No Honor at U. of Arkansas

The King Fahd Center for Middle East Studies is an academic and research unit in the J. William Fulbright College of Arts and Sciences at the University of Arkansas, dedicated to the study of the modern Middle East and the geo-cultural area in which Islamic civilization prospered and continues to shape world history. 

It had planned a conference on 'honorcide', the Islamic cultural blight known as 'honor killings':

You'll notice that Phyllis Chesler's name is included.

But she won't be speaking.

I have been informed* that three professors protested her inclusion, a Muslim student had 'promised' there would be Muslim group protests and trouble and that there were shattered windows at the Middle East Studies Center and at the current Director's home. Police came.

Seems the center got cold feet and caved in to the newest edition of fascist storm-troopers.

Phyllis was designated an "Islamophobe". And disinvited.

The death of free speech, free thought, and intellectual diversity at yet another campus, the University of Arkansas Law School?

Oh, BTW, sometimes Phyllis has suffered similarly from Jews.

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UPDATE

Official.  Prof. Chesler is off:

SECOND UPDATE

It was suggested to check online police reports for both the campus police and Fayetteville PD.  

I was informed that on April 8th, at 18:59, the Fayetteville Police Department has a “Code 7” on the street where the head of the Center resides.  Code 7 means “out of service for a meal break.”  However, at that street, there is no place to eat unless one has brought take-out. And why there of all places?

Since January 1, no police calls are registered in this neighbiohood.  Why would cops take a break there?

Could that be linked to a broken-window call at the home of the Center's director?

Seems to be no campus police report on broken windows.

Has there been a hush-up?

__________________

*

Please read this academic analysis which includes observations of the letter that got Prof. Chesler disinvited such as it was

stupefying polemic, its craven reasoning, and its complete disregard for academic integrity. 

and

The flabbiness of the thinking, the mechanical application of polemically defined definitional terms, the dogmatic assertions of closed positions, all reflect a tremendous decline in academic standards. No wonder there’s dissentophobia at King Fahd’s Center: anyone speaking intelligently would undermine the credibility of the credulous.

_________________________

Prof. Phyllis has now written about her experience here.

And she mentions Prof. Ted Swedenburg of whom I found this self-admission:

"One of the first days after I had moved to Nablus, in November 1984, I had an experience that has now become a daily routine for Israeli settlers in the West Bank. I was driving downtown, when suddenly, bam! the car shook under the impact of a heavy blow to its side. A Palestinian youth, whom I never saw, had darted out of an alley, hurled a large stone, and rapidly vanished. He only man-aged, luckily, to put a large dent above my gas cap and did not break the wind-shield, the usual goal of hurled stones. I guess he singled out my car as a target from all the others on that busy street because its yellow license plates and my appearance led him to believe I was an Israeli settler. (As the holder of a tourist visa, I had to register my car in Israeli-annexed East Jerusalem, so its yellow plates stood out amidst the distinctive blue-plated vehicles driven by West Bank Palestinians.) I was so shaken that I was ready to give up fieldwork and go straight home. My immediate thought was that I, of all people, should never have been stoned. After all, unlike those other Westerners one saw in the West Bank-the settlers, tourists, and embassy officials - I was a good foreigner, working in the best interests of the Palestinians. My response was typical of a mentality I shared with other Westerners who worked as teachers, journalists, or researchers in the occupied territories and sympathized with the Palestinians...We "good foreigners" practiced constant rituals of self-purification, designed to guarantee that we-unlike the settlers, tourists, and diplomats-were partof the Palestinian community. We spoke Arabic, dressed modestly (no shorts, low-cut blouses or wild haircuts), avoided tourist haunts, rarely ventured into Israel proper and, whenever possible, purchased Palestinian rather than Israeli products. We were often more obsessive about these latter practices than our Palestinian friends. My point is not that these actions were incorrect, but that in so much as they demonstrated our radical difference from "other" Westerners, they allowed us to disavow our real connections to the centers of power." 

_________________

And a new one here:

SHARIA, ARKANSAS STYLE
A low block by the Razorbacks.

and a protest letter here.


Now, Daily Caller.

By  Eileen F. Toplansky.

^

Any Jews There?

In an article on honorcide, or 'honor killing', in Jordan, interesting in itself, I caught this:

With a population dominated by Sunni Muslims (92 percent) and Arabs (98 percent),  

98%?

Any Jews in that remaining 2%?

Just kidding.

