Increasingly the age of Ataturk (separation of mosque and state) is but an historical blip.
With the Islamists’ Rise to Power, Turkey Became the World’s Leading Hotspot of Honour Killings M. Khan (hat tip David W)
To educated Muslims, honor killing has nothing to do with Islam and Turkey is the only "role model" Islamic country, because in all other Muslim countries, honor killing occurs. Unfortunately, after the Islamists came to power in 2002 and opened the gates of gradual Islamization of Turkey, after 8 decades of strict secular rule, Turkey has risen to be the world's "number one honor killing country", with a killing rate 5 times higher than that of Pakistan, known to be notorious for honor killing.
The Quran and hadiths prohibit adultery, apostasy, fornication, and homosexuality etc. And Muslim societies, since the days of Prophet Muhammad, have punished such offenders, normally by killing them, in perfect harmony with sanctions of the Quran, Sunnah and the Sharia.
In civilized societies, these are not deemed crimes, because those actions do not directly harm another person, whatsoever. The rationale for punishing such offenders in Muslim societies (and in some others) has been that adultery brings shame to the husband and to the offender’s family; apostasy from Islam insults to the Islamic faith or to the Muslim community; etc. And to wipe out such shame and insult, the offenders are killed, generally by family members – frequently the father, brothers and husband, with the mother and sisters often joining in.
Stoning to death, lashing (which frequently leads to death), shooting to death and mob-lynching are common methods of honor violence. The victims are even buried alive in some cases. In countries like Pakistan, Afghanistan and Bangladesh, those targeted for honor violence by husbands and jilted male lovers are frequently burned and disfigured by throwing acids at them.
With Muslim immigrants, the tradition of killing such offenders also came to the West. Muslim immigrants have committed such extra-judicially killings in countries of Europe, America, Canada, and Australia in recent years. Authorities in Western countries have long ignored such killings, which Muslim communities have often passed on as suicides. As the Muslim populations swelled in the West with increasing religiosity, frequency of such extra-judicial killings in Muslim communities also increased to such an extent that authorities could not ignore those killings any more. And adamant against linking any negativity to the religion of Islam, they coined the term "honor killing" to classify this brand of grievous crimes as something cultural.
Islamic countries, under pressure to observe the rule of law and human rights of their citizens from the UN and Western countries in recent decades, also cannot pass on such extra-judicial killings as a part of their religious affair or as their societal norm any more. So, Human Rights Organizations, more watchful than ever of the violations of human rights around the world, also record and classify these extra-judicial murders as honor killing.
Honor killing doesn’t occur in Islamic societies alone. Some 15,000 individuals, mostly women, are honor-killed worldwide every year. And nearly 90% of them occur in Muslim communities. Since Muslims constitute about 20% of the world population, they are 40-45 times more prone to honor killing than non-Muslims.
Pakistan, Afghanistan, Jordan, Syria, and other Arab Islamic countries are the leading hotspots of honor-killings in the Muslim world. Recently disposed dead-bodies of a 15-year-old boy and 12-year-old girl, burned with acid, were recovered from a wasteland in the Ghazni province of Afghanistan. The young couple – apparently lovers – were suspected of being killed in honor violence, because the deeply religious Afghan society does not approve romantic relationships between unmarried men and women in consonance with the Quran’s prohibition of fornication. When this story was posted in islam-watch.org, Muslims quickly attempted to distance the religion of Islam from the horrible crime. One reader commented:
"There is nothing like this behavior that is condoned in Islam and to try and insinuate such is a crime itself, and shameful. Maybe if the parents did their job bring up their kids they would not have ventured down that path, but the parents themselves are obviously disturbed individuals who should be punished by the law."
See how these deceptive Muslims contradict nakedly. He claims that Islam doesn’t approve the punishment, and immediately he says, it’s a punishable crime, but the young couple’s parents should have been punished, not them. He does not only contradict himself, he also wants to play God over Allah, who commands punishment to fornicators themselves, not their parent.
Yet other Muslims, to distance Islam from such barbaric crimes, would say "Afghanistan is hardly the "role model" [Islamic country]."
And if you ask back, which is a "role model" Islamic country, they will answer: "Turkey", with the addendum: "Even though it’s secular but Muslim none the less!"
