Occasionally, if a thinker-activist lives long enough and keeps in the fight, she might just experience a moment of vindication. For me, last evening was one of those moments.
Yesterday, I completed a QNA with the National Review about honor killings/”honorcides” which appears there today and which you may read HERE. I also did a long interview with a major new service on the subject which is slated to appear tomorrow. Like many other wire services and like the mainstream media, ideas such as mine are usually sidelined, marginalized, attacked, or simply “disappeared.” I do not think this will happen tomorrow.
And now, I have a number of honorable allies. One surely is NOW-New York State President, Marcia Pappas who is now also being attacked for her having linked the Buffalo beheading with “honor killings,” with “Islam,” and even with “Islamic terrorism.” Indeed, she was attacked yesterday by a coalition of eight domestic violence victim advocacy providers in Erie County where the Buffalo beheading took place. I quickly posted a blog which dealt with this, (it deserves a longer piece), but I mainly praised the recent rally in London which was sponsored by One Law For All.
Lo and Behold: A second honorable ally wrote to me. I want to share what he said. His name is Khalim Massoud, and he is the President of Muslims Against Sharia Law, an international organization. After reading my most recent blog HERE, he wrote me as follows:
“There is absolutely no doubt in my mind that (the) Buffalo beheading is a honorcide. We, Muslims Against Sharia, prefer this term to honor murder. Beheading is not just a murder, it’s a ritual. It’s a form of control and humiliating a family member who “stepped over the line,” in this case, wife taking out a TRO (order of protection) and planning to divorce her husband.
Ms. Pappas must be commended for her courage to call a spade a spade. (The) PC-climate presents considerable danger for future honorcide victims. Trying to sweep cultural/religious aspects of honorcide under the rug keeps the problem from being addressed. While most of the media wouldn’t touch the issue with a ten-foot pole, (for) fear they would be portrayed as Islamophobic, a few brave women, the true feminists, like Marcia Pappas and Phyllis Chesler are speaking out on the subject just to be slammed by so-called victim advocacy groups because they dare to expose Islamism’s dirty laundry. Muslim women in America are at great risk because Muslim establishment, with help of the media, wants to portray honorcide as fiction.
Honorcide has no place in the modern world, but especially in the West. It must be forcefully confronted; not written off as domestic violence. Almost a year ago, MASH started STOP HONORCIDE! initiative. The goal is to have honorcide classified as a hate crime. The Buffalo case is a perfect example why honorcide should be a hate crime. The suspect is being charged with the 2nd degree murder. If honorcide were classified as a hate crime, he’d be charged with the 1st degree murder.”
Khalim Massoud
President
Muslims Against Sharia
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21 Comments
1. Hopey?Changey?:Thank you to Mr. Massoud and to you Ms Chesler for your efforts.
Mar 12, 2009 - 10:17 am 2. Nathan:Ms Pappas has real courage and spine to speak out on these issues.
Your education efforts are very important.
In his book CULTURE AND CONFLICT IN THE MIDDLE EAST, the anthropologist Philip Salzman points out that although it is usually a man who commits the violence in an honor killing, it’s at the goading or insistence of a female. The father may not like what his daughter is doing, but it’s his wife who pushes him to kill the daughter. This is a significant differentiator between honor killing and domestic violence.
Mar 12, 2009 - 11:29 am 3. FFFFF:Sorry Nathan, but: what does it mean? That men are unable to think with their head, and that women are heartless? Or what? Did it happen to yout anthropologist to think under what kind of pressure does an (Islamic) woman live? She must be perfect, think perfect, act perfect, say the perfect thing at the perfect time …: isn’t it that someone told her to ‘go for a murder’ if she wants to be (still) rewarded in a good way? I mean: where is the root of Evil? In the woman? [Then back: does she deserve to be killed? Misogyny is justified? Or is this root in the man? And then Misandry should be promoted? In a Society ruled by men, the woman must do anything to SURVIVE. Maybe become an evil being is a way to achieve it? Or was 'the Prophet' right, by saying that '... I looked at the Hell and there was plenty of women'? Short: I think that Anthropology isn't enough at all].
