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Originally Posted by Azure
I understand your point, but such things have been largely pin-pointed on Muslims because they seem to dominate the news so much.
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No one has said the bulk of such killings aren't Muslim related.
I merely pointed out its not an exclusive Muslim practice.
As an example, from a 2003 BBC story:
Scotland Yard believe there were 12 'honour killings' in the UK last year and said they were not restricted to Muslims, but also occurred in Sikh and Christian families.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/e...on/3149030.stm
A Sikh example:
http://news.scotsman.com/topics.cfm?...&id=1400142004
And we have to be careful at defining the practice too closely:
In India, for example, more than 5,000 brides die annually because their dowries are considered insufficient, according to the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF). Crimes of passion, which are treated extremely leniently in Latin America, are the same thing with a different name, some rights advocates say.
"In countries where Islam is practiced, they're called honor killings, but dowry deaths and so-called crimes of passion have a similar dynamic in that the women are killed by male family members and the crimes are perceived as excusable or understandable," said Widney Brown, advocacy director for Human Rights Watch.
The practice, she said, "goes across cultures and across religions."
Complicity by other women in the family and the community strengthens the concept of women as property and the perception that violence against family members is a family and not a judicial issue.
"Females in the family—mothers, mothers-in-law, sisters, and cousins—frequently support the attacks. It's a community mentality," said Zaynab Nawaz, a program assistant for women's human rights at Amnesty International.
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/n...orkilling.html
Cowperson