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iz Robbins, writing on the NY Times’ “The Lede/Notes on the News” blog, is by all indications a woman. As such, I’m sure she finds the cause of fighting domestic violence worthy of promoting tp the NYT’s readers. Heck, she can even focus on the particular problems the Muslim community has with men degrading their wives:

Even as Mr. [Mozzammil] Hassan, 44, [who beheaded his wife Aasiya] sits in jail under a suicide watch that has been considered only a precaution, said his attorney, James Harrington, the gruesome murder has provoked some soul-searching within the Muslim-American community about the role of women and domestic abuse within Islam.

Soul-search they must, as they’re believers in a religion created, expanded and propagated by men who treated women as not much different than livestock. (No wonder females are becoming popular as suicide bombers – they hurt the enemy with no discernable loss to the terrorists’ side!)

But Robbins must soul-search herself as well because she is giving Islam a pass on the larger issue of the despicable act of “honor” killing. Without even bothering to find a compliant Muslim to quote directly, she writes:

The Muslim-American community in Buffalo and around the United States has reacted with outrage over suggestions that this was a religiously motivated killing, an “honor killing” brought on by the shame of Mr. Hassan’s wife seeking a divorce. The Hassans were originally from Pakistan. Although some Muslim fanatical extremists have justified “honor killings” because of shame brought on a family, Islam is a peaceful religion, and does not condone such violence, Muslim-American leaders have repeated in the last week as the case drew more attention.

Not to put too fine an edge on it, but screw the Muslim-American community in Buffalo and around the United States. Who do they think they are, killing two daughters in Texas, one daughter in Georgia and now disgracing our shores by beheading a wife in New York just because they refused to become compliant cows? The Texas girls, shown here, dressed wrong so their dad shot them both.  The Georgia daughter wanted to divorce an abusive husband, so her dad killed her.  And Muzzammil Hassan, rather than face his own shortcomings (this would have been his third divorce), hacked off the head of the woman who, were he a Christian, he was bound by oath to God to protect.

We are America, not Pakistan or Yemen or some other sorry excuse for civilization. If our wives or daughters stray from the straight and narrow, we don’t kill them in the name of our righteous God . (Yes, all too often wives die at husbands’ hands in America – but in the name of anger and ego, not God, and we certainly don’t say their murder honors our God; we call it what it is – a vile and disgusting sin.)

We also don’t think much of newspapers that are so swift to attack the Catholic church for child-abusing priests, but are so completely unable to confront the evil in Islam.  Fortunately, the 50+ commentors on Robbins’ post aren’t buying her coddling of Islam; overwhelmingly they are tired of this religion and those who make excuses for it.  For example:

“Many Muslim-American organizations insist that honor killing is ‘Un-Islamic.’” Yet, many scholars of Islam equally assert that the Qu’ran as well as custom permits grave punishment for “disobedient” women.” The argument that Islam is a ‘religion of peace’ has grown so tiresome in the face of so much evidence to the contrary. – MPCT

True enough.  To true for the NYT.

Hat-tip: Soccer Dad

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ne week too late, the New York Times has finally published a story on the brutal beheading of Aasiya Hassan by her husband, owner of a TV network dedicated to proving that Islam is indeed moderate, a faith that’s ready for prime time in a civilized world.

The coverage starts off well, but rapidly deteriorates. Here’s the lead:

A man who founded a Muslim-American television station to help fight Muslim stereotypes is to appear on Wednesday in a suburban Buffalo court on charges that he decapitated his wife last week.

Kudos to the NYT; they put the newsworthy significance – beheadings and Muslim stereotypes – right in the lead, casting the story as it should be cast.  But then the story breaks down into a senseless defense of positive Muslim stereotypes:

The gruesome death of Ms. Hassan prompted outrage from Muslim leaders after suggestions that it had been some kind of “honor killing” based on religious or cultural beliefs.

Dr. Sawsan Tabbaa, a Muslim community leader who teaches orthodontia at the State University at Buffalo, said, “This is not an honor killing, no way.”

Dr. Tabbaa added, “It has nothing to do with his faith.”

They are not outraged that she was beheaded. They are not outraged that Islam tolerates such behavior – it is, after all, the only religion in the world whose followers routinely behead people in the name of its god. They are merely outraged that someone would consider Aasiya Hassan’s death an honor killing.

But let’s look at it, shall we?  Aasiya was divorcing Muzzammil, and that’s just not allowed in enlightened Islam.  Men can divorce women easy as pie, but women divorce men? No way.  So she – she, a mere woman – was bringing shame to Muzzammil.

