Remember Aqsa Parvez? Murdered in an honor killing in Canada. Please read!

Aqsa parvez was brutally murdered in an honor killing. She was tossed into an unmarked grave and left there to be forgotten for eternity. Thanks to Pamela Geller of Atlas Shrugs and many other bloggers and contributors, Aqsa received a proper burial and rememberance. One which was tough to accomplish as many places were afraid to insult Islam by properly honoring her and letting the truth be known about her horrific demise. Now read what this Canadian Imam has said about Aqsa parvez and honor killings in general. This is an outrage and an insult to the entire Western world. Islam is completely incompatible with the West and this is just more proof that Islam will never be able to assimilate into Western culture and society.

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Canadian Imams Fail to Decry Violent Honor Killing of Aqsa Parvez
By Christine Williams

NewsRealBlog: As Canada continues to reel over the violent ‘honor killing’ of Aqsa Parvez and the country awaits a public outcry from Islamic leaders, it was met with a kick in the face from an imam representing a noted organization.

Imam Zijad Delic of the Canadian Islamic Congress said there is “nothing Islamic” in taking a human life.

He calls it a personal issue more than a cultural one and suggested perpetrators are not unlike the white, Canadian born mother who suddenly kills her children in that both are ultimately unable to deal with the challenges of domestic life.

This imam’s statement is nothing short of infuriating and insults the memory of Aqsa and other women who have suffered a brutal death in the name of so-called honor. His ghastly comment is a deliberate attempt to veil the issue through deception. The naive among us will only see Delic’s single point that taking human life is not limited to a single culture. In the case of Aqsa however, we can not afford to ignore the conspicuous dimension that caused her to be murdered: the act was perpetuated by a cultural tradition rooted in the misogynistic tenets of the Qur’an.

These teachings advocate (among other things): women as property (tilth), spanking her to control her, and the horrendous practice of child marriage, which in many instances causes death to prepubescsent young victims who are biologically ill-equipped for the consummation of these marriages. Such cases have been frequently highlighted in places like Yemen and Afghanistan. One Unicef study found that “from 2000 to 2008, the brides in 43 percent of Afghan marriages were under 18.”

Diana Nammi, founder of the London-based International Campaign Against Honour Killings, told Canwest News Service:

"When people are moving to another country, they leave everything they have, all their possessions, behind. But what they can bring with them is what they believe, their culture, their traditions, their religion … Unfortunately, they are choosing to show the worst part of that, and the worst and criminal part of that is controlling women."

Kudos to Nammi for calling a ’spade a spade’ in her mention of both the cultural and religious components.

Amin Muhammad is a professor of psychiatry at Memorial University of Newfoundland who would like to see stiffer sentences for honor murder and warns that Multicultural Canada will see more such crimes. Though expending meritorious efforts to marginalize the heinous practice of honor killings, Dr. Muhammad is a little less than honest: "The concept of honour is especially powerful because it exists beyond reason and beyond analysis. But what masquerades as ‘honour’ is really men’s need to control women’s sexuality and their freedom. These murders are not based on religious beliefs but, rather, deeply rooted cultural ones."

Dr. Mohammad’s statement exposes the “clash of cultures” between democracy and Shariah, but these murders are rooted in Qur’anic teachings that are extremely oppressive and damaging to women and young girls. When moderates like Mohammad work on behalf of the Aqsas of the world, they choose to defy the letter of such teachings. While we need to acknowledge this and support the efforts of moderates, we cannot afford to minimize the meaning of what was committed against Aqsa in the name of the Muslim religion which feeds such radicalism. This recognition stands as a basis for a call by many for Muslim Reform.

Mohammad goes on to say that while Muslims are involved in “many recent cases,” that “honour killings have also been committed in the name of Hinduism, Sikhism and Christianity.” A likely story. From a Christian perspective, any person that would commit an honor killing (or any other violence against women) in the name of Christianity will do so unsupported by Christian doctrine. I challenge anybody to find one text in Christian scriptures that advocates any violence whatsoever against women, from spanking her to control her, to the taking of child brides.

