Family Services to prevent these practices in the city.
"Recently, the tragedy of the Shafia girls touched Canadians profoundly," Harper said in a speech at a community centre."All Canadians, regardless of the colour of their skin or which god is in their prayers, have the inalienable right to security and life."It's our homework to ensure that the victims of these incomprehensible murders did not suffer for nothing."
Employees at the family-violence centre used the prime minister's visit to share anecdotes with the visiting media about their work.
Melpa Kamateros, executive director of The Shield of Athena Family Services, said she detects an increase in the number of "honour" crimes reported in the last few years. She believes that's because more people are aware of the issue and are more willing to speak out.
"We've had cases that very much resemble the Shafia case and we've addressed them in a certain way, and clearly we haven't had any negative impacts in those cases," Kamateros said.
She described one example where a woman was severely assaulted by a weapon, then brought to the centre: "A male member of the family did not like the way she dressed and did not like her attitude," she said.
Federal minister Rona Ambrose touched off weeks of confusion in 2010 when she suggested "honour" crimes could be added to the Criminal Code. The remark mortified some criminal experts who noted that such a policy would only add to prosecutors' burden of proof, and actually make it harder to convict killers.
After a number of vague and contradictory statements from various quarters of the government over a period of several weeks, the Harper Tories ultimately renounced the idea.
The Canadian Council of Muslim Women has warned against the use of the term "honour" crime, arguing that it separates women into categories, based on their particular racial or ethnic group.
Alia Hogben, the organization's director, said allocating this money toward preventing violence against women moves the cause forward, but linking it directly to this specific type of crime is a "backward step.""If it's violence against women, it's violence against women," Hogben said Friday in a phone interview.
Hogben, a social worker with 30 years' experience, said when violence against women leads to murder, the case should instead be referred to as "femicide."Hmmmm........Narrated 'Aisha: Do you make us (women) equal to dogs and donkeys?  (Sahih Bukhari 1.486, cf. Sahih Bukhari 1.490, Sahih Bukhari 1.493, Sahih Bukhari 1.498).Read the full story here.

MFS -The Other News - What the main papers don't say.

  Morning Posting.

• Updated !Earthquakes in the last 24 hours in the world seismic activity situation Argentina 6.1 ; Indonesia 5.7 - 5.5 ; India 5.3 -  5.2  !More info here.

• Obama Hearts Israel . . . Oh, Really?(Heritage).At the annual American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) meeting in Washington today, President Barack Obama delivered a speech on US-Israeli relations under his presidency, but with the bad parts left out.“I have kept my commitments to the state of Israel,” Obama declared, “At every crucial juncture – at every fork in the road – we have been there for Israel. Every single time.”What’s not love? A lot.President Obama failed to mention the years he spent trying to “engage” with the Syrian and Iranian regimes — time wasted that would have been better served pursuing a strategy to responding to those countries’ support for terrorism, weapons proliferation, horrible human rights records, and enmity towards Israel.Left undiscussed was the Administration’s missed opportunity to embrace the Green Revolution against Tehran.No word, either, on the years wasted pressing for Israel to negotiate with a Palestinian authority that tolerates Hamas — a terrorist organization dedicated to the destruction of Israel.Not much either on the president’s questionable strategy for Iraq, where the White House was more concerned about getting combat troops out than that the country stays on a path that embraces freedom and security.Our president also skipped over the dramatic rift between Turkey and Israel and all the Administration has not done to close it.Finally, President Obama didn’t touch on massive cuts to U.S. conventional forces and the U.S. nuclear deterrent — cuts that will make America a less valuable and dependable ally to Israel.The President finished his speech by declaring nothing is “off the table” when it comes to dealing with the Iranian nuclear. It would, however, had been far better if he could have given a speech how he had worked to diminish that threat rather delivering an address acknowledging that when his policies fail America might well have to send in the Marines . . . and a lot more.Israel shouldn’t be reassured — or feeling the love.Read the full story here.

