More Muslim Trouble in the Land of Oz

[Pannonian]

I'm not so sure it's a culture thing. I am almost 90% certain it is an islamic issue. If the girl was almost killed for wanting to convert to another faith, and her mother actually killed protecting her, then how is that strictly cultural (an islamic culture anyway when you consider that religion controls almost every aspect of their lives)? It seems to me, and probably to most others that aren't overzealous apologists, that this is just another display of muslim intolerance of the apostate in any form, as is evident in the quran and moreso in the hadith.

Have you heard of the story of Verginia and Appius Claudius?

Islam was established from a nomadic base, unlike Christianity which was always an urban religion. Muhammed set rules for his followers that allowed them to transcend their nomadic roots. For as long as the Islamic empire ruled, they kept to the spirit of his strictures. Now that the Islamic world has fallen apart, they're going back to their old ways. What makes it particularly fun is that Muslim conservatives have picked and chosen the worst customs from every part of their erstwhile empire and put them together as "true" Islam.

I suspect Muhammed, if he lived today, would be reviled by the elders as a lax Muslim who did not observe the religion correctly - there's a story that says the later caliph of Egypt chastised him for exactly this, even during his lifetime. I suspect that's not that much different from Jesus, whose communist leanings would get little sympathy in the Christian world today.

[Radier]

Honor killings is not a muslim thing. It's a part of the whole middle-eastern culture as some allready have said. A friend of mine lost his mother in honor killing. The father murdered the mother and they are all christian assyrian who lived in Bagdhad.

[caravel]

Have you heard of the story of Verginia and Appius Claudius?

I have. An example of so called "honour killing". The problem here is that the incident in question bears only some of the hallmarks of an honour killing, which are usually planned, cold blooded affairs, not spontaneous frenzied, on the spot knifings (which can occur in any culture). The issue is not the murder/attempted murder itself but the circumstances surrounding this particular killing, which was a reaction to the daughter's apostasy. That is, her renunciation of islam in favour of christianity. I don't feel that we can put such incidents in a box, and simply write them off as honour killings, when it is clear why this woman (the girl's mother) was killed. She was attempting to defend an apostate, from someone that was obviously fanatical in their belief, that the punishment for apostasy should be death.