It is a
common Western misunderstanding that honour killing or honour murder is a
Muslim phenomenon. This delusion very likely has its roots the massive
immigration of Muslims to Western Europe during the last fifty years. In the
Middle East the murder of women because of "honour" as all too
widespread and unfortunately this atrocious habit was taken along to the West
with the immigration of the Middle Easterners.
The philosophy behind honour killings – or should we call it shame
killing – is that a feudalistic community operates with two separate concepts
of honour: the honour of women and the honour of men.
The honour of women, in Turkish called namus (decency, chastity) and
in Arabic عرض ,
is preserved by a conduct that does not cast doubt on their chastity. If this
happens, they lose their namus and her husband or father loses his
honour, in Turkish called şeref which is the same as the Arabic
شرف . In this case the man who is regarded as the one responsible
for the honour of the family has to prove his honourableness and that of his
family by washing away the shame brought upon them. This is normally done by
shedding the blood of the woman who is regarded as a source of shame.
In Islam there
has been some discussion about what to do with women who commit adultery. In
the Quran we find the following commands:
"As for
those of you women who are guilty of lewdness (الفاحشة ), call to witness four of you against them. And if they testify then
confine them to the houses until death take them ( الموت يتوفّاهنّ ) or Allah appoints for them a way." Sura 4; 15.
It seems that
this text does not warrant a death penalty passed by any family council in the absence
of the perpetrator. Evidently official legal action with at least four
witnesses was required.[i]
www.religioustolerance.org/
provides us with this information:
Chapter 24 of Islam's holy book,
the Qur'an, explicitly instructs believers to whip those found guilty of
adultery. A leading Muslim scholar, Maulana Muhammad Ali noted that 'stoning
to death was never contemplated by Islam as a punishment for adultery.'
Roman Catholic Archbishop of Lagos, Dr. Anthony Olubunmi Okogie, said that the 'official
text of the Qur'an only sanctions a punishment of so many lashes for such an
offence not stoning to death...[the] punishment of stoning was introduced later
by Omar, the second Calif for reasons best known to him." 6
Many Muslim scholars and judges agree that the Qur'an does not refer to
executions by stoning.'[ii]
It therefore seems that honour killing is not a religious but a sociological phenomenon peculiar to feudalistic communities. Consequently it is not surprising that this menace is also found among professing Christians who are living in or have their roots in patriarchal or feudalistic communities.
The following is a quotation from an article on the web
site Stop honour killings!:
So-called honour
killings are also part of Italy's legal history, where the idea was an admitted
defense until 1981.
Prior to its
reversal, an article existed in the Italian Criminal Code that provided a
reduced penalty of imprisonment of only three to seven years for a man who
killed his wife, sister or daughter to vindicate his or his family's honour.
Such crimes were
once a fairly widely accepted feature of highly traditional communities in
southern Italy - and even sparked an Oscar-winning 1961 comedy called Divorce,
Italian Style, starring Marcello Mastroianni.
The Mafia,
clinging to the past, has much more recently killed women who 'strayed'
sexually or had children without being married.[iii]
The latest example on
honour killing done by confessing Christians is a case from Turkey. Here is the
story as told by UPI:
ISTANBUL,
Turkey, April 17 (UPI) -- A criminal court in Turkey handed a sentence of life in
prison Tuesday to a man convicted in the execution-style slaying of his sister
and brother-in-law.
The young couple were found shot to
death in their car 10 days after they married against the wishes of the bride's
family, Today's Zaman reported.
Sonay Ogmen, 26, and Zekeriya Vural,
29, each died from a single bullet to the forehead.
Police determined the couple had been
killed by someone they knew sitting in the back seat of their car.
"I shot both of them," the
bride's brother, Gonay Ogmen, told police after he was arrested. "We
didn't want that groom."
The groom's uncle, Cemal Vural, said
the bride's family opposed the marriage because she was Christian and Zekeriya
Vural was Muslim.[iv]
____
[i] Marmaduke Pickthall,
trans., The Glorious Qur'ân, Istanbul: Çağrı Yayınları, 1999, 80.
[ii] "Punishment for
non-marital sex in Islam," Religious Tolerance, accessed April 20,
2012, http://www.religioustolerance.org/isl_adul2.htm.
[iii] Joanna, "Mafia
still think they 'own' women," Stop honour killings! accessed April.
22, 2012, http://www.stophonourkillings.com/?q=node/3323.
[iv] "Turkish newlyweds slain over
religious difference," UPI, accessed April 22, 2012, http://www.upi.com/Top_News/World-News/2012/04/17/Turkish-newlyweds-slain-over-religious-difference/UPI-25961334667352/.