Mar 12, 2009 - 12:14 pm 4. Stray Yellar Dawg:Congratulations on the vindication. One small step for womankind….
And, as for Salzman.. I don’t care who “goads” a man into committing such a heinous crime. The fact that there is complicancy with ANYONE clearly indicates that honorcide is premeditated murder. Not 2nd degree.
It is time to get off this Shari’a-go-round and prosecute to the fullest extent of the law!
Mar 12, 2009 - 2:00 pm 5. Alfredo:FFFFF…Nathan is correct, the honor killings in these backward societies, like Pakistan, are usually encouraged by women within the family, mostly, unfortunately, a mother-daughter affair where there is a gossiping type of encouragement where the male(s) is/are driven to act. Not that he is/they are blameless, on the contrary, but this should be acknowledged.
FFFFF, realize these mothers had been brutalized themselves, and become part of the cult of death and female abuse in Islam, whether circumcision, or much worse female genitalia removal as in Sudan (by the way 95% of Egyptian girls are subjected to this torture).
As Ms. Chesler says, let us at least start by preventing these outrage practices in the land of the free, the home of the brave, they have no place here.
Mar 12, 2009 - 2:08 pm 6. marymcl:FFFFF – The first thing to remember is women living under sharia don’t know anything else. They are not westerners trapped in an alien culture hoping to be rescued. You don’t survive in a truly brutal society without becoming brutal yourself. This includes seizing with a vengeance whatever advantages or shreds power there may be to be found within the family and it will almost always be over other females. Women are no less human than men and in a static culture like Islam will live out their lives at the level of their immediate circumstances.
Mar 12, 2009 - 7:57 pm 7. FFFFF:Dear all, I am sorry but your accusing women to be the mind of Honorcides is simply unfair, unjust and superficial.
I admit that women got brain-washed (by Shari’a teachings) as well, but please, are you trying to say that Shari’a is a female’s invention?
Please: Shari’a Law comes from Qouran and Sunnah (Ahadith). Let’s resee Mohammad’s life, the promoter of Islam. He was the mind of that, and the one who is behind (Honor)cides.
Why are you trying to accuse women, now?
You can see by yourself, a woman like Ayaan Hirsi Ali took distance from the grausome Islami-sti-c way and she risks to die. She is anyway a woman who refused the Islamic (grausome) rules: she showed her being ‘woman’, ‘female’, ‘(potential) mother’. Love (Loving) is the main quality of a woman/female, of the Feminine [Archetype].
I am sure that behind the mind of a (appearently) grausome woman, THERE IS A MAN [at least: the man who gave start to the Honorcides' mentality].
Are you saying that there is a woman behind every Honorcide? Do you realize what are you meaning?
I ADMIT: I KNEW GRAUSOME WOMEN. AND I AM SURE, BEHIND THEM THERE WAS A ‘LORD’ (MAN), GUIDING HER THOUGHTS, HER ACTIONS. Who said that: ‘they fear (males’ reactions) more than they wish freedom’? Women live under this masculine/misogyne doctrine since up to now ‘they have no other choice’ (if they want to keep surviving). Have you seen what happens i.e. under Taliban? What a cruelty is practiced against females? Would you try to rebel yourself against them? Have you an idea about the end you are going to face?
I find -of course- unjustified the supporting of this misogyne mentality, and I dislike grausome women, I find them silly and even … bad. But I can see where does this behaviour of them come from: Islam.
I obviously can repeat what Islamic people say about Mohammad: ‘[through Islam] he brought a great improvement in the quality of women’s life’ (at that time women where buried alive -and Mohammad forbad it-, there was no limit to the number of wives in poligamy -and Mohammad limited them to four-
, …). Anyway, compared to a DECENT WAY OF LIVING FOR WOMEN, Islam (with its misogyne Honorcides) is FAR NOT-ENOUGH.