Here:
 

Jordan warns Israelis not to visit wearing ‘Jew clothes’
Tourism ministry in Amman wary of unfriendly reactions to Jewish dress or rituals in public places

Here:

Jewish Tourists Stoned in Jordan over 'Provocative Hats'
Arabic websites say religious Jewish visitors to Kerak were attacked with shoes and rocks.

And finally, here:

...[in] the US's Department of State...2006 International Religious Freedom Report, they had this to say:

    The Government recognizes Judaism as a religion; however there are reportedly no Jordanian citizens who are Jewish. The Government does not impose restrictions on Jews, and they are permitted to own property and conduct business in the country.

So that the claim is a plain and simple lie..Jordan's Nationality Law includes the following clauses (Article 3):
    The following shall be deemed to be Jordanian nationals:

    (1)Any person who has acquired Jordanian nationality or a Jordanian passport under the Jordanian Nationality Law, 1928, as amended, Law No. 6 of 1954 or this Law;

    (2)Any person who, not being Jewish, possessed Palestinian nationality before 15 May 1948 and was a regular resident in the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan between 20 December 1949 and 16 February 1954;

    (3)Any person whose father holds Jordanian nationality; (...)

And Israel signed a peace treaty with the apartheid Jew-hating country.


As for the murder of women to protect/preserve family honor, there's this there:

Jordan has been witness to a semantic battlefield associating honor crimes with Islam and tribal culture, two widely recognized components of Jordanian identity. In Jordan, however, there is a slowly emerging attempt to sever the perceived connection between national culture and the killing of women. This effort has come from above and below, with the Hashemite monarchy and grassroots organizations pushing for the abolishment of Article 340 from the Jordanian Penal Code, which offers excused or reduced punishment to male perpetrators of honor crimes.

^

Women United Against Abbas

Is there a group like that?

Are Western feminist activists united so?

What do you think?

Reported:--

Abbas: No plans to outlaw honor killing

By Soraya Al-Ghussein and Hannah Patchett

RAMALLAH (Ma’an) – President Mahmoud Abbas has no plans to amend laws that reduce sentences for suspects who claim an “honor” defense for murdering women, his legal adviser says.“Why change it? This would cause serious problems,” Hassan al-Ouri told Ma’an, adding that such a reform would “not benefit women.”

In May 2011, the president pledged to amend the law to guarantee maximum penalties for “honor killing” in response to protests over the killing of university student Aya Baradiya in Hebron....Al-Ouri says the president will not change the go-to clauses for lawyers seeking leniency for clients who claim they committed murder to defend family “honor.”...What we need is a new culture,” al-Ouri said.

Other officials insist the penal code is the problem.The law “privileges the killer,” Interior Ministry official Haitham Arrar told Ma’an.“It encourages some people to commit crimes against women, which will go (as far as) killing them,” said Arrar, who heads the ministry’s democracy and human rights unit.Abbas fears ‘conservative forces’

^

Was This A Self-Inflcited 'Honorcide'?

This:-

DUBAI // A woman who thought she was pregnant to her sister's husband overdosed on painkillers, a court heard this week.

OS took a home pregnancy test in October and told her sister about the affair when it showed positive. The two fought and she decided to take an overdose.

"I wanted to end my life and that of the baby after my sister found out," said OS, 25, from Pakistan.

She began to bleed and was taken to Dubai Hospital where she was told she was not pregnant.

^ 

On 'Palestinian Culture' and Murdered Women

As we read at the LATimes:

Four recent cases of Palestinian women slain allegedly at the hand of relatives have prompted women and human rights groups to demand tougher laws against domestic violence and more stringent enforcement...Women carried placards reading "No to murder, yes to life" and "Shame on us Palestinians who kill our women."

The march, which followed other protests this week, was prompted by a slaying Monday on a busy street in Bethlehem. A 28-year-old woman was stabbed several times in the chest and her throat was slashed while people stood by and watched. She later died at a hospital. Her 33-year-old husband is in custody...activists said that the Palestinian territories' laws against domestic violence are too lax...According to Palestinian human rights groups, 29 women in the West Bank were the victims of such killings by a relative from 2007 to 2010.

But wait, what happened last year?

A 20-year-old Palestinian woman who was thrown into a well and left to die in the name of "family honor" has not become just another statistic in one of the Middle East's most shameful practices. The killing of Aya Baradiya – by an uncle who didn't like a potential suitor – sparked such outrage that Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas scrapped laws this week that guaranteed sentences of six months or less for such killings.