Now, he could have shot her, or strangled her, or crushed her skull with a tire iron or done any of a number of other well established American ways to kill in a fit of passion.  But instead, he did something almost unique to Islam – he beheaded her.  This is no easy feat.  It’s time-consuming, difficult, and very, very personal.

You behead someone not to kill them, but to send a message.  And the message Mazzammil Hassan was sending was simple:  I will not be dishonored!

The NYT, after waiting a week to cover the story, has made itself complicit in covering up the true nature of the crime.

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ere’s the story of another Muslim honor killing here on our shores … but dressed up with enough crime lingo to make it appear to be just another case of an enraged father killing his daughter just because she’s disgraced the family. (I hope you see the sardonic humor in that!)

A Georgia man appeared in court Monday on charges he killed his own daughter for disgracing his family. …

Chaudhry Rashid, wearing a red jumpsuit and shackles around his ankles, went before Chief Judge Daphne Walker at the Clayton County Magistrate Court where he was arraigned on a murder charge. …

The 25-year-old victim, Sandeela Kanwal, was wed in Pakistan in an arranged marriage. Police said Kanwal hadn’t seen her husband, who lives in Chicago, for months.

According to police, there was “friction between father and victim” in the weeks leading up to the killing. Rashid had not spoken to his daughter in more than two months.

Police said Rashid was so angered that his daughter planned to divorce her husband that he killed her after a heated argument at the family’s home, FOX News affiliate MyFoxAtlanta reported. …

“The family is very upset and stressed,” said Shahid Malik of the Pakistani American Community of Atlanta. Malik told MyFoxAtlanta that he met with the family Sunday and said they were all traumatized. (Fox News)

Not quite as traumatized as the daughter, though.

In his native Pakistan, it’s likely Rashid would walk with little or no penalty. In America, it’s likely that many Muslims feel he did the honorable thing and should walk – one reason why we should scoff at any efforts to allow Sharia law for Muslims here.

In fact, if we allow greater punishments for so-called “hate crimes,” then it follows that we should do the same for “honor” killings, since Sandeela Kanwal would very likely be alive today were it not for her religion.

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Sarah and Amina Said were buried yesterday — matching pink caskets at a Baptist, then a Muslim, funeral — while their father, who shot the two teens to death because he was upset about their dating, remained on he lam.

The Dallas Morning News write-up includes this:

Gail Gartrell, the sisters’ great-aunt, said Saturday that Mr. Said had physically abused the two girls for years. Around Christmas, the girls’ mother – Ms. Gartrell’s niece – had fled because of Mr. Said’s threats to kill the girls after he learned they had boyfriends, she said.

“She ran with them because she knew he would carry out the threat,” Ms. Gartrell said. “This was an honor killing.”

She said her niece returned after Mr. Said told her that he would move out so they could reconcile. Within a few days, she said, the girls were dead.

At the Muslim service, an Imam said that families being the most important thing in Islam and the need for parents to work to keep their families strong. How about it, Muslims? Is this going to be your creed, or is honor killing?

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The brother of two Texas Muslim girls murdered (allegedly)by their father denies that the barbaric Islamic practice of honor killings had anything to do with the killing of his sisters.

Mr. [Islam] Said also disputed widespread rumors and media reports that his father’s religion may have been part of the motive. There has been speculation that the slayings were an honor killing, a practice in some Muslim cultures where a man kills a female family member who is believed to have shamed the family.

“It’s not religion,” he said. “It’s something else. Religion has nothing to do with it.” (Dallas Morning News)

Islam Said offered no alternative motive, however, and police are still investigating honor killing as a motive. The same report provided new information that underscored the motive — buried a bit, but offered nonetheless:

Zohair Zaidi, a close friend of Sarah’s, said Sarah told him their father had threatened harm to Amina recently when he discovered she had a boyfriend.

“Her dad has always been oppressive with her and her sister,” said Mr. Zaidi, 18.

“She said that one day when she came home – the day he found out about Amina’s boyfriend – he told Sarah, ‘I’m going to put a bullet through Amina’s head, and you better get used to her because she’s not going to be around much longer.’ “

If liberal legislators can create the phony legal concept of “hate crime” without so much as a mini-shudder, then why not enact anti-honor killing legislation? Aren’t Muslim daughters and wives worth the extra effort to protect?

Ha. I predict it will be a long time before you see an elected Democrat introducing an anti-honor killing bill out of fear of Islamic backlash, and fear of appearing intolerant of the world’s most intolerant religion.

