[lbo-talk] Honor Killing and Domestic Violence in Germany

[Yoshie Furuhashi]

> 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.
>
> kj

I think that the problem of honor killings committed by immigrants in  
Germany (or elsewhere in the West) should be treated as a subset of  
the problem of general violence against women (much of which is  
committed by their husbands, boyfriends, etc.) based on gender  
discrimination, rather than as a special cultural or religious  
problem beyond "the Berlin Wall" as Peter Schneider puts it.   
Otherwise, we'll play into the hands of anti-immigrant movements.   
Reading the article by Peter Schneider (at <http://www.nytimes.com/ 
2005/12/04/magazine/04berlin.html>), you would be led to believe that  
only or mostly immigrant men commit violence against women, but there  
is no evidence in the article that shows that the incidence of  
violence against women is higher among immigrants from Turkey, etc.  
than native-born Germans.

Yoshie Furuhashi
<http://montages.blogspot.com>
<http://monthlyreview.org>
<http://mrzine.org>