Maybe, if men decide to free themselves from Islam(ic mentality), then women will follow ….
Mar 13, 2009 - 1:04 am 8. marymcl:Oh for crying out loud FFFFF, stop patronizing us all. You’re hardly the only one here opposing sharia. You paint a picture of women as mindless drones incapable of assuming responsibility for anything. As for your final statement, I couldn’t disagree more. Ayaan Hirsi Ali is living proof that Muslim women will have to stand up for themselves – the men aren’t going to just change things for them. The women will lead, and take their children with them, or things will stay the same.
Has it never occurred to you in all your emoting over their plight that under a gruesome system like sharia, many of the best, most creative and intelligent girls are unlikely to reach adulthood without being assaulted, if not broken, in body and spirit? How many Muslim families from east Africa do you know personally? I know dozens through my work, and I think you’d be sorely disillusioned after a few encounters with real women from that world.
Mar 13, 2009 - 7:24 am 9. FFFFF:Hallo MaryMcl,
1. what does it mean ‘patronizing us all’?
2. I mentioned Ayaan Hirsi Ali RIGHT in order to show that Islamic women are NOT ‘mindless drones incapable of assuming responsibility for anything’ [actually: they are women, mothers, like you]. Weird, that you understood exactely the opposite [maybe you wanted to understand exactely the opposite].
3. I thank you for worrying about my Education but: if I take part to such discussions [about Honorcide, Cultural relativism, ...] it means that I ALREADY (HAD TO) DIS-ILLUDE MYSELF ABOUT THE -SO CALLED- BEAUTY OF EVERY FOREIGN CULTURE. [Capital letters are ment as 'underlining', not as 'shouting'].
4. I reward as superficial the anthropoligic analysis who says: ‘the women want to kill their daughters, the men just act’. When it comes to die, murder and children [I think about Islamic marthyrdom, too], women are pushed to accept it. According to the Ideology – which they MUST follow – they are pushed to ’sacrifice’ their children on the altar of ‘Righteousness’. And they are actively asked to RENOUNCE TO THEIR SPONTANEOUS FEELING OF LOVE FOR THE LIVES OF CHILDREN. They are told/taught: ‘if you love your children, you must send them to become marthyrs, you must honour-kill them, …’. This comes from outside the woman, not from inside her. [I believe this.]
5. On the other hand: a woman who doesn’t like her children, to the point of honour-killing them, it means that she gave birth to them without love. Maybe was she forced to get married? She got pregnant too many times, and she had a too stressful house-wife’s life, to the point that she starts hating her children, instead of loving them? [...].
6. I repeat: I feel that it is the Islamic misogyne mentality that drives women to ‘go for killings’. Not that it is a natural women’s instinct [killing].
7. Agressivity self is a masculine quality [which can be useful in some circumstances -creating-, but absolutely bad in other ones -harrashing-].
8. Maybe I did not understand your message. I just got the impression you are ‘accusing’ me of ‘talking about a subject I ignore everything about’. If so, allow me to disagree with you point of view.
Regards.
Mar 13, 2009 - 11:02 am 10. marymcl:FFFFF –
Mar 13, 2009 - 3:31 pm 11. FFFFF:Do you actually believe it’s impossible for a woman to give birth without love? You’d better stay clear of hospitals, shelters and jails if you want to preserve that fantasy intact. You seem to think all women are naturally pure of heart and only those ogres known as men do wrong in this world. Consequently I don’t think it’s possible to take you seriously anymore.
Dear MaryMcl, what do you think about me is actually not important at all.
Maybe I could not express myself properly, or maybe you consciously misunderstand my words.
I say that there is plenty of women who are forced into marriage, who are subjected to ‘instituzionalized rape’, who have to give birth to a huge quantity of children, which is wether a wise act, nor an act in favour of the woman (the man feels proud of being ‘the Lord of many children’, but he doesn’t care at all about the efforts that the woman must do for taking care of all of them -and of the husband, too-), ….
