‘Honor Killings’ Show Culture Clash in Berlin — These sorts of stories are starting to emerge more and more.
A 23-year-old single mother seeking to escape tradition and religious constraints, Surucu was the sixth Muslim woman to have died in the German capital since October in suspected “honor killings,” slayings arranged by families who believe that their reputations have been stained.
Such crimes are rarely mentioned in Germany’s newspapers.
But Surucu’s public slaying has instigated fresh debates on politics, immigration, human rights and a rigorous Islam adopted by a minority of Muslims confronted with poverty, discrimination and liberal European attitudes. The case is a portrait of contradictions %u2014 much like Surucu, whose memorial pictures show her either wearing the hijab, the head scarf of her Eastern heritage, or with the uncovered hair of her Western aspirations
Then there is this to consider:
Germans were stunned when the media reported that some Turkish boys in a neighborhood school said they sympathized with Surucu’s suspected killers. One of them said Surucu “had only herself to blame.” Another said: “She deserved what she got, “the whore lived like a German.”
My favorite line in the story:
Some Muslim activists say they are surprised at the attention that Surucu’s case has raised.
Yeah, I guess this is routine everywhere else.
That said, like we should be so proud of ourselves:
This woman was beaten up in San Francisco last year by a “patriot” who didn’t like the fact that her art gallery had paintings of the Iraqi prisoner abuse. Story here.
If that happened in San Francisco, I’d hate to imagine what would have happened if she opened her art show in Kansas. I’m guessing she’d be dead.
Whatever happened to the notion that I may disagree with what you’re saying, but I’ll fight to my death your right to say it?!
The ironic thing is that it is Conservatives who are so politically correct nowadays, i.e., completely intolerant of any point of view but their own.
Honor killings are just one piece of the picture. I am sure you are familiar with the case of the woman in Pakistan who was gang raped by four members of the Mastoi tribe because her brother had had an affair with a Mastoi woman. The first kicker is that the men who carried out the rape did so at the behest of the local government. The second kicker is that after being sentenced to death, they were then set free on appeal. See http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/7245230/site/newsweek/ for her story. Today the PM ordered the men re-arrested. We’ll see where this goes, if anywhere.
The consistent backwardness in this kind of behavior, whether it be Hindu or Muslim, Christian or Jew, is allowing fundamental superstition, bigotry and reaction a place in the rule of nations and law.
It doesn’t matter whether it’s in Kansas or Karachi, the time for governments to step up to [at least] 20th Century knowledge is long past.
Well, Ed, if our current government stepped up, it’d be to outlaw all art exhibits that did not honor our Lord.
Accept it or not, but we are in a religious war. If you don’t believe in God or you don’t accept the Muslim beliefs, then you are their enemy. The Muslims are more than happy to use bigoted atheists and will use them to attack Christian beliefs. Protestant Christianity has allowed individuals to decide for themselves what they believe. The Muslim countries offer no such liberty, but instead repress all such religious freedom. Just because a Muslim move to a different county or makes more money, doesn’t mean they have changed their beliefs. Current atheist liberals seem to believe that they can subvert all Muslims into the same religious disdain they themselves live in. All the liberal atheist have done by promoting their atheist religion is create an atmosphere rip for conflict and as Revelations reveals we will reap that conflict.
This BBC story reports an honor killing in the West Bank by Christians. Honor killings have also been reported among Sikhs, so the practice appears cultural rather than, strictly speaking, religious.