Sharia Law hits New Jersey
July 31, 2010
by Karen
|The opinions expressed herein are those of the author, and not necessarily those of The New Agenda. H/t to Marnie for bringing the story of a recent incident in New Jersey to our attention.
If Michelle Malkin a racist xenophobe, then I suppose I am as well. After all, Malkin has repeatedly condemned genital mutilation and the murder of Muslim women under “honor killings.” Guess what? I agree with her completely.
The majority of honor killings are committed by Muslims whose culture is deeply rooted in Sharia. Some people think honor killings are a form of domestic violence. Phyllis Chesler explained a few key differences. Honor killings are committed to protect family honor from a perceived slight. In fact, the entire family participates in the killing. The killers view their motives as altruistic for the family’s well-being whereas murderers in domestic violence situations have no actual motive.
From what I have gathered, most deaths from domestic violence are unintentional – the murderer just wants to beat her up yet again. Murderers who kill for honor plan carefully, and I question whether and if so, how often, they have previously abused their victims. No American is surprised when a woman dies from domestic violence because neighbors know her history; there does seem to be a fair level of surprise from neighbors when young women are tortured and murdered for honor’s sake.
Families that kill for honor will threaten girls and women if they refuse to cover their hair, their faces, or their bodies or act as their family’s domestic servant; wear makeup or Western clothing; choose friends from another religion; date; seek to obtain an advanced education; refuse an arranged marriage; seek a divorce from a violent husband; marry against their parents’ wishes; or behave in ways that are considered too independent, which might mean anything from driving a car to spending time or living away from home or family.
In 1989, Tina Isa was murdered by her father while her mother held her down. Her parents’ defense in court was that “their daughter may have been using drugs or alcohol, and that she had defied them by dating a young man they disapproved of.” An older daughter blamed the police for the murder because the parents had attempted to place her in foster care, but a family friend said the parents “had to discipline their daughter or lose respect.”
People who call out honor killings as a cultural problem are accused of Islamophobia, but the problem is with Sharia and not Islam, even though the majority of Sharia-practitioners are also Muslim. Maintaining cultural integrity is very important, and Sharia is a strong cultural trait. In Arizona 2008, a 20-year-old Muslim woman Noor Faleh Almaleki was ran over by her father. Noor later died of her injuries.
Family and friends told Peoria investigators that Almaleki was mad and threatened his daughter for adopting Western ways. Almaleki and his family had moved to Glendale from Iraq.
And of course, Malkin’s racist response was “if you don’t want your daughters to become westernized, don’t move here.”
A 2008 news article stated:
In upstate Monroe County just a few days ago, a girl was stabbed by her brother for wearing immodest western clothing and wanting to move to New York City. According to court documents, Waheed Allah Mohammad explained the stabbing by saying his sister was a “bad Muslim girl.”
Also in that same year,
a Pakistani named Chaudhry Rashid strangled his 25-year-old daughter San- deela Kanwal with a Bungee cord in her bedroom because she wanted to end her arranged marriage. This “honor killing” came not in Pakistan, but in Jonesboro, Ga. – a suburb 16 miles outside Atlanta.
At his arraignment, Rashid said through an Urdu interpreter that he was “not in the state of mind to talk because of the death of his daughter,” but stated “I have done nothing wrong.”
Michelle Malkin asks why feminists are silent about honor killings, and Phyllis Chesler is also curious. The question seems to cry out for an answer. After all,
When a blonde girl goes missing, cable networks stop in their tracks – but when a Muslim woman is murdered by her father, there’s not a ripple of sustained interest. Where’s the outrage?
But the answer should be obvious to them and to everyone as that 2008 news article pointed out: “we’ve grown reluctant to pass judgment on other culture’s customs”
Immigrants always bring with them their native culture, but this does not always mesh well with Western law. In Malaysia, Sharia allows for a husband to divorce his wife via text message by typing “I divorce you” three times. However, Maryland refused to permit this cultural exchange because:
“If we were to affirm the use of talaq, controlled as it is by the husband, a wife, a resident of this state, would never be able to consummate a divorce action filed by her in which she seeks a division of marital property,” the judges wrote in their decision.
They said the talaq “directly deprives the wife of the due process she is entitled to when she initiates divorce litigation.”
However, according to Sharia law, only husbands can initiate divorce. In 2009, The New Agenda had spoken out about the beheading of Aasiya Hasan who had attempted to divorce her husband. The end result of feminist and liberal media silence over honor killings is what Ayaan Hirsi Ali describes as a double-standard:
“when immigrant Muslim men assimilate into American society they are applauded for it. But when some immigrant Muslim women assimilate into American society, they find themselves ostracized – beaten and even killed by their own families. And the American public ignores their plight to protect the immigrant Muslim community from stigma.”
A Moroccan immigrant took her husband to court and accused him of repeatedly abusing and raping her. The judge Edith Payne declared:
“This court does not feel that, under the circumstances, that this defendant had a criminal desire to or intent to sexually assault or to sexually contact the plaintiff when he did. The court believes that he was operating under his belief that it is, as the husband, his desire to have sex when and whether he wanted to, was something that was consistent with his practices and it was something that was not prohibited.”