• President Responds to the Inaudible Cries for Higher Gasoline Prices.(Heritage).It appears the President studied economics with his textbook upside down.He proposes to raise taxes on oil companies in order to combat high gasoline prices. Or not. Maybe his textbook was right side up and he thinks gasoline prices are too low. That would be consistent with statements by his Secretary of Energy, Steven Chu.On Thursday, the President reiterated his call for higher taxes on oil companies. The President pretends increasing taxes is just removing oil industry subsidies. They are tax increases.For instance, the unfair tax break that makes up nearly half of what Obama calls “subsidies” is the manufacturing tax credit. All manufacturers except the oil and gas industry get to deduct 9 percent of their revenues before calculating their tax bills. (It’s worth noting that “manufacturing” is so broadly defined that it includes newspapers and software companies in addition to producers of wind turbines and solar panels.) Though oil and gas producers get the deduction, they are singled out for a lower 6 percent deduction.Let’s review that. The oil and gas industry gets a deduction that is only two-thirds as generous as for all other manufacturers (wind turbine and solar panel manufacturers and even The New York Times, for example), yet the deduction is called a subsidy to oil and gas. The President’s proposal does not eliminate the deduction for any other industry. So back to the tax-increase story…When the tax increases on oil and gas companies were proposed last year, the Congressional Research Service (CRS) was asked to analyze the impact. Here is their conclusion (emphasis added): On the one hand, the tax changes…would increase tax collections from the oil and natural gas industries and may have the effect of decreasing exploration, development, and production, while increasing prices and increasing the nation’s foreign oil dependence. These same proposals, from an alternate point of view, might be considered to be the elimination of tax preferences that have favored the oil and natural gas industries over other energy sources and made oil and gas products artificially inexpensive, with consumer costs held below the true cost of consumption, when the external costs associated with environmental costs and energy dependence, among other effects, are included.The CRS says there are two ways of looking at the impact of the tax increases:

1. They will increase gasoline prices and dependence on foreign oil; or
2. They will and should increase gasoline prices, because gasoline is “artificially inexpensive.”

Everybody get that? There is no question about which direction gasoline prices will go if oil industry taxes are raised. They will go up—now and in the future. The real question is whether we want them to go up or not. The Obama Administration has made clear that it wants them to go up. A lot of Americans disagree.Read the full story here.

• Likud politicians mock Obama AIPAC speech.(JPost).Israeli reactions to US President Barack Obama’s speech at the AIPAC Policy Conference in Washington on Sunday were divided along party lines.Deputy Negev and Galilee Development Minister Ayoub Kara (Likud) criticized Obama for saying that too much bluster played into Iranian hands and suggesting that it led to higher gas prices.“There is a saying that it’s easier to watch a fire from far away,” Kara said. “We are facing an existential threat, not the US. If Israel doesn’t bluster, the US will also be in danger, because Iran’s missiles will reach them too. Israel is doing everything possible to keep the world safe, and it’s unfortunate that the White House doesn’t see things the way we see them here.”MK Danny Danon (Likud) mocked Obama’s promises to protect Israel’s security.He said history had proven that Israel can rely only on itself.“Looking back at the way the United States criticized Israel for destroying the nuclear reactor in Iraq, Israel must make its decisions based on its own good judgment,” Danon said.Labor leader Shelly Yacimovich called Obama’s speech unquestionably pro-Israel.In a speech in Herzliya, she wished Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu well in his meeting with the president.Opposition leader Tzipi Livni blamed tension between Netanyahu and Obama on the prime minister. She predicted that there would be a large gap between Obama’s praise for Israel in his speech and what he would say to Netanyahu behind closed doors.“Relations between Israel and the US have become political during Netanyahu’s term,” she said. “Netanyahu made Israel an issue in the American election and it’s a mistake. Netanyahu must understand that relations with the US are an essential need.Our deterrence depends on it. He will be tested on whether he is able to draft the US into our interests or whether he will continue just manipulating internal American politics.”Read the full story here.

• Cardinal Dolan To All U.S. Bishops On Obama Mandate: “We Did Not Ask for This Fight, But We Will Not Run From It”.(CNSNews) — Cardinal Timothy Dolan, archbishop of New York and president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, sent a letter on Friday to all the Catholic bishops of the United States reasserting the conviction of the Catholic Church that it will not yield to the Obama administration’s command — issued in the form of a Health and Human Services regulation implementing the president’s health-care plan — that Catholics and Catholic institutions must violate the teachings of their faith by purchasing and providing health insurance plans that pay for sterilizations, contraceptives and abortifacients.“We have made it clear in no uncertain terms to the government that we are not at peace with its invasive attempt to curtail the religious freedom we cherish as Catholics and Americans,” Cardinal Dolan wrote his brother bishops.“We did not ask for this fight, but we will not run from it,” he said.“Since January 20, when the final, restrictive HHS Rule was first announced,” Cardinal Dolan wrote, “we have become certain of two things: religious freedom is under attack, and we will not cease our struggle to protect it.”Read the full story here.

