Monday, January 30, 2012

Convicted Mass Murderer Papa (Mohammad) Shafia Played the Islam Card--and Lost

The Shafias are planning to appeal, of course. I'm sure this was reported at the time by the Canadian media (I can't imagine Christie Batchford, for one, keeping it quiet), but this is my first encounter with it:
In the three-month-long trial, Shafia testified, "My children did a lot of cruelty toward me," as he wept openly on the stand. He went on to say he believed his children "betrayed" him by dating and he did not hide his anger, saying a father would never expect that kind of behavior from this daughters.
In taking the stand, Shafia swore to tell the truth on the Quran and he again invoked the holy book to say Islam does not condone killing people to preserve a family's honor.
In a direct response to a question from prosecutor Laurie Lacelle, Shafia said, "To kill someone, you can't regain your respect and honor. Respected lady, you should know that. In our religion, a person who kills his wife or daughter, there is nothing more dishonorable. How is it possible that someone would do that to their children, respected lady?"
"You might do it," Lacelle calmly replied, "if you thought they were whores." Shafia had used that term in a conversation captured by wiretaps.
You also might do it if, as per the Koran's words, you believed these women were your chattel who were obliged to bend to your will.

I'm pretty sure that inconvenient truth won't factor into CAIR-CAN founder Sheema Khan's Chicago gang "honour crime" rehab. Desperately--and despicably--Sheema calls the Shafia trial
an “Ecole Polytechnique” moment for many Canadian Muslims. A shocking wake-up call to the ugly reality of family violence rooted in the need to control women – ostensibly for the sake of family “honour”. Horrific details of dysfunction within the Shafia family, culminating with the murder of four women – have shaken many out of complacency.
Let's all hope it's not another "Ecole Polytechnique" moment--i.e. yet another occasion when we turn a blind eye to a crime the arose out of the morass of Islamic misogyny, but that was never recognized as such. To do that--to overlook the Islamic component of these crimes--would be to murder the four Shafia women and the women of the Montreal Massacre all over again.

Update: Some years ago, Sheema shilled for the institution of sharia law here in Ontario. (H/t: BCF)

Update: Fortunately, most Globe and Mail readers don't seem to be taken in by Sheema. For instance, one reader notes that only recently she
was calling on this page for Canadians to honour their culture of human-rights by allowing burkas -- tents with small cage-holes -- to be worn by Muslim women wherever they chose, including in courts?
She seems to feel that one form of medieval, male dominating, oppression is better than another. Sheer confusion, schizophrenia, a joke, what ... ?
None of the above, I'd say. More like sheer calculation on her part and the ability to capitalize on the opportunity handed to her on a silver salver by Canada's newspaper of record to convey her message to the elite swathe of Canadians who comprise the paper's readership.

Another reader has the effrontery to point out that Sheema has been a fierce advocate for Islamic law:
Didn't Sheema Khan want sharia law legislation introduced into Ontario?
Why yes, yes she did. Kind of hard to square that with her current hand-wringing over Muslims' "Ecole Polytechnique moment." Speaking of which, someone else notices the problem with Sheema  harnassing the Shafia trial to the Montreal Massacre:
This article was started with a reference to the murder of 14 women at at Ecole Polytechnique by Marc Lepine. Mr. Lepines real name was Gamil Gabar, who was raised by a muslim father and learned Muslim attitudes to women. The media couldn'act fast enough to bury that fact. That should have been the wakeup call to the Muslim community, as well as a wake up call for all Canadians who still buy into Pierre Truedeaus multicultural hell.
His real name was Gamil Gharbi, but close enough.

And finally, someone makes a good--albeit a terrifying--point:
Horrifyingly, this might actually just cause these Honour Murderers to take their daughter/wife to the old country for a vacation, and do it there. 
Anyone gather the stats on women killed on family vacations in the old country?
Excellent question. I suspect not, although off the top of my head I can recall a fairly recent incident--a Bangladeshi-Canadian woman, a student at UBC, whose husband threw acid at her face and liqidated her eyeballs during a trip to the old country. Despite numerous operations, the woman, who was flown back to Canada, has no hope of regaining her vision.

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