Salaam,
A friend sent this to me and i wish to show to everyone
here..
LONDON - A father who ordered his daughter brutally slain for
falling in love with the wrong man in a so-called "honor killing"
was found guilty of murder on Monday.
Banaz Mahmod, 20, was strangled with a boot lace, stuffed into a
suitcase and buried in a back garden.
Her death is the latest in an increasing trend of such killings in
Britain, home to some 1.8 million Muslims. More than 100 homicides
are under investigation as potential "honor killings."
Mahmod Mahmod, 52, and his brother Ari Mahmod, 51, planned the
killing during a family meeting, prosecutors told the court. Two
others have pleaded guilty in the case. Two more suspects have fled
the country. Sentencing is expected later this month.
The men accused the young woman of shaming her family by ending an
abusive arranged marriage, becoming too Westernized and falling in
love with a man who didn't come from their Iraqi village. The
Kurdish family came to Britain in 1998 when Banaz Mahmod was
11.
"She was my present, my future, my hope," said Rahmat Suleimani,
29, Banaz Mahmod's boyfriend.
During the three-month trial, prosecutors said Mahmod's father beat
his daughter for using hairspray and adopting other Western ways.
Her uncle once told her she would have been "turned to ashes" if
she were his daughter and had shamed the family by becoming
involved with the Iranian Kurd, her sister 22-year-old Bekhal
Mahmod testified.
Banaz Mahmod ran away from home when she was a teenager but
returned when her father sent her an audio tape in which he warned
he would kill her sisters, her mother and himself if she did not
come home, her sister said.
She was later hospitalized after her brother attacked her, the
sister told the court. The brother said he had been paid by their
father to finish her off but in the end was unable to do it, said
the sister, who testified in a full black burqa. She said she still
feared for her own life.
The years of Banaz Mahmod's abuse were compounded by police
officers who repeatedly dismissed her cries for help.
She first went to police in December 2005, saying she suspected her
uncle was trying to kill her and her boyfriend. She sent police a
letter naming the men who she thought would later kill her.
On New Year's Eve, she was lured by her father to her grandmother's
home, where she suspected he planned to attack her after he forced
her to gulp down brandy and approached her while wearing gloves.
She escaped by breaking a window and was treated at a
hospital.
Police dismissed her suspicions, and one officer, who is under
investigation, considered charging her with damages for breaking
her grandmother's window.
Laying in her hospital bed after the escape, Mahmod recorded a
dramatic video message saying she was "really scared."
The videotape, taken by her boyfriend at the hospital, was shown to
the jury during the trial.
After she was released from the hospital, she returned home and
tried to convince her family she had stopped seeing her
boyfriend.
But friends told the family they spotted the couple together on
Jan. 22, 2006.
Soon after, a group of men allegedly approached her boyfriend and
tried to lure him into a car but he refused. It was that event that
prompted Banaz Mahmod to go to police again. This time officers
tried to persuade her to stay in a safe house. She refused,
believing that her mother would protect her.
But her mother and father left her alone in the house the next day.
Her boyfriend alerted police after time passed in which she failed
to send him text messages.
Her body wasn't discovered until three months later after police
tracked phone records.
Britain has seen more than 25 women killed by their Muslim
relatives in the past decade for offenses they believed brought
shame on the family. More than 100 other homicides are under
investigation as potential honor killings.
Some Muslim communities in Britain practice Sharia, or strict
Islamic law.
"We're seeing an increase around the world, due in part to the rise
in Islamic fundamentalism," said Diana Nammi with the London-based
Iranian and Kurdish Women's Rights Organization.
Just wish to highlight that honour killin is not condoned in
Islam.
It is a cultural thing.
Pls read below.
Wa`alykum As-Salaamu Warahmatullahi Wabarakaatuh.
In the Name of Allah, Most Gracious, Most Merciful.
All praise and thanks are due to Allah, and peace and blessings be
upon His Messenger.
Dear sister in Islam, we do really appreciate your question, which
shows how far you are interested in getting yourself
well-acquainted with the sound teachings of Islam. May Allah bless
your efforts in pursuit of knowledge and may He keep us all firm in
the straight path!
Sister, its a well-known fact that Islam maintains the protection
of life and does not sanction any violation against it. In the
Glorious Quran, Allah, Most High, says, Whoso slayeth a believer
of set purpose, his reward is Hell for ever. Allah is wroth against
him and He hath cursed him and prepared for him an awful doom.
(An-Nisa: 93)
`Abdullah ibn Mas`ud, may Allah be pleased with him, reported that
the Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him, said, "The
blood of a Muslim may not be legally spilt other than in one of
three [instances]: the married person who commits adultery; a life
for a life; and one who forsakes his religion and abandons the
community." (Reported by Al-Bukhari and Muslim)
Focusing more on your question, Sheikh Ahmad Kutty, a senior
lecturer and an Islamic scholar at the Islamic Institute of
Toronto, Ontario, Canada, states:
There is no such concept in Islam that is
called honor killing. Islam holds every soul in high esteem and
does not allow any transgression upon it. It does not allow people
to take the law in their own hands and administer justice, because
doing so will be leading to chaos and lawlessness. Therefore, based
on this, Islam does not permit such killings.
First of all, in order to sanction killing, it must be through a
binding verdict issued by an authoritative law court. Individuals
themselves have no authority either to judge cases or pass
judgments. Therefore, a Muslim should not sanction such killing
because doing so will be leading to the rule of the law of the
jungle. A civilized society cannot be run by such laws.
Shedding more light on it, Sheikh `Atiyyah Saqr, former head of
Al-Azhar Fatwa Committee, states:
Like all other religions, Islam strictly prohibits murder and
killing without legal justification. Allah, Most High, says, Whoso
slayeth a believer of set purpose, his reward is Hell for ever.
Allah is wroth against him and He hath cursed him and prepared for
him an awful doom. (An-Nisa: 93)
The so-called honor killing is based on ignorance and disregard
of morals and laws, which cannot be abolished except by
disciplinary punishments.
It goes without saying that people are not entitled to take the law
in their own hands, for its the responsibility of the Muslim State
and its concerned bodies to maintain peace, security, etc., and to
prevent chaos and disorder from creeping into the Muslim
society.
Moreover, the eminent Muslim scholar, Sheikh Muhammad Al-Hanooti,
member of the North American Fiqh Council, adds:
In Islam, there is no place for unjustifiable killing. Even in
case of capital punishment, only the government can apply the law
through the judicial procedures. No one has the authority to
execute the law other than the officers who are in charge.
Honor killing could be a wrong cultural tradition. It is unjust and
inhumane action. The murderer of that type deserves
punishment.
Sister, if you are still in need of more information, don't
hesitate to contact us. Do keep in touch. May Allah guide us all to
the straight path!
Just for your information.
http://www.islamonline.net/servlet/Satellite?pagename=IslamOnline-English-Ask_Scholar/FatwaE/FatwaE&cid=1119503543392
