The Weeks Review

What right have Muslims to claim moral superiority?

Mary Ann Sieghart (Timesonline UK) asks that question in this poignant story about the practice of family values by the "Religion of Peace":

Rarely does a news story bring tears to the eyes. But when I read the account last week of the murder of Samaira Nazir in an "honour killing" (surely an oxymoron), I nearly wept. Here was a bright, articulate graduate who had her throat cut, was stabbed 18 times by her brother and cousin because she wanted to marry a Muslim man whom her family had not chosen.

The details were particularly horrific. Her mother stood and watched as she was murdered "how could any mother do that? Her two nieces, aged just 2 and 4, were forced to witness their father stabbing her, close enough to be spattered by her blood " how could any parent do that? She screamed for help and neighbours saw her blood-soaked arm emerge briefly from the front door, but their attempts to intervene were rebuffed.

Of course, grotesque acts of violence happen in all countries. The West is not free from sin. But what sets this type of murder apart is that the perpetrators believe that what they are doing is morally justified. In another (dis)honour killing in 2001, Faqir Mohammed stabbed his daughter 20 times in the head and stomach. He told police: "According to the law it was not right, but according to religion it was right."

Moral superiority? This is barbaric in the extreme. Sadly, this is far from an isolated occurrence among Mulims. A culture that allows this sort of thing to occur without vehement outcry from within is a sick culture indeed.