Playing the Indian Card

Sunday, July 26, 2009

Gananoque Pool Deaths

I am very sad to read, way over here in Plovdiv, Bulgaria, of the death of three women in a pool in a hotel in my home town, Gananoque, Ontario. I am even sadder to read allegations on the Web that their deaths might have been "honour killings." This strikes me as a simple, gross case of anti-Muslim prejudice (the women were Muslim, and apparently immigrants).

I am not saying there are no such things as "honour killings"; but they are rare, as wrong in Islam as anywhere else, and more likely to involve the killing of a man than a woman. It is prejudice to suspect an "honour killing" whenever a Muslim woman dies.

And particularly in this case: the dead were, respectively, an 11-year old, a 14-year old, and their 43-year-old mother. Can anyone seriously think up a scenario in which their family's "honour" might call for their deaths? I suppose they were all simultaneously having secret affairs with men to whom they were not married?

Please... such thoughts defame the dead.

None of them knew how to swim. The pool was unsupervised. Suppose one fell in. What would the other two, instinctively, do?

News bulletin: Muslims are human, very much like us, and love their children.

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