I am exactely saying that WOMEN SUFFER UNDER ISLAMIC MENTALITY, THAT WOMEN ARE DISCRIMINATED UNDER ISLAMIC* MENTALITY, THAT WOMEN ARE FORCED TO DO THINGS THAT THEY WOULD NEVER DO (IF THEY HAD THE FREEDOM OF CHOICE).
[*Islamic mentality, in this sense, is ment as 'misogyne mentality': you find the same kind mentality even in India and Africa, where women are abused and, of course, forced to give birth to children -according to the example we were doing- in an unnatural way (sleeping with men they don't like, making sex without enjoying it -due to many reasons-, ...). Of course the Achetype of woman/female (Love) gets distorted in such kind of contexts. And/but I underline again, the lack of Love in women's mentality, is a consequence of living under a misogyne Society. Not that women selves lack of Love and naturally wish to kill instead of 'taking care of life'. IF A WOMAN DECIDES TO KILL HER CHILD, THIS COMES FROM THE MISOGYNE MENTALITY EXISTING IN THE SOCIETY, NOT FROM THE 'FEMALE BEING' SELF.]
Now. If you understand what I mean, ok, if you don’t, ok as well. Just one thing: if you try to portray me as an unserious person, please be aware of the fact that I won’t allow you spreading such kind of lies.
Good bye.
Mar 14, 2009 - 12:46 am 12. Gary Ogletree:No to Sharia means no to Islam. Islam is a dying religion rooted in greed, hatred and delusion. I see little worth keeping from Islam besides the wonderful traditional architecture. How about goodbye and good riddance to the rest of it? Waiting to be indicted by the UN.
Mar 14, 2009 - 9:48 am 13. marymcl:@11 FFFFF
I understand Islam just fine, OK? Everyone is dogmeat and women and girls have it worst of all, and in that order. And as for your closing threat, or promise, or whatever it is:
~”Just one thing: if you try to portray me as an unserious person, please be aware of the fact that I won’t allow you spreading such kind of lies.”
Oh, please, what are you going to do, throw your keyboard at me? Snap out of it, OK? If I think your reasoning is superficial, I’ll say so, and I’ll say why. You’ll either get it or you won’t. You’re not in any position to disallow it, any more than I could (or would) stop you from saying what you think. If you’re too thin-skinned to argue, don’t post.
But you gave me a good laugh at the end of a long day
Mar 14, 2009 - 5:39 pm 14. mama palama:What evil comes to bear
All who participate in it share
Ultimately the fragility of life
And as such unending strife
What endures is spilt
Unto a world civilization built!
One has to wonder the impact on Islamic women whose pleasure center and its impingement if not outright disconnection from the capacity to choose a man. This in fact is the intention of cliterectomy and worse in some Islamic States countries labiaectomy in which she serves as do beasts of burden the male population. May is be assumed as well impact the attitude towards her children? Is the body not responsive in all its capacity of pleasure and pain somehow connected to giving birth to a child and having passed through the corridor of pain once born love removes the memory of the pain endured?
Could the destruction of the pleasure center in such women, for arguments sake, as well enable the kind of distancing from love it takes to preserve a child from a culture, a religion (Islam) and society in which her children are to be sacrificed, whose lives are destroyed in order to destroy the lives of others? The impetus to violence? The impact of such violence in which the mother herself bring the daughter in her childhood – from about 3 to five years of age – to have such pain inflicted as cliterectomy while the mother holds her down? Surely – bringing to bear the consequence in which mothers overcome the innate instinct to preserve the child born from her womb?
Mar 14, 2009 - 7:34 pm 15. joeblough:Phyllis congrats.
A bit of victory must taste nice. You deserve it, and much much more.
Hang in there.
And thanks.
