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since Wed, 26 Dec 2007 20:04:17.
Reporting Arabs versus Reporting Jews
by Joachim Martillo (ThorsProvoni@aol.com)
The killing of Rand Abdel-Qader received tremendous coverage in the world press.
- The Observer: 'My daughter deserved to die for falling in love' (May 11, 2008)
- The Independent: For women around the world, life is getting worse (May 2, 2008)
- Daily Mail: Teenage Iraqi girl who fell in love with BRITISH soldier is murdered... (April 27, 2008)
- The Independent: Girl, 17, killed in Iraq for loving a British soldier (April 27, 2008)
- The Observer: Her crime was to fall in love. She paid with her life (April 27, 2008)
The world press reported an honor killing. Yet I have read all sorts of stories about women murdered or otherwise punished during or immediately after WW2 for consorting with German occupation soldiers.
The USA incinerated Iraq for no reason, and the UK helped make it possible.
Is it surprising that many Iraqis would become angry enough to kill someone consorting with a soldier of the occupation? The coverage of the story is playing up the cultural and religious aspect of the story while for all intents and purposes it ignores the political context.
Contrast this treatment with the Avi Kostner story: Avi Kostner News - The New York Times - Narrowed by 'KOSTNER, RYAN'.
Kostner was motivated at least in part by anger that his ex-wife intended to raise his children as Christians and not as Jews. It took the NY Times three years to mention this critical factor in the murder even though Rabbi Feldman circumspectly alluded to the religious issue in the June 29, 1994 report (Parents of Slain Children Had Bitter Disputes in Court).
3 comments:
The point you may be missing is that Abdel-Qader Ali stated himself that it was an 'honour' killing and that 'honour' killings are permitted under Article 111 of the Iraqi penal code.
Restoring the honor of France, of Poland or some other European nation was often given as the reason for killing collaborators or women that consorted with German soldiers.
Neither I nor Rand's mother, who came from the same culture as Rand's father, approve of this type of killing, but criticism from the standpoint of a false belief in Western superiority is probably incitement to more American outrages in the ME and not an expression of genuine concern for Arab or Muslim women.
I am 51 and remember beheadings of "uppity niggas" in the South. Wasn't one justification preserving the honor of the South or of Southern white women? After all an assertive African American might whistle at a white woman.
Honor killings are unwritten law in Texas, to wit, one spouse may kill the other spouse and lover if they are caught in flagrante delicto.
BTW, the Kostner type of killing may be much more common than generally assumed, for they are probably reported as temporary insanity.
In Jewish law an apostate (meshumad) or informer (moser) is hayav mitah (liable to execution), and killings of both are documented in the current period despite the reluctance of Jewish-influenced news media to report such cases.
I think at least part of the reason is because these crimes have been taking place since pre-Islamic times. They are nothing new in the region, and they are on the increase not only in Iraq, but globally.
Ellen R. Sheeley, Author
"Reclaiming Honor in Jordan"
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