• Wikileaks: Obama secretly took Russian money for his campaign.(NR).By: Andrea Shea King.The Democratic Party engaged in an effort to throw the 2008 election.And Russian money went to the campaign of Barack Obama much as Chinese money went to the campaign of Bill Clinton during the 1990s.From a piece that ran in The Examiner on February 27th about Wikileaks‘ latest document dump in a series of cables that it calls ‘The Global Intelligence Files.’From: Fred Burton [Sent: Friday, November 07, 2008 7:41 AM.To: secure@stratfor.comSubject: Insight – The Dems and Dirty Tricks ** Internal Use Only – Pls Do Not Forward **** Internal Use Only – Pls Do Not Forward **

1) The black Dems were caught stuffing the ballot boxes in Philly and Ohio as reported the night of the election and Sen. McCain chose not to fight. The matter is not dead inside the party. It now becomes a matter of sequence now as to how and when to “out”.

2) It appears the Dems “made a donation” to Rev. Jesse (no, they would never do that!) to keep his yap shut after his diatribe about the Jews and Israel. A little bird told me it was a “nice six-figure donation”. This also becomes a matter of how and when to out.

3) The hunt is on for the sleezy Russian money into O-mans coffers. A smoking gun has already been found. Will get more on this when the time is right. My source was too giddy to continue. Can you say Clinton and ChiCom funny money? This also becomes a matter of how and when to out.Several key pieces of information are contained in this stunning admission by an operative of one of the most respected intelligence gathering corporations in the world.

1. First, the Democratic Party engaged in election tampering, a felony, by stuffing ballot boxes in Pennsylvania and Ohio.
2. Second, the Democratic Party paid Jessie Jackson six figures to keep his mouth shut about political issues during the 2008 campaign. It was widely known at the time that Jackson had no use for Obama.
3. And third, Russian money went to the campaign of Barack Obama much as Chinese money went to the campaign of Bill Clinton during the 1990s.

These are serious issues that throw into question the integrity of the U.S. elections process and the lengths to which the political parties will go to secure a win, in this case, the Democratic Party and Barack Obama.Ohio and Pennsylvania are merely the two areas where Democratic operatives were caught stuffing ballot boxes. How many other areas around the country were subjected to voter fraud without anyone getting caught?Read the full story here.

• David Axelrod’s Red Roots: Obama Adviser’s Communist Ties Exposed.(TOM).The cover story of the March print edition of The American Spectator is not yet online and, if you are not yet a subscriber to the magazine, I urge you to rush out to the nearest Barnes & Noble or wherever else you can buy a copy, because it’s definitely worth the $5.95 newstand price.Presidential historian Paul Kengor has dug up some fascinating facts about the background of David Axelrod, showing President Obama’s top political strategist to have deep ties to the American Communist Party (CPUSA) and other leftist individuals and organizations. For example, Axelrod’s mother, Myril Bennett Axelrod, worked for the left-wing New York newspaper, PM. Although it lasted less than a decade (1940-48), PM became notorious because of its penetration by Stalinists and others who promoted the Communist Party line on issues both foreign and domestic. Kengor points out that PM‘s famed Washington correspondent, I.F. Stone, was subsequently identified as a Soviet agent both in the so-called “Venona” documents and also by a former top KGB official, Oleg Kalugin.It is unclear where Axelrod’s mother fit in the orbit of Communists, Soviet sympathizers and other “progressives” who worked at PM, Kengor says, because despite “scouring reel upon reel of microfiche” copies of the newspaper, he was “unable to find a single article with Myril’s byline.” Nevertheless, her association with the paper locates her politics on the far-left fringe of the American politic spectrum in the 1940s, which would seem important to understanding her son’s later activities.While a student at the University of Chicago in the early 1970s, David Axelrod began working as a political reporter for the Hyde Park Herald, which Kengor says brought Axelrod to the attention of Don Rose and David Canter. Both of these men were associated with the Communist Party and other far-left organizations.Read the full story here.