Mar 15, 2009 - 1:13 am 16. bill warner:FBI INTERNET CRIME COMPLAINT FILED AGAINST KHALIM MASSOUD AND MUSLIMS AGAINST SHARIA
http://www.billwarnerpi.com/2009/03/fbi-internet-crime-complaint-filed.html
Mar 18, 2009 - 6:07 am 17. Muslims Against Sharia:Two deranged individuals, Jim Sutter and Bill Warner, are joining forces to defame Muslims Against Sharia. Before you buy into their lies and distortions, please consider the sources: http://www.phonyrev.com/ & http://insanepi.blogspot.com/.
Mar 18, 2009 - 11:27 am 18. vivvy:I completely agree with FFFFF. It is a misogyny that corrupts the whole family and forces women to be complicit (sometimes) with the murder of her child. The mother will have been degraded from birth, very often beaten and lived in fear of being labelled as ‘not devout’. As victims of masculine brutality and oppression, they side with their ‘masters’, to show how they disapprove of their daughter’s conduct (thus proving how pure they themselves are) and protect themselves from the beatings or death that would follow if they dared to protest. It has been shown many times that victims of brutality end up siding with their aggressors for self survival.
Mar 25, 2009 - 6:10 am 19. LadyPredator:To reduce these facts to name calling about hating all men is infantile and simplistic.
Both men and women as individuals have their flaws and I have noticed as many men as women (outside the misogynistic mindset) abhor these ‘honour killings’. However, it is a patriarchal religion that dreams up these horrors to be inflicted on women and I did groan inwardly when even honour killings are twisted around so that even these are now the fault of women ( isn’t everything) and once again men are whiter than white and even in a patriarchal, woman hating society it’s the women’s fault that they are being murdered.
Don’t believe anything Mr. Bill Warner or his cohort in fabrication, Mr. Jim Sutter posts about anyone. So far the only legitimate objection to MASh is the fact that doesn’t appear to be Muslims in the traditional sense. Also all the offensive foul language doesn’t help Khalim Massoud’s cause. However the “expose” that these two narcissists have come up is pure fiction
Mr. Sutter, the source for alleged criminal activity is himself a multiple felon (6th Circuit Court #1:94-cr-00010-SHB).Projection perhaps?
Mr. Sutter who claims that MASh is alleged evading taxes is a person who was caught cheating the IRS in three consecutive years (Cleveland Common Pleas Court #2003200305289086). Projecting again?
Mr. Sutter, who claims that MASh is perpetrating religious deception, is someone who has been masquerading as a Catholic priest and Baptist pastor for at least 17 years. More projection.
Sutter’s and Warner’s “claims” that the FBI is investigating Muslims against Sharia is based on the fact that they supposedly filled out a web form on the FBI’s page.
Warner’s source, Jim Sutter, is a two time felon who projects his criminal behavior on others. On September 17, 1990, Sutter pled guilty to making false accusations (on which another person was wrongfully arrested) and was sentenced to 60 days house detention and three years probation.
http://tinyurl.com/cnvctb
http://tinyurl.com/ddxuq4
Sutter’s past criminal history reveals that it is he who has committed the crimes of stalking, forgery, making false police reports, using interstate communications to make personal threats, (he uses his blog to defame persons who don’t conform to his “whims and wishes” also known as extortion) credit card theft, impersonating an Navy officer, and impersonating mental health professional. (See his separation from the Navy after eight months here http://tinyurl.com/c9vw7r)
Warner is not much of a PI if he uses the compulsive liar Jim Sutter for a source of information!!
See: phonyrev.com
Apr 3, 2009 - 1:15 pm 20. LadyPredator:exposingsutter.com
I suggest that anyone who has been defamed by Mr. Warner call the state of Florida Mr. Warner’s license number is C 9900446 his agency WBI license is A 9500364
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Muslims Against Sharia is a fraud. Did the writer of this article do any research at all? Just because they translate their site into other languages and have some people from other countries sending them money that does not make them an international organization.
Show us some lectures that they have given.
May 16, 2009 - 9:58 pm