And a few months before, there was this report:

President Mahmoud Abbas signed into law two articles by presidential decree eliminating laws allowing leniency for civilians found guilty of assault or murder "in defense of family honor."  The move, welcomed by women's rights activists, came in the wake of the grisly discovery of a Hebron woman drowned by her uncle because he disagreed with her choice of fiancee.

What type of culture is tolerant of "honor killing" and what culture of regime doesn't get moving on this matter?

And they still seek to blame Romney?  Well, he defended himself:

In the essay, “Culture Does Matter," Romney reiterated some salient points of his speech to supporters at a fundraiser in Jerusalem. “During my recent trip to Israel,” wrote the presumptive GOP presidential nominee, “I had suggested that the choices a society makes about its culture play a role in creating prosperity, and that the significant disparity between Israeli and Palestinian living standards was powerfully influenced by it. In some quarters, that comment became the subject of controversy. But what exactly accounts for prosperity if not culture?”

How language laundering works in this. And this is interesting as it deals with "Palestinian society";

by understanding the socio-cultural and political context within which disclosure or non-disclosure of sexual abuse takes place, we are better able to develop an analytical framework that might shape culturally sensitive social policy towards sexual abuse and thereby reduce it.

^

Does 943 Mean Anything To You? Or 791?

From here

At least 943 Pakistani women and girls were murdered last year for allegedly defaming their family’s honor, the country’s leading human rights group said Thursday.

The statistics highlight the growing scale of violence suffered by many women in conservative Muslim Pakistan, where they are frequently treated as second-class citizens and there is no law against domestic violence.

Despite progress on better protecting women’s rights, activists say the government needs to do more to prosecute murderers in cases largely dismissed by police as private, family affairs.

“At least 943 women were killed in the name of honor, of which 93 were minors,” wrote the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan in its annual report.

Seven Christian and two Hindu women were among the victims, it said.

The Commission reported 791 “honor killings” in 2010.

Does anyone know how many were killed in the Palestinian Authority? *

In June 2011, Abbas said one thing, but as of this past February, nothing:

The Palestinian Women's Movement is awaiting the implementation of the reconciliation deal between Hamas and Fatah, which will pave the way for a legitimate parliament to approve the long-awaited legislation which abolishes the legal clauses that allow crimes of honour.

In an interview with Gulf News, Rawdah Baseer..."We resent those two clauses which led to the death of many innocent women in our land," she said.

That surely is a human rights concern.



_______
*
"An average of 12 women are killed annually in the Palestinian Territories on honour grounds," has said Rawdah Baseer, an activist of the Palestinian Feminist Movement and head of the Palestinian Women's Studies Centre.
^

Would This, in Hebrew, Go Over Well in Israel?

- - -

That's the Arab Middle East, Sir John

I think Jesus was a compassionate, super-intelligent gay man who understood human problems,' he told American magazine Parade in an interview due to be published on Sunday.

'On the cross, he forgave the people who crucified him. Jesus wanted us to be loving and forgiving.

'I don’t know what makes people so cruel. Try being a gay woman in the Middle East – you’re as good as dead.'

That was Elton John.

I won't go theological on Jesus' sexual orientation.

But death for sexual activities is an Arab/Islamic normative phenomenon in the Middle East. Honorcide, etc.

So much so that women are grateful (!) for being punished, it seems:

THE first Malaysian women to be caned under Islamic law for having illicit sex have reportedly said they regretted their actions and welcomed the punishment.

The three women, whose identities were not revealed, gave the first account of the caning which took place earlier this month, drawing condemnation from human rights activists and applause from some Muslim groups.

"On the day I was caned, I was scared but, at the same time, I knew I deserved it and was willing to take the punishment," said one of the women, a 25-year-old who went by the name of "Ayu".

Good for Nathan Bloom; Bad for Nicholas Kristof

A letter-to-the-editor:

Nicholas D. Kristof’s column about how religions often perpetuate the oppression of women doesn’t mention one of the most egregious examples of this oppression: the practice of honor killing.

The United Nations Population Fund estimates that 5,000 women are killed each year, many in horrific ways, for “dishonoring” their families.

While the link between honor killings and religious faith is not always clear, these crimes are overwhelmingly Muslim-on-Muslim ones.

In 2007, to take one example, Aqsa Parvez, 16, was murdered in Toronto by her father because she refused to wear a hijab.