• Now THAT Is Cold - 19 Signs That America Is Becoming A Very Heartless Place.(BLN).By Michael Snyder.The economy is not the only thing that is wrong with America. In order for a society to function smoothly, people need to be able to trust one another and be able to expect that most of their fellow citizens will behave in a somewhat civilized manner. Unfortunately, we are starting to see the very fabric of our society slowly unravel all over the nation. The truth is that America is becoming a very heartless place. People simply do not care about one another the way that they used to in this country. Of course there are many exceptions, but the reality is that millions of hearts are going cold from coast to coast. In America today, we are more self-absorbed than ever, more self-centered than ever, and we are more isolated from others than ever. Just think about the number of people that you personally interact with on a regular basis. Unless you are involved with a very large organization such as a school or a church, it is probably a very limited number. Our addiction to entertainment gives us the illusion of being connected to society, but the truth is that Americans spend less time personally interacting with one another than ever before. Meanwhile, Americans are seemingly becoming more arrogant, more prideful, more angry, more brutal, more greedy and more addicted to pleasure than ever before. When you combine millions of very cold hearts with an economy that is rapidly crumbling, that adds up to a whole lot of trouble in the years ahead.Even government authorities are becoming heartless. TSA agents and police officers are actually trained to "act tough" and to bark orders at us. In the old days, you could reason with a police officer, but these days if you try to talk common sense with some of these thugs you will get tasered before you even realize what is happening.The American people can see the deep corruption in Washington D.C. and throughout most of our other major institutions and they wonder why they should keep trying to do "the right thing".If our leaders are selfish and heartless, then it is only natural that millions of average Americans will follow their examples.In America today, we are taught to hate one another. Democrats are taught to hate Republicans and Republicans are taught to hate Democrats. We are a deeply divided nation and our hearts are getting colder with each passing year.Parents are becoming more cruel, thieves are becoming more bold and thugs are becoming more brutal. Hate, anger and frustration are fueling some really twisted behavior all over the country. America is changing, and not for the better.The following are 19 signs that America is becoming a very heartless place....Read the full story here.

• 'Kill potentially harmful kids before they can walk,' Turkish principal says.(HD).A Turkish school principal has suggested that all newborns should be genetically scanned and that those who could prove harmful to the country should be “eliminated.” "Children should be analyzed immediately after birth. If they are to become harmful to this country, to this nation, then they should be eliminated before they can walk," Dumlupınar Elementary School Principal Mustafa Aydın said yesterday during a meeting organized by the police department in the eastern province of Erzurum. The meeting's topic was violence among children and ways to prevent it. Aydın was among the audience and asked to express his opinion after a speaker completed her speech.Aydın proposed the collection of blood samples from criminals at police stations and the use of their genetic codes as templates to compare with those belonging to newborns.  Aydın said children could become only as good as their families. "Most children in my neighborhood are thieves," he said. "I walked in the streets around my home, children are sitting around in condemned buildings ... keeping stray dogs as pets. I asked authorities to demolish those buildings but they did not."Aydın also said authorities in Argentina and Brazil were discussing what kind of violence to exact on children. "An organization was founded in Brazil to eliminate street children years ago. I am not making this up," Aydın said, adding that 90 percent of children with violent backgrounds came from families living under social care. The principal's views drew a swift reaction from other speakers at the conference.The Education Ministry removed Aydın from duty today and launched an investigation into the incident.Read the full story here.

