Italy is dealing with a shocking murder after Ahmad Khan Butt, a 53-year-old construction worker and owner of a local mosque in Modena, beat his wife to death with a brick after she opposed an arranged marriage for her daughter. While Ahmad Butt beat his wife, his son, Umair, severely beat his sister Nosheen Butt, 20, with a stick — resulting in her hospitalization for a broken arm and head injuries. The husband and deceased wife, Beghm Shnez, are Muslim and both originally came from Pakistan.
Prosecutors stated that Beghm Shnez was forced to marry her husband and lived an unhappy marriage. She wanted something better for her daughter.
The prosecutors are calling this a “cultural homicide.” We often call these “honor killings,” though usually it is the young women who are killed for refusing arranged marriages or having relationships with men. In a couple weeks, I will be going to Paris to speak about the “cultural defense” issue — cases where defendants raise their cultural or religious motivations for criminal acts. This is part of the International American Bar Association meeting.
Source: Google
Jonathan Turley
This particular problem with Islam, is because believer’s, are not widely enough read in the Haddith’s such as Sahih Bukhari (supposedly authentic stories of the prophet Muhammad (PBUH) and the early follower’s) The Prophet once went to a young woman’s house, seeking her in marriage and she refused. He ordered that she be given a new dress and that no one was to bother her as he politely left. It is the violent, after, leader’s of Islam and the continuing violent teaching’s from those leader’s, as well as the willful ignorance of too many believer’s, that has created this violent religion of Islam, outside of its context towards peace. Ironically, a recent test in America about Christianity showed that many Christian’s were woefully uninformed of their own religion.
The Bible, from the Garden of Eden on, is pretty much a nightmare for women. The attitudes of Jesus of Nazareth, at least as they were presented in the gospels, appear to usher in a new day. But, once he is out of the picture, St Paul & Co. set about to reverse those gains. We are still dealing with the damage, and will be until people wake up and realize that by demanding the submission of women (and much more) they are following the ideas of very mere mortals and not some divine mandate.
And let us remember that here, within the borders of the United States of America, the emergence of women from their kitchens and sitting rooms to the voting booths is a recent development.
Tests made in the 1960s showed that the scholastic achievement of girls was higher in the early grades than in high school. The major reason given was that the girls’ own expectations declined because neither their families nor their teachers expected them to prepare for a future other than that of marriage and motherhood.
As recently as 2006, an 81 year old woman in Waterton N.Y was fired as a Sunday School teacher by her male pastor who used this quote from the Bible as justification.
“First Epistle to Timothy, which states: “I do not permit a woman to teach or to have authority over a man; she is to keep silent.”
“Questions about human sexual identity and behavior dominate religious conservatives’ discourse and agenda today because they dominated the discourse and agenda of the original fundamentalists in America. The core issue was that men were losing their ability to be dominant over women; fundamentalism proposed an explanation for why it was happening and a solution for reversing the changes.”
There are many Christian denominations in the U.S. that promote the equality of the sexes through their doctrine but there are many who do not.
Daniel Baker:
“It’s been the result of religious believers rejecting old sexist interpretations of their religion and accepting equality, while still clinging to their comforting belief in the supernatural. Some atheists have helped, but we have only formed a minor part of this vast change.”
*******************
Actually, it’s been religion’s losing collisions with modernity, secular humanism, and the Enlightenment’s view of man as rational, self-reliant being with intrinisic worth that did the trick. The “religious” were brought — kicking and screaming — into the light of reason and were not benevolently and inexorably advancing towards the glow. Anyone with a history book will tell you it took 500 years of revulsion at the treatment of perceived antagonists to religion during the various Inquisitions to grease the skids of the decline of organized religion among intellectuals in the West. Add to that, the skepticism wrought among the common folk over the same time period by the Great Lisbon Earthquake and the enduring memory of the misery of the Black Death wherein Heaven stood idly by as one third of Europe’s population suffered a horrible, sore-ridden death, and you might find your notions of “acceptance” big enough to encompass stern promptings by natural events for which religion could provide neither answer nor protection.
Ridiculing religion then seems an ethical imperative given the misery accepted, caused, and perpetuated by these self-indulgent delusions about the workings of the world. The only alternative never attempted by so-called “internal reformers” during their long, pathetic, and likely doomed attempt to divert their ship from the rocks is attacking the core belief that somebody up there has a master plan and only the religious leadership knows what it entails.
Quite frankly, the advent of nuclear proliferation among such crazies means we can no longer indulge these “reformers” in their never-ending (and unsuccessful) struggle to save us from their blood thirsty religious brethern. In that context, a few words of scorn seems mild indeed compared to the stated goals of fundamentalists who equate the followers of reason to devils, infidels, and sub-humans. Belittlement is only the first volley in what should be an all out assault on barbarism, superstition, and theocracy, or don’t you agree?
Buddha, I can live with that, and I don’t mind if atheists challenge theists’ irrational beliefs in the supernatural. I used to do it myself before I tired of banging my head against a brick wall. I only object to the idea that we atheists have to convert religious moderates, or that They have to convert Us, before we can work together against common enemies such as violent misogynists.
Daniel,
Although I think mespo is correct for the reason that beliefs are often not changed without external challenge to spur internal debate, you raise a good point. I would only make the following suggested change to your statement: “It’s been the result of religious believers rejecting old sexist interpretations of their religion and accepting equality, some while still clinging to their comforting belief in the supernatural.” While some will adapt to change, others will either retreat further into fanaticism or bypass moderation and opt for agnosticism or atheism as a natural course of events. Different people will have different thresholds and responses to change.
“Beghm Shnez was forced to marry her husband and lived an unhappy marriage. She wanted something better for her daughter.”
Well, I guess she won. She won’t live unhappy, and her daughter will probably be freed from that murderer and the forced marriage. If Italian law does its job.
Quite a dire price to pay.
And when you belittle the reformers, Mespo, I take it that is a huge help to fighting the violent traditionalists who claim support in the Hadith for their views? The reformers, of course, have their own Hadith to support their views, because Islam’s teachings, like those of most religions, contradict each other.
Where in the world have we seen violence against women decline? In the West. Has it been a result of widespread adoption of atheism? No. It’s been the result of religious believers rejecting old sexist interpretations of their religion and accepting equality, while still clinging to their comforting belief in the supernatural. Some atheists have helped, but we have only formed a minor part of this vast change.
LK,
Fortunately recent work shows evolution works not as a smooth curve but as a punctuated equilibrium with fits and starts of rapid change. Hopefully a biological “spike” will occur before our more rapidly evolving social and technological evolutions kill us all. I’ve been trying to post a link, but it’s making WordPress freak out.
“INJUSTICE ANYWHERE IS A THREAT TO JUSTICE EVERYWHERE.” Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Letter from the Birmingham jail.