Some religious leaders have stated explicitly that Islam condones the practice. The point here is not to attack any one religion per se, but to face hard truths about how religions can fall short of their own ethical standards. Mr. Kristof’s column leads the way in showing how this can be done with both sternness and sensitivity.

Nathan Bloom
New York

Kristof also drops this in passem:

An Orthodox Jewish prayer thanks God, “who hast not made me a woman.”

So, see this

and this

and this explanation:

MEN THANK "SHE-LO ASANI ISHA" ("WHO HAS NOT MADE ME A WOMAN"), WOMEN THANK "SHE-ASANI KI-RETZONO" ("WHO HAS MADE ME ACCORDING TO HIS WILL")

The benediction customarily recited by women is truly a "women's berakha." It is a women's berakha because it was instituted by women themselves (the Rishonim indicate that it was NOT formulated by a man on women's behalf), and it is a women's berakha because it gives expression to a way of looking at the world which is characteristic of women.

In contrast to women, men tend to view and define things in a more analytic, negative, numerical way. Their characteristic mode of SELF-definition follows from this perspective, and is expressed in the form and content of the men's benediction: it is analytic (separating humankind into its two distinct sexes), negative (who has NOT made me a woman), numerical (the order of blessings is based on a numerical ordering of who is obligated in the most commandments, namely, slaves more than Gentiles, women more than slaves).

Women, on the other hand, tend to a more inclusive, positive, and holistic point of view. The blessing which they adopted to thank God for their unique status reflects this: it is inclusive (since men are also created, in their own way, according to His will), positive (Who HAS MADE me, as opposed to the men's berakha "who has not made me") and holistic (a general statement that women are made according to His will, not a quantitative measure of this fact).

Guilty of Honorcide

Father found guilty of honour killing of daughter, 15, after she fell in love with man from different branch of Islam

Mehmet Goren murdered 15-year-old Tulay for her doomed 'Romeo and Juliet' romance with Halil Una, an older man from a different branch of Islam.

After the teenager lost her virginity to her lover she was viewed as a 'valueless commodity' by her father - and had to be killed to restore the family's reputation.

Mr Unal was a Turkish Sunni Muslim but the Gorens were from the Alevi branch of the faith and an Alevi-Sunni relationship 'would not have been tolerated', the Old Bailey heard...Goren planned the murder of his daughter with 'considerable care', even forcing her to write a letter relating a false account of what had happened to her to try to throw police off the scent.

Goren disposed of the schoolgirl's body 'with such ingenuity that it has never been found', he added...The term "honour killing" is a convenient shorthand, but it is a grotesque distortion of language. 'There is nothing honourable about such a hideous practice or the people who carry it out.'

The judge made clear Goren would not be eligible for parole until 2030, when he will be nearly 70.

Read more at.

Honorcide List

In the areas of the Palestinian Authority.

The list of women killed by family members to "protect family honor".

It Wasn't The Cat That Got His Tongue

Nope.

From the London Times:

A young Muslim woman has been warned by police that her life is in danger after a male friend lost his tongue in an alleged assault using acid in an apparent “honour attack”.

The Asian man is in a serious but stable condition in hospital after an incident in Leytonstone, East London, three weeks ago. Sulphuric acid is said to have been thrown in his face and he was stabbed twice in the back.

The 24-year-old, being treated in a specialist unit in Essex, is now blind, his tongue has been destroyed and he suffered 90 per cent burns.

The woman, who claims the relationship is an innocent friendship, and the man live in the Asian community of East London, where their relationship is said to have upset her family for bringing dishonour on them.

Scotland Yard have issued what is known as an “Osman warning” — telling the woman that there is a threat to her life.

This is really very sick.

Galia, Where Are You?

For a few months I had had a frequent visitor and commenter, one Galia, a Russian-born Christian married to a Muslim Arab from the area once known as the "Palestine Mandate".

She's dropped off.

Anyway, one of the hot issues we debated was honor killings.

I found this and wanted to congratulate the progressive forces of pro-feminism:

Syria has scrapped a law limiting the length of sentences handed down to men convicted of killing female relatives they suspect of having illicit sex.

Women's groups had long demanded that Article 548 be scrapped, arguing it decriminalised "honour" killings. Activists say some 200 women are killed each year in honour cases by men who expect lenient treatment under the law.

The new law replaces the existing maximum sentence of one year in jail with a minimum jail term of two years.