• Egypt 17-year-old girl killed for missing curfew.(BM).CAIRO: A 17 year-old Egyptian girl was killed by her family for failing to meet her curfew in Giza. The young girl, Iman, was threatened by her mother that she “will break her neck” if she was late coming home again.The high school student did not read much into the threats, not knowing they were about to become true. The next time she was late, her mother called her brothers, Iman’s two uncles, to come to their house and discipline the girl.Usama, a 31 year-old driver, and Mohie, 27, a plumber, arrived at the house, planning how they would “punish” the girl.According to a report by the New Women Foundation, a women’s rights organization in Egypt, the two men took her in a room in the back of the flat, closed the door and started their disciplinary session.They sat her on a chair, tied her hands and feet, and started beating her with great might. Iman died on the chair, with a bruised and bleeding body. While the beating fest was on going, Iman’s younger sister was present watching.When the two brothers suspected that the young girl died under their heavy hand, they asked the mother for help. They then put her on the lower floor of the building, right under the stairs, and said she fell to her death.They cleaned up the house and called the police. When Iman’s body was examined at the Giza criminal coroner, the doctor found beating marks and informed General Ahmed al-Naghy, the interior minister’s assistance at the Giza security.One of the officers also remarked that the younger sister was frightened, and went back to question her again. She finally confessed that her uncles and mother killed her sister.The two men were shortly after arrested and later confronted with the younger sister’s story. They soon confessed to their crime, saying they were only trying to help the mother modify Iman’s behavior.Read the full story here.

Palestinian "Honor" killing, Mother strangled 16-year-old daughter.

Palestinian "DisHonor" killing, Mother strangled 16-year-old daughter. (E24/7).A Palestinian mother waited for her 16-year-old daughter to go to bed, tied a rope around her neck and strangled her to death. The woman murdered her own daughter after neighbours lied to her that the girl had an affair with their son.The crime, which moved local residents, had remained underground for a while before it was revealed by police and a Palestinian female activist, who described it as “one of the most heinous criminal acts” in Palestine.
Just before the girl was buried, her aging grandmother (father’s mother), swayed slowly towards the coffin with tears rolling on her wrinkled skin, pulled out the girl’s hair and tied a white tape around it.
“This is more than a symbol of her chastity and purity…it is a proof,” the grandmother said to the mourners.“Oh, my grandchild….go to your Lord because you will find rest and tranquility there…He is the one who can take revenge for you.”The crime took place in Bait Oula, a tiny village in the West Bank town of Hebron and it was publicized several weeks after it was perpetrated by the mother.
Residents, who spoke to the Palestinian Arabic language daily Donia Al Watan, said the mother had already been cruel to her daughter as she used to force her to do all household work because she does not like female offspring.It was this cruelty that made her rush and murder the girl without bothering to check if what neighbours said about her daughter was true.“Just go and see your daughter’s pictures on my son’s mobile phone,” the neighbouring woman told the mother after an argument, according to the paper.“The mother then started her plan to kill her daughter…residents said she had made her daughter clean the house for two days so the family will be prepared to receive would-be mourners on their daughter’s death.”After the murder, the family left the girl in her bed all the night. In the morning, they went straight to hospital and said their daughter had died of heart attack.“But doctors noticed the swelling in her neck and that her body was bluish….they informed the authorities, who later wrested a confession about the murder…the mother said she killed her to wash off shame and clean the family’s honour….a day later, hospital tests showed the girl was still virgin and pure….it was a hasty crime of Dishonour, which has never been marred or even touched.”Hmmmm........Canadian fatwa condemns 'honour killings'.The fatwa condemns honour killings, domestic violence and misogyny as "un-Islamic."Read the full story here.

Ezra levant - What the fatwa?

Video - Michael Coren & Robert Spencer On Islam & The Shafia Honour Killings + Hamed Shafia files appeal in honour killing verdict.

Breaking - Hamed Shafia files appeal in honour killing verdict.(MontrealGazette).By Sheila Dabu Nonato.The trial that ended with Hamed Shafia behind bars for the murder of four members of his family was afflicted by media bias and hearsay evidence, says his lawyer — who confirmed Tuesday he is appealing his client's first-degree murder convictions.The 21-year-old and his parents — Mohammad Shafia, 58, and Tooba Mohammad Yahya, 42 — were each found guilty Sunday of four counts of first-degree murder in the deaths of Mohammad Shafia's three teenage daughters and his first wife in what the Crown successfully argued was an 'honour killing' inspired by the belief that the women had brought shame on the family.
Lawyer Patrick McCann said Tuesday that the appeal is based upon inadmissible hearsay evidence of key witnesses, including the sisters' boyfriends and teachers who recalled statements made to them by the sisters, as well as testimony from social workers, police, shelter workers, friends and others. McCann said this hearsay evidence should not have been heard by the jury."The ground relating to hearsay is based on evidentiary law, which prohibits the use of hearsay unless it is established that the words spoken would not likely be changed or modified by any cross-examination so that there are adequate substitutes for the absence of an oath and any cross-examination and the inability of the jury to observe the witness when testifying," he told Postmedia News in an email.
McCann also questioned the testimony of a University of Toronto "honour crimes" expert. In court, the defence criticized the testimony of Prof. Shahrzad Mojab, saying Mojab did not do any fieldwork in Afghanistan and that her observations were biased.
According to McCann, another aspect of the appeal is the potential negative impact of biased media coverage of the case."As you know, the media coverage was extremely intense . . . whereas much of it was quite objective, much of it assumed guilt from the beginning of the trial," he explained.Read the full story here.

