http://www.ottawacitizen.com/news/Honour+killings+undermine+cherished+values/6106378/story.html
RESPECT FOR THE RULE OF LAW
Murder by any name is still murder.
The Shafia trials have again squarely focused our attention on the dark underbelly of abhorrent practices imported into this country. Efforts by organizations such as the Canadian Council of Muslim Women (CCMW) to suggest that we refer to such killings as “femicide” or “customary killings” are nothing but ill-conceived attempts to deflect attention from what is nothing but murder and which, under Canadian law, should be treated no differently from any crime of similar seriousness.
Honour killings undermine the very Canadian values we cherish. They undermine the freedom of individual choice, they fly in the face of Canadian pluralism and show no respect for the rule of law upon which this society is built. Islamic Supreme Council of Canada, a collection of self-anointed leaders of the Muslim community, has issued a fatwa condemning honour killings.
Such measures are nothing more than publicity grabbing gestures which are unnecessary and ineffective and do nothing to prevent such crimes. Indeed the idea here, in a modern secular society such as Canada, that proclamation by a handful of clerics is going to fix the problem speaks to the medieval mindset of those people who still think that a fatwa can be promulgated and people will listen to it.
Of course they say that there is no sanction in Islam for such actions. However, what they must do is explicitly state that these poor women who were killed (and others) have the right to date and choose partners of their own volition, as one would expect in a free society.
Hardly has the ink dried on the Shafia judgment that we hear a cacophony of vested interests calling for government support to community organizations to help prevent a repeat. These community-based organizations are often dens of regressive thinking and ones that propagate the sort of social control and a deeply ingrained fear that led to the murder of the Shafia women.
The Muslim organizations which came together in December to condemn the killings as “domestic violence … in the extreme” completely missed the point about social and sometimes religious sanctions for such action.
Dealing with honour crimes transcends communities and requires national action. The state has to make clear that such barbaric practices, regardless of community, are incompatible with the values that we cherish in Canada. It requires the strengthening of social services provided by the state, better protection for battered women and more effective early-warning systems to remove women (and sometimes men) from harm’s way.
More importantly, we need to harmonize laws across all the provinces to ensure that intimidation and restrictions on freedoms are anticipated and made justiciable. The seriousness of this issue is such that it requires adequate response from our politicians. The Canadian public is watching closely to see how this scourge is ended. The time for action is now.
Salma Siddiqui, Ottawa Past president, Muslim Canadian Congress; Vice-president, Circle of Canadians
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Categories: Canada