It's not perfect, for:

The new law says a man can still benefit from extenuating circumstances in crimes of passion or honour "provided he serves a prison term of no less than two years in the case of killing". The legislation covers any man who "unintentionally" kills his wife, sister, daughter or mother after catching her committing adultery or having unlawful sex. It also covers cases where the woman's lover is killed.

Reports say women's rights activists have given a cautious welcome to the change, with one group calling it a "small contribution to solving the problem". Their objection remains, however, that the new law still apparently invites men to murder women if they catch them having sex or suspect them of doing so.

but better than nothing.

One More And It's 100

100?

Elder is counting.

Always A Good Message

More Honor Killings

1.

A resident of Beit J'an and warden in the Israel Prison Service is suspected of killing his daughter by shooting her in the head. The man brought the daughter's body to a police station in Carmiel himself. According to witnesses, he gave a police officer his handgun and proclaimed: "I shot my daughter."

The man was immediately arrested and interrogated. The preliminary investigation revealed that the murder may have been carried out as an honor killing.

-----

2.

In Muslim Culture, Honor Killings Not Out of Date

...James Emery, a journalist who has researched honor killings extensively, writes that “In the feudal, patriarchal societies of the Middle East, honor is based on what men feel is important, and reputation is everything.” Emery says that several thousand women are victims of honor killings each year. But he adds that “numerous murders are ruled an accident, suicide, or family dispute, if they're reported at all.”

The United Nations estimates that over 5,000 women a year are killed for “honor.” These killings happen all over the world – throughout the Middle East, Africa, Asia, Europe and even North America.

...Human Rights Watch defines honor killing as “acts of violence, usually murder, committed by male family members against female family members, who are held to have brought dishonor upon the family.” The organizations says that “A woman can be targeted by [individuals within] her family for a variety of reasons, including: refusing to enter into an arranged marriage, being the victim of a sexual assault, seeking a divorce—even from an abusive husband—or (allegedly) committing adultery. The mere perception that a woman has behaved in a way that "dishonors" her family is sufficient to trigger an attack on her life.”...

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3.

Number of Honor Killings in Europe Higher Than Thought

A report compiled by the Council of Europe warns that the killings of women by family members to protect their so-called honor is far more extensive in Europe than previously believed...

"Here in Turkey the figures for 2007 show that over 200 women were killed here in the name of family or community honor, and that is frankly unacceptable in a modern Europe," Austin said. "And it's just the tip of the iceberg: In the United Kingdom; in Germany; in Belgium; in France; in Norway, there is evidence of honor crimes and honor killings."

On Honorcide in Turkey

Details here.

Episode 2.

Episode 3.

Is This Islamic Sex Abuse?

I have dealt with the topic of "honorcide" (honor killings) and other forms of cultural and religious-based sexual abuse of the females within Islamic society, which I consider rather unique than plain criminal sexual abuse.

Found something new, well, for me:

...a group of Saudi women — sick of having to deal with male sales staff when buying bras or panties, not to mention frilly negligees or thongs — have begun a campaign this week to boycott lingerie stores until they employ women.

It is an irony of the kingdom's strict segregation of the sexes. Only men are employed as sales staff to keep women from having to deal with male customers or work around men.

But in lingerie stores, that means men are talking to women about bras or thongs, looking them up and down to determine their cup sizes, even rubbing the underwear to show how stains can be washed out.

The result is mortifying for everyone — shoppers, salesmen, even the male relatives who accompany the women.

I am sure they'll find a solution.

I mean it can't be that this is just a prelude to the "72 virgins" shtik.


P.S. In Syria, it's, er, handled differently.

New Terms: Islamic Gender Apartheid & Honorcide

Phyllis Chesler and Marcia Pappas have published an article that demands:

- an end to the brutality of Islamic gender apartheid

and

- deplores the politics of racism among the feminist intelligentsia

The lead-in:

It is time for feminists, both women and men, of all faiths, and of no faith, to stand together for a woman’s right not to be murdered in the name of family honor. Indeed, we welcome men and women of all faiths, including Islam, to stand with us against female genital mutilation/castration, forced veiling, child marriage, arranged marriage, polygamy, and “honorcide,” and in favor of a woman’s right to live as a westerner in the West without being threatened and beaten for refusing to wear hijab, wanting to have non-Muslim friends, wear makeup, attend college, drive her own car, or end an abusive marriage. Muslim and Sikh women have been honor murdered in North America for all these alleged crimes against their religion and their culture.