Michael Coren on Fox News Discussing Canadian "Honor" Killings

Breaking - Canada - Shafia murder trial verdict : All three guilty of first degree murder !

                                                              The four murdered victims
All 3 guilty in Shafia murder trial.Judge condems twisted concept of honor killings.(Yahoo).KINGSTON, Ont. - Three members of an Afghanistan-born Montreal family have been found guilty of killing three daughters and a co-wife in what the judge describes as "cold-blooded, shameful murders" resulting from a "twisted concept of honour."
A jury took 15 hours to find Mohammad Shafia, 58, his wife Tooba Yahya, 42, and their son Hamed, 21, each guilty of four counts of first-degree murder in a case so shocking it has riveted Canadians from coast to coast.
Even after the verdict was read, the three denied killing sisters Zainab, 19, Sahar, 17, and Geeti, 13, Shafia as well as Rona Amir Mohammad, 52, their father's childless first wife in a polygamous marriage.
Their bodies were found June 30, 2009, in a car submerged in a canal in Kingston, Ont., in a multiple murder the Crown asserted was to avenge the family's outrage because the girls sought teenage freedoms agianst the will of their controlling father and brother.
As the verdicts were being read, Hamed put his head in his hands and hunched over while standing.Soon, his mother Tooba started to cry.When the judge asked if they each wanted to say anything, they one by one declared their innocence.
"We are not criminal, we are not murderer, we didn't commit the murder and this is unjust," Mohammad said through a translater.
His wife, Tooba, responded: "Your honourable justice, this is not just. I am not a murderer, and I am a mother, a mother."
Their son said in English: "Sir, I did not drown my sisters anywhere."
But the judge was unmoved, and spoke directly to the cultural cloud that has hung over the case since it began."You have each been convicted of the planned and deliberate murder of four members of your family...(A verdict) clearly supported by the evidence presented at this trial," said Judge Robert Maranger."It is difficult to conceive of a more despicable, more heinous crime...the apparent reason behind these cold-blooded, shameful murders was that the four completely innocent victims offended your completely twisted concept of honour...that has absolutely no place in any civilized society."
Throughout the judge's statement, Hamed put his head in his hands, while at one point both his mother and father rubbed his back to console him.
By the time Shafia, Yahya and Hamed were arrested on July 22, 2009, the case against them included intercepted conversations secretly recorded by police.
Comments mostly made by Shafia on those wiretaps provided the foundation for the Crown's "honour killing" theory.
"I say to myself, 'Would they come back to life a hundred times, for you to do the same again,'" Shafia says on one. "That is how hurt I am. Tooba, they betrayed us immensely. They violated us immensely. There can be no betrayal, no treachery, no violation more than this."
"Even if they hoist me up onto the gallows...nothing is more dear to me than my honour," Shafia.First-degree murder carries an automatic life sentence with no chance of parole for 25 years.
Justice Minister Rob Nicholson called honor killings “barbaric and unacceptable in Canada” in a statement issued after the court handed down its verdict.
Read the full story here.

Female victim of 'honor violence' in Palestinian areas of judea and Samaria on canadian TV.

HT : TundraTabloids

Just When You Thought you saw and heard it all......this pops up.

Here's your dilemma: You catch your spouse[*] cheating and you kill her. Now you are charged with murder. You can get off with just a misdemeanor if you can provide four witnesses to her infidelity. But there were no witnesses.

What do you do?

This Imam explains your options:





HT: TheJawaReport.


Hmmmm.........It's true cause i swore four times.

Shafia Honour Killings: Syed Soharwardy & The Social Worker Shill For Islam

HT:TundraTabloids.

Blazing Cat Fur has more.