Many, many years ago, one liberal woman named Hillary Clinton said that “women’s rights are human rights” and therefore not subject to cultural oppression. More recently, young voters decided en masse that the concept of women’s rights as human rights was too old and outdated. Or perhaps the concept of women’s rights is just plain racist.
…or is it?
Hundreds of millions of Muslims do not live under any Shariah law and would not dream of it. There is no Shariah law spelled out in the Koran. It is very subjective. Basically, this is used by oppressive governments and patriarchal societies largely to control women.
And personally I believe that the fact that multiple women die every day in the USA of violence at the hands of their husbands or boyfriends is not trivial or unimportant. In the US, a woman is raped about every 6 minutes and battered every 15 seconds. Let’s remove the plank from our eye before trying to remove the speck from our neighbor’s eye. I’m not excusing the treatment of women in many Muslim countries. We have all heard incredibly sad stories. But I’ve heard plenty of sad stories about Caucasian Christian women suffering at the hands of their significant others in the USA.
We all know we can best impact others in any area by being a positive example. And the US is NOT yet a solidly positive example in eliminating violence against women.
the fact that there is violence against women and rape is no excuse to be silent on crimes against women by groups practicing sharia. just as we fight against rape, and any violence against women this crime against Muslim women under sharia law has to be included in our outrage and action.
Really SA? So once again we can’t call out a crime against women (honor killings) until all other crimes and evil are cleared up? Are you serious? Liberal American women think in circles and are unable to act in their own best interest or to represent the interests of women in general. They are a sad lot. But hey, maybe some day a gay man or a black man will be honor killed and then the Liberal women will speak up and be outraged because it is not necessary for all evil to be disposed of before crimes against gay men and black men can be called out in the Liberal American handbook. And calling people racist is the favorite liberal excuse for everything. It was old two years ago and now it is starting to be comical.
It makes me crazy when I am trying to talk about some atrocity done to a Muslim woman and half a dozen people will start talking about culture, religion, and the importance of tolerance. Forget that, I don’t have any tolerance when it comes to violence against women. I could also care less what religion, culture, bad childhood, or mental illness is being used as the latest excuse.
There are plenty of Muslims who don’t follow sharia law, and we need to make it clear that sharia is unacceptable. There is a new Facebook page “Women Don’t Need Guardians” opposing the fact that in Saudi Arabia all adult women are required to have permission from a male guardian to do many things; for example to travel, study, work or even go to court to make a complaint about domestic violence. Check it out: http://www.facebook.com/home.p.....086?ref=ts
Don’t need guardians? We should BE the guardians.
Malkin’s racist response was if you don’t want your daughters to become westernized, don’t move here.”
Okay, I’m no fan of Malkin, but please point out the racism in this statement. I see no racism at all. I see someone asking them, if you hate Westernization so much, what the hell did you move to the Center of the Western Cultural Universe for?! If you hate us, why are you here?
I do ZERO racism in that statement. While Malkin is often racist, this one statement is not an example of that.
WHAT is racist about this statement? No tortured logic taking seventeen hops to connect it to lynching, either. What is racist about her statement?
Could someone please cite specific examples of Malkin’s racism? I read her all the time; I must be missing something.
YTTIK I agree with you absolutely. I defrended a FB friend over this exact thing She was excusing female genital mutilation saying that it is none of our business what they do to their little girls. We ended up in the FB version of a shouting match, a bunch of people got involved… it was tragic, and really freakin’ annoying. Of course, when she couldn’t get me to budge, the name calling and personal attacks started.
Jen, I wonder if your friend was so tolerante and understanding about apartheid. Hey, it’s none of our business what they do to “their” black people … right? None of our business what the Nazis did to “their” Jews, either.
Your friend is sick in the head.
tolerance to honor killings?
tolerance to violence against women?
how tolerant is this?
Excellent post, Karen. I knew the guys working the case in Peoria where Noor Faleh Almaleki was murdered by her father…the guy made everyone’s blood run cold.
Part of the issue that some folks don’t understand is that regardless of the fact that Sharia isn’t specifically outlined in the Qur’an, it IS outlined in some of the commands issued in the Qur’an and Sharia is formed and enforced in Muslim nations in the Middle East. Those nations are the ones that preside over how Sharia is respected by Muslims all over the world.
I find it interesting that the women of Code Pink have long been intent on telling Americans how wrong we are for being involved in Afghanistan and Iraq yet they’ve not said one word about how wrong Sharia is and the effects of such customs on women across the globe.
Jen, as for Malkin’s racism, Karen was being facetious.
Mel! I have been wanting you to come here since forever! Please comment all around.
Your research comes from a good place and I agree with your cause….BUT, you need to be more accurate when attributing comments to a Judge of the State of New Jersey.
Judge Payne DID NOT make those comments, she merely quoted in her opinion a lower level judge that made those comments. If you had read Judge Payne’s opinion on this matter, you would have easily recognized she had reversed this lower court decision.
You should change this article to acknowledge your mistake.
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