Another day, another honor killing. What should we do about it?

In Peshawar, Pakistan, two brothers murder their sister for singing on television. Below is a story in the Times of India (see Jihad Watch for more). But, hey, we already have the solution to this terrible problem, provided by Charles Jacobs in his speech that was read at Sunday’s Human Rights Coalition against Radical Islam rally at Times Square (discussed here). Let’s take all the Muslims in the world, minus the “radicals,” i.e., minus the Taliban, al Qaeda, the Muslim Brotherhood, Hamas, the Iranian mullahs, and a few other groups, let’s take all the approximately one billion non-radical Muslims and bring them to America!

I’m not exaggerating. That’s what Jacobs clearly implied, when he said that all victims of radical Islam and all people who are threatened by radical Islam (which would mean in practice all potential victims of radical Islam, which would include all non-radical Muslims) should gather in America:

So how can America defeat this barbarism? By being what America has been—a pluralist society … only here can all of the victims of jihad, all those … threatened by jihad, and even those who might have been tempted by the supremacist visions of Jihad, instead join in a brotherhood and sisterhood of freedom.

Further, based on a statement by Robert Spencer, he ought to be right in line with Jacobs’s idea. In May last year Spencer urged that a Muslim woman, Alima Traore, who was seeking asylum in the U.S. to escape from an arranged marriage in Mali, “should be granted asylum at once.” As I pointed out at the time, if Spencer’s position in this case were applied generally, tens or hundreds of millions of girls and women in the Islamic world would instantly get a free ticket to the U.S. And that’s not the end of it. The larger principle implied in Spencer’s comment is that that all victims of Islam should be given refuge in the U.S., thus putting Spencer in line with Charles Jacobs. If Spencer doesn’t believe that all victims of Islam should be given refuge in the U.S., why did he think that Alima Traore should be given refuge? How is she different from anyone else? Doesn’t Spencer believe, as he often says, in the equal dignity of all human beings? How then can we equally protect the equal dignity of all human beings other than by providing asylum equally to all victims of Islam worldwide?

Of course, Spencer has never proposed such an insane policy. But, as I’ve shown, he has stated the principle of such a policy. If he doesn’t believe in that principle, then he ought to make that clear.

Here is the Times of India article:

LONDON: Ashamed of her growing popularity, two brothers allegedly shot dead their singer sister in Peshawar last week for performing on television.

The murder of Ayman Udas, who was in her early thirties, has shocked the city’s cultural community as it symbolises a backlash against women and cultural freedom in an area that is increasingly dominated by Islamic fundamentalists, ‘The Sunday Times’ reported on Sunday.

Udas sang and wrote compositions in her native Pashto language, spoken in the tribal areas and the North-West Frontier province, she also frequently performed on PTV, the state-run channel.

Despite Udas’s popularity her family felt it was sinful for women performing on television and strongly opposed her….

The final song performed by Udas on screen seems to have portended her death. It was entitled, “I died but still live among the living, because I live on in the dreams of my lover.”

A divorced mother of two, Udas had remarried ten days before she was murdered.

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Mark P. writes:

This drives me insane.

It is proof beyond a shadow of a doubt that the war on terror that Republicans keep backing to no end, is just another liberal social program. Who cares how Islam treats their own women and girls? Why is this a cause celebre among right-wing Republican beta males? What is the point?

If Pakistani men want to off their own women for some real or perceived dishonor against their families, then let them. Why waste time and energy on these people?

Half the time I hope this economic crisis impoverishes America to the point where such silly social programs are completely abandoned.

LA replies:

Mark expresses a callous indifference to human suffering that I do not approve of and do not share. Yet his substantive point at to policy remains valid. It is not within our power to alter the deep-seated belief systems and customs of a billion people. It is insane for us to try. We must strengthen and secure the part of the world that does come within our power, which is our own society. Also, I believe that if we bring our societies into order, there will be more order in the world generally, including in the world of Islam.

Posted by Lawrence Auster at May 05, 2009 03:40 PM | Send