One also needs to seriously ask the question: Why have the imams and Muslim clerics not come out openly in Canada to condemn what happened to Aqsa? And globally, the unspeakable violence and oppression against women are supported by mullahs, imams and Muslim clerics, if not openly–then by their silence.

Original article is here

Islam and female genital mutilation: Tradtional practice in 29 of 32 Islamic countries

I have commented on FGM many times in the past and this post from Jihad Watch has many references and facts about FGM. This is a barbaric and tragic practice. It is persecution of women and young girls, often times as young as six or seven years of age. The post is long so please be sure to read the entire article. David Littman should be nominated for the NPP for all the work he has done for humanity in general.

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FGM: 'traditional practice' in 32 countries, of which 29 are OIC States -- 3 million girls mutilated worldwide each year, 95% of Egyptians


David G. Littman, NGO Representative at the UN in Geneva:
Association for World Education and World Union for Progressive Judaism

Oral statement (from UN webcast above) reproduced verbatim below

We decided to speak out again on a "traditional practice", whose religious links are vociferously denied, despite irrefutable UNICEF facts and figures. FGM (Female Genital Mutilation) is spreading in Europe with some migrant populations that practise it traditionally. There are now over 1,500 cases in Geneva and nearly 10,000 in Switzerland, with hundreds of thousands in European Union countries. This won't cease until it is strongly penalized, backed by an unambiguous fatwa from the Grand Sheikh of Al-Azhar (Cairo) stating, unambiguously, that this 'cultural relativism' is forbidden by all legal traditions in Islam - unfortunately, this is unlikely. The subject is still considered taboo at the UN and an explicit mention of Sharia justification usually leads to an angry denial and rude denigrations, as we have learned from personal experience since 1993.

Written statement with background information on FGM reprinted at end

It is worthwhile comparing our recent statement on this and the minor Egyptian 'point of order' incident of 23 March (as recorded on the UN video above, reprinted below), which occurred on the same subject of Violence against Women as the 'Sharia Affair' of 16 June 2008. Then, the flamboyant, moustached Egyptian delegate Amr Roshdy Hassan succeeded in blocking the Council for 1¾ hours, resulting in a big scandal and wide media coverage by AFP, AP, Reuters, ATS (17-18 June 2008), with Romanian HRC President Doru Romulus Costea and former HCHR Louise Arbour, American Ambassador and Amnesty International, and our joint NGO statement being quoted at length. Our perseverance then and after appears to have been successful in this field. A follow-up You Tube video on the historic landmark 'Sharia Affair', with many captivating moments, is currently being prepared for Jihad Watch next week.

Shipwreck at the UN Human Rights Council: summary of 16 June 2010 event

At about 4:40pm on 16 June 2008, David G. Littman was given the floor by the HRC president to deliver a joint statement for the AWE and the International Humanist and Ethical Union, under agenda item 8: 'Integrating the Human Rights of Women throughout the United Nations system'. Within 22 seconds he was stopped on a 'point of order' by the delegate of Egypt. In all, there were 12 negative points of order - 7 by Egypt, 2 by Pakistan, 2 by Iran, one by Cuba; and three positive reactions: one each from Slovenia (for the EU), Canada and Germany; and 13 explanations by the president, who gave us the floor 4 times. The proceedings of the Council were suspended for over forty minutes, and again for a second recess after the Egyptian delegate and others intervened several times before declaring provocatively: "My point is that Islam will not be crucified in this Council". The German delegate asked the president and the Egyptian delegate whether this term was "appropriate with regard to the question of mentioning religion and its symbols." He received no answer. Pakistan's delegate Imran Ahmed Siddiqui, speaking for Pakistan and the OIC, declared that the statement by the NGO "will amount to spreading hatred against certain members of the Council" - all OIC countries.

