Honour Killings

There is a long list of honor killings and religious killings by Western Muslims who, until the crime, appear to be living peacefully and normally among us. We ignore this at our peril. The problem is widespread and growing, as pointed out by a recent report (The Independent). 

 

PS. I am no longer updating this list. There are a series of very good articles by Phyllis Chesler that I recommend:

 

Are Honor Killings Simply Domestic Violence?, Phyllis Chesler, Middle East Quarterly, Spring 2009, pp. 61-9.

Worldwide Trends in Honor Killings, Phyllis Chesler, Middle East Quarterly, Spring 2010, pp. 3-11.

Hindu vs. Muslim Honor Killings, Phyllis Chesler, Middle East Quarterly, Summer 2012, pp. 43-52.

 

A short list follows:

• USA (ongoing) Rifqa Bary who ran away from home after converting to Christianity is fighting not to be returned to her Muslim family in Ohio for fear that her father will kill her as he has promised to do.
• USA, Oct/2009, Arizona: Faleh Hassan Almaleki is being looked by the Arizona police after running down his 20-year-old daughter in a parking lot, Noor Faleh Almaleki . Her crime: she became too 'westernized' and ... not living according to their traditional Iraq values." Noor was taken to a local hospital with life-threatening injuries, police said. Another woman, Amal Edan Khalaf, 43, of Surprise also was struck and is in the hospital with non-life threatening injuries (Yourwestvalley). Noor passed away a few days later. 
• USA Jan/01/2008 Irving, TX. A Muslim immigrant shoots his two daughters to death on concerns about their 'Western' lifestyle.
• USA, Sep/2008 - 22-year-old Mohammed Chowdhury of Sterling Heights, Michigan, was charged Tuesday afternoon with his wife's murder. He called 9-1-1 on Monday, saying a group broke into the apartment and killed his wife. Police say the story didn't add up (WJBK).
• USA, September/2009: The mother of Sarah and Amina Said finally described their January 1, 2008, shooting deaths as an “honor killing” carried out by their Muslim father (CBS11TV). The crime happened on New Year's Night 2008 (Human Events).
• USA Jul/06/2008  Jonesboro, GA; 1 killed, 0 injured. A devout Muslim strangles his 25-year-old daughter in an honor killing.
• USA Oct/06/2006: Louisville, KY; 4 killed, 1 injured. In an 'honor' attack, a Muslim man rapes and beats his estranged wife, leaving her for dead, then savagely murders their four children.
• USA, Living in Orchard Park, a suburb south of Buffalo, New York, 37 year-old Aasiya Z. Hassan got an order of protection against her husband after years of violent abuse in February of this year. He beheaded her for his honor. The irony — together they managed Bridges TV, a station whose mission was “to become a unifying force that can help people understand our diverse world through education and entertainment.”
• USA, January 2005: an Egyptian family of Coptic Christians living in New Jersey was slaughtered by militant Islamic Americans. Hossam Armanious, his wife Amal Garas and their daughters, MonicaSylvia (15) were brutally murdered for being outspoken critics of Islam. The family was bound and tortured, before their throats were slit in accord with the instructions for executing nonbelievers, as detailed in the Koran. 
• USA    Apr/15/2004: Scottsville, NY; 1 killed, 2 injured. In an honor killing, a Muslim father kills his wife and attacks his two daughters with a knife and hammer because he feared that they had been sexually molested.
• USA: In August 2003, Saudi student Mohammed Ali Alayed and Morrocan Jewish student Ariel Sellouk were students at Houston Community College in Houston, Texas. One evening after they returned home from socializing together, Alayed slashed his friend’s throat, nearly decapitating him. Both young men were 23 years old.
• USA, 1999: Dr. Lubaina Bhatti Ahmed was an accomplished, professional woman, in her late thirties, a wife, and a mother living in St. Clairsville, Ohio. In 1999, after suffering years of terrible beatings by her husband, she left him. He killed her for his honor.

• UK, Dec 2010: A Harry Potter star was beaten, called a “slag” and threatened with death after she met a young man who was not a Muslim. She was assaulted and branded a “prostitute” after meeting a young Hindu man which outraged her father Abul Azad, 53, and brother, Ashraf, 28, Manchester Crown Court heard. She fled through her bedroom window. (WP, Daily Mail)
• UK, Oct/2009:  A honour killing case came to Court 10 years later. Tulay Goren, 15, a Kurdish Turk from north London, vanished in 1999 and her body has never been found, but it is assumed to have been an honor killing by her father, after him consulted with his brothers. (BBC)
•  UK, July/2009: A Danish-born Muslim man suffered stab wounds, was beaten with bricks, and had acid poured down his throat “for having a relationship with a married woman.” (Telegraph; Bare Naked Islam)
• UK, Feb/2009: Police say 17,000 women are victims of honour crimes every year in Britain (Independent).
• UK, Jan/2008: In Sep 2003, Shafilea Ahmed disappeared after a trip to Pakistan during which her parents forced her into an arranged marriage. In an attempt to avoid that she drank bleach. After her return she disappeared. Her disappearance was communicated to the police not by family but by her school one week later. Her decomposed body was found in a river bank 5 months later. "Shafilea was the victim of a very vile murder." (Telegraph). Timeline. 
• UK, July/2007: Banaz Mahmod was raped and tortured for two hours before being garotted by an assassin hired by her father and her uncle. She was killed because she had walked out of an unhappy arranged marriage - which she was forced into at just 17 - and fallen in love with an Iranian Kurd (DailyMail). A later investigation ruled that Banaz Mahmod was failed by police when she turned to them for protection. The 20-year-old Muslim begged police for help four times before her brutal murder (Mail Online).

• Canada, July/2009: Muslim parents, along with their son, were charged with premeditated murder after their three teenage daughters and the father’s first wife were discovered dead in a submerged car. The girls’ Westernization has been suggested as a motive. (The Canadian Press; Bare Naked Islam)
• Canada, September/2009: A judge ordered a Muslim father and son to stand trial next year for the 2007 strangulation murder of sixteen-year-old Aqsa Parvez, who had defied her father’s demand that she wear the hijab. The crime happened in Dec/2007 (Bare Naked Islam).

• Germany, August/2009: A Muslim asylum seeker was found guilty of brutally killing his German-born wife because, in the words of the prosecutor, she was “too independent.” (Mail Online)

• Italy, September/2009: A Moroccan confessed to stabbing his daughter to death for “dishonoring the family,” based on her relationship with a non-Muslim man (Adnkronos).

Elsewhere in Islamdom:

• Turkey, Feb/2011: 19-Year-Old Turkish Girl Stabbed to Death by Family over 'Honor' (Daily News).
• Pakistan, Feb/2011: Woman killed for refusing to divorce husband (Tribune).
• Jordan, Oct/2009: A Jordanian man was charged on Sunday with premeditated murder after allegedly stabbing to death his 22-year-old daughter because she became pregnant outside wedlock, police said. Around 15-20 women are murdered each year in Jordan in the name of honour, despite government efforts to fight such crimes. So far this year, 17 cases have been reported (AFP).