Hurray for honour killings

[Chutney]

KINGSTON, Ont. - The suspicious deaths of three Montreal sisters and a caregiver found inexplicably in a car submerged in the Rideau Canal took a dramatic turn Thursday as police alleged the four had been murdered by the girls' parents and brother in a possible "honour killing."

Kingston police Chief Stephen Tanner said investigators were looking into whether the parents and their 18-year-old son were motivated to kill the girls aged 19, 17 and 13, in a deadly clash of cultures.

The fourth victim was 52-year-old Rona Amir Mohammad. Police for the first time said she was the first wife of the older accused in the case, Mohammad Shafia.

The parents - Shafia and his wife Tooba Mohammad Yahya - and their 18-year-old son Hamed Mohammad-Shafia are charged with first-degree murder and conspiracy to commit murder.

The three accused arrived for a bail hearing in Kingston court Thursday afternoon, with the girls' parents arriving in separate police cruisers. The son was the last to arrive in an unmarked car, dressed in a black T-shirt and jeans. He was taken past media through the back of the courthouse.

The three appeared separately, each with their own counsel. All three will be held in police custody until their next court appearances, scheduled for Aug. 6.

"It's obvious my client is very emotionally distraught by the whole tragedy," Yahya's lawyer Lucie Joncas said outside court, adding that the mother is grieving for her children.

Waice Ferdoussi, who represents Shafia, said that his client was "very surprised" he was arrested and that they were a "close family."

"These are very severe charges, not a joke," he added.

The family, originally from Kabul, Afghanistan, spent 15 years in Dubai before moving to Montreal two years ago.

Tanner said the girls were living as "Canadian teenagers."

"In our Canadian society we value the cultural values of everyone that makes up this great country and some of us have different core beliefs, different family values, different sets of rules, and certainly, these individuals, in particular the three teenagers, were Canadian teenagers who have all the freedom and rights of expression of all Canadians," Tanner said.

"So whether that was a part of a motive within the family based on one ... or more of the girls' behaviour is open to a little bit of speculation."

Police had always called the deaths suspicious. No one could explain how the car had dropped into the canal. There were no skid marks indicating it had gone off the edge of the lock. And there were several obstacles that made it next to impossible that the car could accidentally be driven into the water.

Source: Yahoo! News​

LONDON (AFP) - Police in London were Friday questioning a teenager after a man allegedly had acid poured over him, in what they say may be a Muslim "honour" attack.

The Danish victim, who is aged 24 and fighting for his life in hospital, was reportedly suspected of having an affair with a married Muslim woman with roots in Pakistan. She has now been warned her life could be in danger.

Detectives re-arrested a 16-year-old who is one of seven young men held since the attack in Leytonstone, northeast London, on July 2. He is currently being questioned at a police station in east London, a police spokesman said.

The victim suffered burns to at least 50 percent of his body in the attack, which seriously damaged tissue in his throat and on his face and burnt away at his tongue. He was also blinded in one eye and stabbed twice in the back.

Asked whether it was an "honour" attack, the spokesman for London's Metropolitan Police said: "We keep an open mind and it will be a line of inquiry."

Two men appeared in court Thursday charged with attempted murder in the case and are due back in court on September 30.

Source: Yahoo! News​

 

[deception]

the thing that caught my attention about this story is that this supposed traditional family lived in kingston, on- which is like 99.9% white anglo saxon protestant(WASP). the ppl i fear most in this world are religious nutjobs and their romanticized "revivalist" notions of life, e.g. the birthers and honour killers

 

[Chutney]

These are the kind of incidents that make me frustrated, annoyed, and with my culture (I know these cases involve Muslims, but similar incidents have occurred with Punjabi-Sikhs in the past). It's like they've conditioned themselves to be weak, fearful, and unreflective. And when someone or something comes along to challenge those entrenched habits, they lash out in the most horrific ways.

Britain has it so much worse, though. In Canada, you see these cases every so often, but most ultra-conservative immigrant families tend to stick with disownment/banishment. The Islamic communities in England have become more and more radicalized in each successive generation, and their is so much hostility and rage bubbling within them

 

[Chutney]

There's another issue being brought to the forefront, by this case IMO: the mainstream Canadian media's ignorance of the difference between culture and religion. For the most part, this honour killing is being attributed to the family's "hardcore" Islamic beliefs, when in reality, the religious conviction of "honour killers" is usually irrelevant. At the core of these incidents are certain cultural norms and ways of thinking that just don't jive with Western values. There may be religious influences on its development, but by and large, those cultural norms have morphed into a thing of their own. In the East, that distinction between culture and religion is unrecognized and unacknowledged, which makes it easy for outsiders to assume that a specific cultural mindset is preceded by some religious commitments. In reality, there are so many (technically-speaking) non-religious families that foster domestic abuse.

 

[Chutney]

the thing that caught my attention about this story is that this supposed traditional family lived in kingston, on- which is like 99.9% white anglo saxon protestant(WASP). the ppl i fear most in this world are religious nutjobs and their romanticized "revivalist" notions of life, e.g. the birthers and honour killers

Apparently they lived in Montreal and were travelling through. I'd hate to be a minority living in Kingston.

 

[Chutney]

The British case reminds me of Two Face:

 

[deception]

There's another issue being brought to the forefront, by this case IMO: the mainstream Canadian media's ignorance of the difference between culture and religion. For the most part, this honour killing is being attributed to the family's "hardcore" Islamic beliefs, when in reality, the religious conviction of "honour killers" is usually irrelevant. At the core of these incidents are certain cultural norms and ways of thinking that just don't jive with Western values. There may be religious influences on its development, but by and large, those cultural norms have morphed into a thing of their own. In the East, that distinction between culture and religion is unrecognized and unacknowledged, which makes it easy for outsiders to assume that a specific cultural mindset is preceded by some religious commitments. In reality, there are so many (technically-speaking) non-religious families that foster domestic abuse.

ill cosign. the best example of that is female circumcision practiced in east africa which is predominately muslim, yet most muslims abhor it outside of east africa. hence, the distinction between cultural (east african) and religion (muslim). although, this case as well as other honour killings are really about "idiots" who cling to their religion and customs in a world they frankly cant understand.