A Sad Tale of Radical Islam

In an earlier post I reflected upon some of the challenges faced by Islam at present. This article presents an example of such a challenge.

Muslims bullying women into suicide to restore 'honor'

Imagine that a teenage boy walks up behind his sister, points a loaded gun at her head and pulls the trigger. This "honor killing" is carried out in conservative Muslim enclaves that are bound to draconian beliefs. Sometimes, the woman's "offense" is dating the wrong person or behaving in too Western a way. Killing her is seen as a way to restore a family's honor.According to the United Nations, about 5,000 honor killings take place each year, most of them in the Middle East.

But alternative ways are being found to restore "honor" that keeps everyone out of jail. Instead of offering up their sons as killers, family members bully the dishonored girls into killing themselves.The U.N. reports that 36 women in Turkey have killed themselves for family honor so far this year. The deaths are called "virgin suicides."

Hostility towards women that is found among radical Islamists is odd to me, as the Quran is not especially misogynistic in and of itself. But there have developed cultural religious traditions that allow women to be treated so terribly in some sections of the Muslim world.

Just as I refered to some of the challenges faced by Christianity in earlier posts today (here and here), Muslims need to meet these challenges head on, and overcome them. As I said of Christians earlier, if all Muslims can learn to treat one another with love, then love between people of different faiths has a chance to grow- and bring peace with it.

GP