American Canadian Imams Issued a Fatwa Against Honour Killings
Over 30 Imams signed a Fatwa on Saturday condemning honour killings as a crime, in Montreal – Canada, after court convicted Afghan immigrants for murdering four female relatives, accused of damaging their family’s reputation.
Interpreting the Fatwa, they said; “There is no justification for honour killings, domestic violence and misogyny in Islam. The relationship between the husband and wife is based upon mutual love and kindness. Such violence, including spousal abuse and child abuse in all forms, is forbidden”. The order issued by the Islamic Supreme Council of Canada (ISCC), signed by 34 Imams from Canada and United States.
Imam Syed Soharwardy, the founder of ISCC, said the group released the fatwa because of the Shafia Trial, as it has been the focus for the Islamic community and people were saying a lot of things about it, furthermore it was presenting a wrong image of Islam in front of non Muslim masses. The incident was entitled as heinous crime by the judge.
Last week in a court in Kingston – Ontario, 58 year old businessman Mohammad Shafia, his 42 year old wife Tooba Yahya and their 21 year old son Hamid, proved guilty for first degree murders of Shafia’s first wife and three daughters, and sentenced for 25 years in prison. The bodies of the 4 victims were found in a car, possibly deliberately drowned in a canal near Kingston, on June 2009. They police researched that Shafia and his second wife learnt the murder techniques on the internet, and planned this honour killing.
The defendants argued that the deaths were an accident. Mohammad Shafia commented in court, “We are not criminals. We are not murderers; this is injustice.”
The case has naturally shocked the country; Canada has seen 13 such killings in the last twelve years, most involving Muslim patriarchs aided by sons, cousins, and wives, killing young girls who wanted cross the family’s ethical limits by being horribly western by wearing extra contemporary clothes, dating boys, etc. In Shafia’s case, the three daughters had refused to wear the Hijab (Burka), and one of them had even dared to wear a Bikini. Rona Amir (Shafia’s first wife) had been unable to give her husband children, so he had taken a second wife, even though polygamy is illegal in Canada. Despite of not being girls’ biological mother, Rona had loved them and tried to protect them for which she had to die too.
Honour killings or attacks in which people, usually women are punished (to death or with severs torture) for acts deemed to have brought shame on their families.
Many people do not know that killings in the name of honour are also very common now in European countries, especially in Britain, mostly done Muslim communities settled in that region. Though they have become a little bit broad minded due to western influence, but still they are very touchy in the matters of family dignity and honor.
The eight police forces of Britain had recorded more than 100 honour based attacks each in 2010. The Metropolitan Police had the most number of 495 attacks, followed by West Midlands 378, West Yorkshire 350, Lancashire 227, Greater Manchester 189, Cleveland 153, Suffolk 118 and Bedfordshire reported 117 cases.
According to a research, the rate of such incidents has significantly increased every year. In year 2010, there were 305% more such incidents occurred compare to year 2009, though this rate decreased in the year 2011. The point to be noted is that, among all these incidents, about half of attacks were made by White British people, but hypocritically their media do not advertise the news of their own people, and when such act is committed by a non British Background Person, especially by a Muslim, the whole electronic and print media jump into the hot and sizzling debates.
Honour killings are also very common in other countries of Europe, such as Germany, France, Spain, Ukraine, etc. the rigid Christian families also commit such crime in the name of honour, saving their family protocols and teaching lessons of the younger. Sometimes, there are some other aspects also involve in the veil of honour killings, such as inheritance property assets and financial benefits, but the news of such incidents barely make their way to domestic news papers or news channels in form of a small column or a small news of TV.
Regarding Islam, it is certain that honour killings are not allowed as the people have been using this. Though it is clear in Islam, that parents can punish their children in case they are committing serious crimes against fundamental religious affairs or family protocols, but killing is definitely not a recognized and recommended option in Islam for achieving this goal.
In Muslims families, most of such incidents occurs where the families are very broad minded but suddenly transformed to become more virtuous and faithful after some time, or, the parents’ were either belong to religious or low level citizen background, and eventually they managed to improve their lifestyle and absorbed enlightened moderated attitudes in order to move into their new social setup. Since the kids were raised in the atmosphere of open minded environment, so they move along their regular way, but suddenly one day the parents realized and their children are going out of their hands, or they remembered how their parents used to handle them, and they simple try to impose those rules on to their modernized offsprings which leads the situation toward confrontation and finally to honour killings.
The families who have managed to maintain their protocols from the beginning, either broad minded or religious never indulge into such kind of disastrous endings.
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