kj wrote:
Why characterise 'honor killings' as 'religious practice'? If anything in Muslim societies could be characterised as clear 'cultural' as distinct from 'religious', this would have to be it. So call it an Arab practice, except, in this instance, it's Kurdish and Turk. While it would be foolish to claim it never happens, it'd be true to say that it's hardly a practice in Indonesia -- usually obligatorily glossed as the largest Muslim country in the world -- and Malaysia.
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I'm glad to hear that these kinds of pre-meditated murder are not happening in Indonesia and Malaysia. Thanks for pointing that out, kj.
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On 12/5/05, Yoshie Furuhashi <furuhashi.1 at osu.edu> wrote:
>
> > [lbo-talk] Disgusting aspects of religious practice....Mike Ballard
> > swillsqueal at yahoo.com.au Sat Dec 3 03:27:53 PST 2005
> <snip>
> > In Germany, Muslims grow apart
> > By Peter Schneider The New York Times
> > FRIDAY, DECEMBER 2, 2005
> <snip>
> > Before the murder of [Hatun] Surucu, there were enough warnings to
> > engage the Germans in a debate about the parallel society growing
> > in their midst. There have been 49 known "honor crimes," most
> > involving female victims, during the past nine years, including 16
> > in Berlin alone.
>
>
> "49 known 'honor crimes," most involving female victims, during the past
nine years." How does this statistic compare with the incidence of domestic
violence that results in murders committed by non-Muslim German men?
>
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I don't know. Do you Yoshie? In case there's any doubt, I'm opposed to and disgusted by pre-meditated murder by non-Muslims or even in the name of the State.
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I think that there are sadistic and many, many times misogynist historical roots to many religions. God has the power, you submit. As far as I know, Islam means "submission". Most times, if God has a sex, it is male. The further away from feudalistic and slave based social relations, the less sadistic, misogynistic religious practice tends to be. That's my conclusion, so far.
As for Islam, culture and law, they seem to be way too intertwined for my taste in many countries. But then, the bourgeois revolution and the separation of religion and the State has not quite been completed yet in many areas of the world. *****
"In sharia there are theoretical and practical rules related to women. Theoretically, all the rules concerning women derive from the slavery system . . . a man can buy a woman with his money [dower], and she becomes a thing, not a human. With his money he can do anything with this thing. Islam knows two sorts of male/female relationships (1) buying her--as a slave--and he can do anything with her he likes--violate her in any way . . . he also owns his own children and can sell them . . . and (2) marriage: in Islam the relationship is based solely on buying and selling . . . he owns her . . . he owns her sexual parts . . . to such an extent that, if she is ill and cannot give him what he wants at any time he wants, she cannot collect alimony. So, with the dower (mahr) he buys her sexuality."
From Interview, (10 July 1988) Khartoum North
Referenced in "Gender Politics in Sudan: Islamism,
Socialism, and the State" by Sondra Hale; Westview Press, 1996
"I see religion as a potent and very dangerous weapon, a double-edged sword. It is true that the backwardness of the Arab person whether male or female has many roots, but the fundamental root is religion. From it come the conventions, customs, and practices that dominate the Arab person. It has strong chains that pull backward, especially the Arab woman. . . . She finds herself at times considered to possess half a brain and [half the] religion. At other times she is a rib from the ribs of man. In whatever she does she is evil, obsessed with that which is forbidden. . . . Unless we find a new modern interpretation for religion, and a way to distance religion from forming the Arab person, we will not be successful in changing the social structures."
Amira al-Durra, Director of Family Planning in Damascus,
in response to a lecture, as quoted in al-Marah wa-Dawruha
fi Harakat al-Wahdah al-Ambiyah, ed. Ali Shalaq et al.
(Beirut: Markaz Dimsat al-Wahdah al-'Ambiyah, 1982), p. 82)
Referenced in "Islam, Gender and Social Change" by Yvonne
Yazbeck Haddad; Oxford University Press, 1998
"The Egyptian Ministry of the Interior reported that of the 775 cases of homicide in 1988, 49 of them were to "wipe out shame," a euphemism for honor killing. Honor killing may occur when a family has been "shamed" by the premarital or extramarital relations (even if they are only rumored) of a female member of the family. Typically, the girl/woman who has committed the illicit act, and especially if she has become pregnant as a result, is killed by her father, brother, uncle, or male cousin. If the man who has dishonored her is known, he may be killed by her relatives, also. Although honor killings are relatively rare, they still occur today in culturally conservative areas of Egypt, including Said and the rural Nile Delta. When they occur, they are reported, often sensationally, by the news media. Thus, most poor urban Egyptian women have heard heinous stories about honor killings, which probably serve to dissuade them from pre- and extramarital sex, as well as other forms of immoderate behavior."
"Infertility and Patriarchy: The Cultural Politics
of Gender and Family Life in Egypt" by Marcia C. Inhorn;
University of Pennsylvania Press, 1996
Regards, Mike B)
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