In Islam, a woman who supposedly shames her family not only has her life taken, but also her memory. Every attempt is made to erase her existence, thus, the shame. That includes an unmarked grave.
What Pamela and Robert have attempted is to sustain Aqsa Parvez’s memory with a simple headstone that reads, “Beloved, Remembered, Free.” It isn’t political, it isn’t anti-Islam, and it doesn’t serve to personally benefit either Pam or Robert.
It is just a reminder that Aqsa Parvez’s life did matter, even if her family, by virtue of their inhumane and cold ideology, doesn’t agree. It is also a gesture to remind ourselves that we will not devalue any life, and that we fight to defend all innocent life
A number of brave souls and OTOH, complete fools have weighed in on the Aqsa Parvez memorial fund and the ensuing leftist-apologist outrage at the thought of decent individuals righting a wrong, a fundamentally Western value.
The hatred of the good for being good. When I read of Aqsa's unmarked grave -- I was stunned. I know that girl. I am that girl. If I had been born into those circumstances, I too would be a member of the tragedy club. It seemed that the least good men and women could do was put a headstone with her name.
It is not a big deal. It was the decent thing to do.
Back in early December right after Warmington ran the crushing article of Aqsa's unmarked grave, I ran the post to raise money to right the wrong. Good folks near and far contributed what they could. We worked with the cemetery. It was done ...... I called her 'family'. I asked them what they would like -- they said "we don't speak English". I went through Mr. Porter at Meadowvale, willing to accept any changes the 'family' wanted to make.
Needless to say, the 'family' never looked at the artwork via email or snail mail. I didn't go to the press. I didn't go to anyone. I worked with readers on finding another location. And we did. And again, this time is was the University of Guelph who canceled at the last minute, telling the University newspaper they didn't want to appear to support my 'politically charged views'. They are liars. They are afraid of Islamic reaction to a plaque for a victim of an honor killing. They blame me because I will not burn, sue, deface, harass, intimidate -- I will be civilized.
How would the University be supporting my views or me in any way? The plaque said Aqsa Parvez -- Beloved, Remembered Free. It doesn't say Atlas Shrugs or anyone's name or organization. Just Aqsa.
I did not alert the media. Press conferences were not called. The objective was respecting Aqsa. Period.
Her friends wrote me privately. Thanked me and helped to suggest alternative locations that reflected Aqsa's life, joys and happiness outside her house.
It was not until Joe Warmington did a follow up piece on the difficulty to honor Aqsa (alerted by the reader who had been working with me on Guelph) that the leftist apologists jumped all over ..... me. Yes. The murdering family, the frighteningly bamboozled cemetery administrators (I couldn't get a bench or tree at the cemetery), the University cowards -- they were sanctioned but I was the bad guy. I had no idea that this would blow up into some leftist orgy of blame. But not the family of course.
The reaction is ugly and mean. What is the objective of such invective and personal attacks on me? Perhaps to discourage others who might get it into their heads to do the right thing undertake a similar effort. I can't say. To appease their overlords? I don't know, but it is disturbing to read Selley deride me and in the same malodorous breath refer to the number stamp on Aqsa's grave this way, "her remains currently lie beneath a simple steel plate bearing the
number 774" as if this were somehow an elegant, suitable tribute to this terrorized child.
And while Selley is a sorry little man, he opened up the door to the jackals laying in wait to pounce. And they have. I have been working quietly on this for months - why suddenly are the charlatans expressing disgust? Disgust. Imagine that.
Reason is not automatic. Those who deny it cannot be conquered by it. Do not count on them. Leave them alone. Ayn Rand
If you missed Mark Steyn's column on this - go here.
For reasons best known to himself, The National Post's Chris Selley chose to pick a fight with the few people who want to ensure that Aqsa Parvez's short life is memorialized by something more than the plot number of an unmarked grave. Pamela Geller and Kathy Shaidle can take care of themselves, and have done, but the reality is that if it weren't for the frothing loony ranting wackjob haters of the blogosphere a 16-year old girl murdered for not wanting to be imprisoned by her family's culture would be entirely forgotten.
So what's more offensive? The moral outrage of Pamela Geller at the westernization of "honor killing"? Or the mainstream coverage by a politically correct media? Here's what the lunchtime poll at Toronto's CITY-TV thought was the big issue arising from Aqsa Parvez's murder:
Do you think society discriminates against women who wear a hijab?
Gotcha. It's our fault.
There has been a good deal of ink -- but Shaidle's post is a must read, And I like Bink's today:
Our Sister Aqsa Free Canuckistan
How Sweet To Be An Idiot
To be honest, I’ve not read much or heard of Chris Selley before (more here), though Google says he has written for MacLeans, and dislikes TorStar Islamist Harpoon Siddiqui. Hmph.
That there is a problem, Mr. Selley apparently denies; that trying to make a decent memorial for a murdered teen is worse than the act that likely put her there (and thousands others like her– it’s heardly a unique and inexplicable event), he seems to assume. Giving him the benefit of the doubt, he’s a clueless liberal and not a deliberate liar or an Islamophile. A Scaredy-Mouse, not a pro-cat mouse. Or maybe a journalist who thinks that unless he thinks it’s a big deal, it isn’t. Whatevers.
That Pesky Body-Count
That still leaves us with the problem of slaughtered women and the degrading position of women in jihadist culture. The cat’s standing right in front of us, and demanding more and more space.
Will we look at what’s there, or deny it? On that, Mr. Selley, hangs the future of the culture which includes the clueless such as yourself, the slaughtered, such as Aqsa and her sisters worldwide; and the truth and principle that says all people are created equal under God, and have the rights of freedom, free speech, citizenship, equality under the law, the good things of this life, and the actual life with which to enjoy them.
My Sister Aqsa
As a proud donor to the Aqsa fund, I will not let anyone leave her unremembered, nor her memory and example deliberately erased, because we’re afraid of confronting a death-dealing religion– and some of its societies– with the higher and better claims of the West.
Even if we’re not directly related, we are connected by our common humanity, and our Canadian citizenship:, and the moral claim of the hurt or helpless on all of us. So I am honoured to call this discarded young woman a sister, if her own family would rather have her forgotten and her memory neglected, for the ’shameful’ attitudes they judged to be dishonourable to their religion and homeland norms. So back in the day, I referred to Afghan Christian refugee Abdul Rahman as my B-FAM– ‘Brother From Another Mother’– for the same reason, plus he’s a Christian, and thus my brother in the Lord.
Decisions, Decisions
So either Aqsa is our sister, or we’re in on the murder and coverup. It’s part of being a morally-aware and awake person. The moral claims of the mere existence of ‘another-such-as-I’ lay hold upon me, and if I should shrug that duty off, I shrug off my very humanity, and that for which 3500 years of religion, philosophy, and law has prepared me to be.
Feminists might claim her as a sister– only if he has the right opinions. They’re sad liberal tribalists anyway.
I am– at least according to the gutless, soulless, witless commandments of political correctness– a sh*t-disturber.