Yaser Said remains at large. Let’s bring him in alive so we can have a massively publicized honor killing trial, and then, since this is Texas we’re talking about, execute the SOB.

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Media reticence to confront Muslim quirks like honor killings and their enthusiasm to cover hate crimes couldn’t be more evident than what’s showing up in Dallas in the wake of the apparent — can you hear my gag as I insert the obligatory qualifier? — honor killing of two teenage girls by their Egyptian Muslim father.

The second story on Dallas/Ft. Worth news radio station KRLD’s Web site this afternoon is:

Outrage In Arlington Over Hate Crime

There’s outrage in Arlington following an attack on a black woman and racist graffiti spray painted on a garage door. About two weeks ago, Broderick Gamble and Silk Littlejohn found racial slurs spray painted on the garage of their home. Just two days prior to that, Littlejohn was allegedly hit with a two-by-four by a 66 year-old neighbor. She now faces hate crime charges. Arlington Mayor Robert Cluck joined the police chief and the president of the NAACP to ease racial tension in the upscale neighborhood and across the city saying Arlington will not tolerate these types of crimes.

After at first refusing, Gamble announced here on KRLD that he now plans to accept and install new garage doors. Mayor Cluck will join the NAACP at a meeting at Wimbish Elementary tonight to discuss the issue.

This story is two weeks old, folks. The only “news” is that somebody gave Gamble a new garage door. How newsworthy is that compared to the brutal murder of two teens by their father because their American dating habits reportedly [gag] offended his Islamic sensibilities?

Apparently, it’s quite a bit more newsworthy. The story on the murders [honor killings] of Sarah and Amina Said by their father was one, two … let’s see … 11 stories down — the last story on the page, after such newsworthy items as a newly imposed ban on outdoor burning [of leaves, not daughters] and a new civic campaign to get boys to pull their pants up.

Here’s the station’s full write-up of the murder of the Said girls:

Vigil Planned to Honor Murdered Lewisville Sisters

Pink will be the color-of-the-day at Lewisville High School where students return this morning from their Christmas break. Student leaders are asking classmates to wear pink in honor of two sisters found murdered in their father’s taxi cab in Las Colinas Tuesday night. Police are still hunting down the father, Yaser Abdel Said, who is the leading suspect. Amina and Sarah Said were known as excellent students and fine athletes — and their friends are staggered to hear of the murders. The Student Council is planning a prayer vigil this evening at Lewisville High. They’re also asking students to wear pink today because that was Amina and Sarah’s favorite color.

Were they Muslims? Gee, I just can’t tell. What was Yaser Abdel Said’s motive? I haven’t got a clue.

Is the American media afraid to confront Islam? You betcha.

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Police in Texas are searching for an Egyptian Muslim man — Yaser Abdel Said — who shot his two teenage daughters multiple times because, according to some neighbors quoted in the Dallas Morning News, he was upset with their dating activities.

That is the definition of an honor killing, plain and simple, even though the Dallas Morning News, Star-Telegram, AP/Fox, and TV station WFAA all steered clear of giving honor killing as the motive — a defensible position given the early stages of the investigation, with the killer still at large.

The local CBS affiliate got closer to giving honor killing as the motive, although it shied away from the words:

Friends of the girls say their father was Egyptian and critical of popular American lifestyles. “”He was really strict about guy relationships and talking to guys, as well as the things she wears,” Kathleen Wong, a friend of the dead teenagers. “I’m definitely 100% sure that it was her dad that killed her.”

Blogger Israel Matzav, who reviewed the memeorandum links as I have, draws the conclusion that the murders are news only in media with a known conservative bias, and concludes:

Not one link comes from an outlet or blog identified with the Left. Even the AP story comes from Fox, which is identified with the Right.

Why doesn’t the Left think this story is so important? Has it become politically correct to be silent when Muslim girls are murdered by members of their families for ‘defiling the family honor.’

It’s an interesting question, and one I fear we will have far too many opportunities to analyze as immigrant Muslim men begin more and more to exhibit this disgusting bit of homeland tradition on our shores. Not all Muslim countries have honor killing problems, but Said’s native land of Egypt is one that definitely does.

The Dallas Morning News provides information that shows the two victims, Sarah and Amina, were exceptional — yet typical — American girls:

Friends describe Amina and Sarah (pictured) as quiet but well-liked students at Lewisville High School. They played tennis and soccer and were enrolled in many Advanced Placement classes.

“They were extremely smart – like geniuses,” said Allison Villarreal, a senior at Lewisville High, where Amina was a senior and Sarah was a junior.