When Mr. Hassan threatened to call for a vote if the speaker was not ruled 'out of order', the president announced another brief break to analyse "what the speaker had read." After the 40 minute recess, there had been a capitulation to OIC demands and the president then announced that "this Council is not prepared to discuss matters religious matters in depth. Consequently we should not do it" - and that "declarations" must avoid judgments or evaluation about religion and any mention of Sharia.

Three months later (19 September 2008) we again spoke for AWE on Female Genital Mutilation; so-called "honour killings"; death by stoning; disfiguration of women by acid; marriage of female children, but avoided pronouncing the officially taboo words. A year later (19 September 2009), we used the terms 'edict' and 'ruling' - with 'fatwa' in brackets in our available statement - e.g: "An edict [fatwa] on the website of Dr. Yusuf Al-Qaradawi, President of the International Union for Muslim Scholars, is unlikely to change this ghastly toll; only an unambiguous ruling [fatwa] from Al Azhar might help do so."

FGM: Oral statement of 23 March 2010 / Appendix: Shafi'i fiqh / AWE Written Statement

WORLD UNION FOR PROGRESSIVE JUDAISM
ASSOCIATION FOR WORLD EDUCATION

United Nations Human Rights Council -13th session (1-26 March 2010)
Statement: David G. Littman (37TH meeting) - Tuesday. 12:30 - 23 March 2010
Item 8: Follow-up to & implementation of Vienna Declaration and Programme of Action

[The words in square brackets were not pronounced within the 2 minute time limit]

Mr. President, under item 10 [a mistake - item 8], the Vienna Declaration, we wish to raise once again the question of a barbaric "traditional or customary practice", which is a shameful euphemism for a crime against female children. As is known from UNICEF, more than 3 million female children and girls in 32 countries - including more and more thousands in Europe from an immigration population - are still being brutally mutilated each year. Here in Geneva, it has reached 1500 and more than 10,000 in Switzerland alone, with tens of thousands in almost all the other Member States of the European Union.

Sir, of these 32 countries, 29 are Members of the OIC and in many of them it is the Shafi'i fiqh ruling on female excision that helps explain why the FGM figure in Egypt remains at over 95% [every year], despite the law of 1994 [1996]; and in [North] Sudan over 90%. We have here the Arabic and the English translation of that law [the speaker raises the page in his left hand - see this text below].

We feel it would be well to consult in document A/HRC/33/67, the report of Mona Zulficar* where she explains, under the heading:

Defense of the Ministry of Health decree of 1996 banning female genital mutilation:

[This was a challenge before the Administrative Courts brought by a group of fundamental doctors against the decree by the Ministry of Health banning female genital cutting, on grounds that such a decree was a violation of Sharia law. She joined the defense of this decree on behalf of three NGOs, including Women's Health Improvement Association which she currently chairs and succeeded to help obtain a court judgment upholding the decree in 1998]

That: Female genital cutting is now banned by law and the relevant decree became immune to any challenges - in 2007, in response to the death of a girl child [while undergoing circumcision, the Minister of Health issued a further decree prohibiting this practice in absolute terms...]

This is correct, sir, but we believe, and have said it now for at least 18 years, that until an Al-Azhar fatwa is passed by the Grand Sheikh, this terrible barbarism will continue because the law doesn't stop it.

Thank you Mr. Chairman [Gavel by vice-president, just as the speaker had stopped after 2 min. 12 sec.]

Vice-President: There's a point of order. Egypt, you have the floor.

Egypt (lady delegate): Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Not only is the issue that the speaker's talking about completely outside of the item of the debate - it's completely baseless... although... I don't feel that I'm in any position or requirement to answer what he's saying, but I think it's quite obvious to the Council what kind of measures are being taken in the [inaudible], so that I would please request him to please remain focused on the item under debate. Thank you.

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Hat tip: Jihad Watch