An NRO Q&A
It really was two crimes in one. When Aasiya Hassan was allegedly beheaded by her husband in upstate New York, the response by many Muslim groups was to make sure that no one connected the murder to Islam, rather than to be concerned that a man may have brutally murdered his wife in the name of Islam. Unfortunately, none of this came as any surprise to feminist Phyllis Chesler. Chesler shines a light on this dishonorable outrage, most recently, in a study for The Middle East Quarterly calling out the differences between “honor killing” and domestic violence. She blogs regularly about Islamic gender and religious apartheid, including honor killing, here and recently took questions from National Review Online editor Kathryn Lopez.
Kathryn Jean Lopez: What exactly is an honor killing? And is it odd for there to be one in, say, New York State?
Phyllis Chesler: The beheading in Buffalo, N.Y., is a hybrid case which involves some features of Western-style domestic violence and a Pakistani-Islamic method of murder. However, in 2004, in Scottsville, N.Y., a Turkish-Muslim woman was honor-murdered, and in 2008, in Henrietta, N.Y., a serious honor murder was attempted by an Afghan Muslim. However, honor killings usually take place in shame-and-honor societies, mainly in the Third World. In the West, such murders are mainly done by Muslims (it is a Muslim-on-Muslim crime), and to a much lesser extent, by Sikhs. Strangers are not usually honor-murdered; only daughters, wives, or sisters are. It is an intimate family crime, a premeditated one, with many warnings given. It is also a family collaboration. Read more ...
It really was two crimes in one. When Aasiya Hassan was allegedly beheaded by her husband in upstate New York, the response by many Muslim groups was to make sure that no one connected the murder to Islam, rather than to be concerned that a man may have brutally murdered his wife in the name of Islam. Unfortunately, none of this came as any surprise to feminist Phyllis Chesler. Chesler shines a light on this dishonorable outrage, most recently, in a study for The Middle East Quarterly calling out the differences between “honor killing” and domestic violence. She blogs regularly about Islamic gender and religious apartheid, including honor killing, here and recently took questions from National Review Online editor Kathryn Lopez.
Kathryn Jean Lopez: What exactly is an honor killing? And is it odd for there to be one in, say, New York State?
Phyllis Chesler: The beheading in Buffalo, N.Y., is a hybrid case which involves some features of Western-style domestic violence and a Pakistani-Islamic method of murder. However, in 2004, in Scottsville, N.Y., a Turkish-Muslim woman was honor-murdered, and in 2008, in Henrietta, N.Y., a serious honor murder was attempted by an Afghan Muslim. However, honor killings usually take place in shame-and-honor societies, mainly in the Third World. In the West, such murders are mainly done by Muslims (it is a Muslim-on-Muslim crime), and to a much lesser extent, by Sikhs. Strangers are not usually honor-murdered; only daughters, wives, or sisters are. It is an intimate family crime, a premeditated one, with many warnings given. It is also a family collaboration. Read more ...
Source: NRO
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