Liz Marines, secretary of the Lewisville High School Student Council, had classes with both of the sisters and also remembers their scholastic abilities.

“Amina was very nice with everybody. She helped me in [Advanced Placement English] class,” she said. Sarah was a sophomore when she took an Algebra II class with Liz, who was a junior at the time.

She said the sisters, who wore typical American clothes, didn’t talk much about their family. “I didn’t know they were Muslims until she told me they were Egyptian and Muslim,” Liz said.

She said the Student Council is organizing a prayer vigil at 6 tonight at Lewisville High. Students are being asked to wear pink to school today to honor their friends.

“It’s because pink was their favorite color,” Liz said.

Most honor killing victims don’t get the benefit of such praise in the media. From the reports, they deserve it — and true honor (as opposed to the twisted Islamic concept of honor) demands that their murders become a major national story, so honor killing is discouraged in America.

Can we depend on our liberal media to carry out such a basic task?

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This is really a story about the foolish hanging-on of arranged marriages more than it is about bad lawyers (although it’s about bad lawyers, too). It’s from India, a land where many misogynistic traditions that should have died hang on tenaciously in the face of modernization.

LUCKNOW (Reuters) – Lawyers tied a young man to a tree and beat him outside a court in India for refusing to marry one of their relatives, an official said on Wednesday.

They rounded on the victim when he arrived at a court in the Taj Mahal town of Agra to settle a dispute over marrying the niece of one of the lawyers.

Indian TV channels showed the abusive lawyers tearing off the man’s shirt, tying him to a tree trunk and cutting bald patches into his hair. The 22-year-old victim was then beaten up.

Now we know this story would have never made the international wire if the perpetrators hadn’t been lawyers — we love to laugh at/feel disgusted by lawyers. We have to wonder how many similar cases of violent outfall from planned marriages come and go without our notice.

The Hindus aren’t the misogynists the Muslims are, but besides forced marriages, they abort or kill their pre-born/new-born daughters, burn widows with their husbands and subjugate women in many ways — which you’ll recognize the next time you see an Indian couple walking, the man several steps ahead of the woman.

This is just another example of the incredible energy and potential wasted by cultures that insist on keeping women from reaching their natural potential. I’ve read two outstanding thoughts on this topic today, thanks to the Watcher.

The first, linked above, is from Pat Santy (Dr. Sanity), writing broadly (please, no pun) on how Islam treats women:

We frequently joke about men’s preoccupation with sex and female body parts in the West, but our fascination with “T&A” is nothing when you consider that the Muslim world is literally consumed by female sexuality and with their fear of it. It is ironic that both Muslim men and women are under the mistaken impression that Western society is oversexualized compared to them, when in fact, it is practically impossible to be more obsessed with sexual matters than they are in Muslim communities.

The second was from Kobayashi Maru, in a post about climate change; specifically, about a brilliant 15 year-old Australian girl who developed a model that accurately predicted the end of Australia’s drought while at the same time disproving much global warming dogma:

In much of the Islamic world (to put it mildly), a 15-year-old female would not have access to the kind of intellectual cultivation, encouragement or freedom this young woman obviously has.

Wow. I’ve gone all the way from some Hindu planned marriages to Islam’s fear of, hatred of and destruction of women. Sickness knows no bounds.

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Islam’s backwardness has many measures, not the least of which is its treatment of women. Long before Mohammed, Christ set a guideline for greater respect of women — his treatment of the adultress, the woman at the well and Mary Magdeline.

Unfortunately, Mohammed ignored Christ’s revolutionary acceptance of women. For women, the Religion of Peace has become a religion that treats them like pieces of flesh, as evidenced (yet again!) in this story:

HYDERABAD (Reuters) – A teenage girl in southern Pakistan, whose late father lost her in a poker game when she was 2 years old, has asked authorities to save her from being handed over to a middle-aged relative.

Rasheeda, 17 (above), said she has filed applications with the police and a local councillor asking them to prevent Lal Haider, 45, from taking her to his home.

Her mother, Nooran said her husband racked up a debt of 10,000 rupees ($151) to Haider playing cards.

“My husband didn’t have money to pay, and instead he told Lal Haider that he could take Rasheeda when she grows up,” she said.

Yeah, so what? It’s just a girl.

Pakistan is a supposed ally in our confrontation with terror, but women there are routinely terrorized by its culture, and the religion that fires the culture. If all that happens to Rasheeda is an unwanted and unloving marriage, she won’t be doing too badly for a woman in an Islamic culture — as long as she can avoid an honor killing, or worse, a failed honor killing.

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