Who mourns for Aqsa Parvez?
I'll give you a hint... it ain't the local "Muslim community"...
Her death struck a nerve with a local fire chief and councillor in a community they say represents "small-town Canadian values."But enough about the decent workaday folk of Pelham, Ontario... let's hear from the Canadian Council of Muslim Women...
"I have some difficulty with what they are trying to say in the inscription. Maybe they are trying to raise questions but I'm not quite sure the inscription reflects her death."Reflects? Seriously?
Heck, we don't need a reflection, do we? How about it, Alia... do you have any difficulty with this?
Peel police said at the time of her death that her father called 911 and confessed to strangling his youngest daughter in their Mississauga home that morning.A word of advice to Islamic community spokespersons & associations... trotting out the venerable "all the other guys are doing it" defense... well, that just might not be your best move here.
•
14 comments:
Your utter contempt for Muslims makes me wonder you continue to endorse the deaths of Canadians in Afghan fighting to liberate a people you hate.
*
"another anonymous troll plays the race card... utter contempt for Muslims"
funny... you gomers never dispute me on the facts... it's always simply all about racism.
and the job our brave military is doing in afghanistan... trying to pull an often violent, misogynistic medieval theocracy into the modern democratic field of folk... is an incredibly valuable struggle.
funny though, nonnybot... not a single word from you about the actual victim here... aqsa parvez.
'cos that's how you guys roll... isn't it?
*
Alia Hogben, executive director of the Canadian Council of Muslim Women, is happy that a town is remembering Parvez. "But I have some difficulty with what they are trying to say in the inscription. Maybe they are trying to raise questions but I'm not quite sure (the inscription) reflects her death."
Parvez's death remains tragic for a number of reasons, said Hogben. "It shows violence against women and girls in all cultures and it also shows the problems and difficulties that occur in recently arrived immigrant families."
Your faux sympathy for the needless death of this young woman at the hands of madmen is despicable. You cherry pick from the article and omit the parts that don't suit your hateful message.
If this post isn't about hatred, why do you label it under "all aboard the crazy train" and "the religion of peace"? You don't honestly expect me to believe that you care about the well-being of a group of people you consider to be backwards and crazy?
Perhaps you can tell me honestly why you support the war in Afghan? You hate the people, that's obvious. I think you're willing to sacrifice as many Canadian lives as needed as long as many Afghans as possible are murdered (civilian or otherwise). You hide behind the dead bodies of Canadian soldiers. You are a disgrace.
-Janet Whitelock,Toronto
I very much doubt the "local 'Muslim community'" does not mourn her death. Muslim organizations and individuals widely denounced it.
As for the spokesperson's words... Even when you abridge the article to remove the preceding sentence (noted by the previous commenter), it isn't as bad as you suggest.
"But I have some difficulty with what they are trying to say in the inscription. Maybe they are trying to raise questions but I'm not quite sure (the inscription) reflects her death."
The inscription suggests that her particular struggle was more political/universal than perhaps it was. It seemed much more particular/personal. She was not, as I recall, an "activist". And there is absolutely nothing wrong with that. Her murder seemed to be more of a private father/daughter thing... which happens frequently, (too frequently), in non-Muslim contexts as well.
That she was, in a sense, trying to "integrate" two cultures in her own life makes the inscription plausible... but not necessarily as accurate as it could be. And the fact that other people known for anti-islamist views were raising money for a gravestone of some sort suggests motives that are not entirely apolitical.
Also, was she a "new Canadian"? I thought she was born here... Though I've never heard the term "new Canadian" defined.
Anyway. I think that's what Alia Hogben was referring to. At least, that's how I interpreted it. But when it comes to "devil's advocate" thinking... my mind has a generous legal aid program.
*
To even begin to convince me that Islam is what you say and suggest it is on a regular basis, you would need to show me convincing evidence of Islam being worse than any other religion, e.g., Christianity (and we should probably include people who emerged from/live in a Christian context, such as myself the agnostic, or yourself [I assume] the atheist).
Men (often brothers, fathers, relatives, etc) assault women all the time. I think the focus on the treatment of Muslim women by Muslim men allows us to "project," in the [pseudo?]Freudian sense of the term.
Recall the "Afghan rape law"? "Against Canadian values", the PM said. Yes. But we easily forget that it was not against Canadian law until the 1980s.
Interestingly, a search for the word "rape" on the Toronto Sun Website reveals a list of rape stories... Most of them seem to be one story per incident. But the Afghan rape law thing comes up several times, all on its own.
http://search.torontosun.com/?sen=site&dom=torontosun&lang=en&ie=UTF-8&q=rape
It would be interesting to do a content analysis of various news papers, and to see how many incidents like Aqsa's happen, and how often they are reported on, and if there is any evidence of framing the issue in a particularly biased way.
Police reports would also be something to look at...
Whoops.
"m" should say "Anon1152".
Apologies to everyone involved.
*
"janet whitelock claims... Your faux sympathy for the needless death of this young woman at the hands of madmen is despicable."
your screechy accusation about my motives deliberately skirts the central fact that the death of this young woman was at the hands of her father & brother... a cultural artifact (aka honour killing) of too many islamic societies worldwide.
and it's beginning to show up in canada. for example, we could also revisit the grisly incident near kingston, ontario if you like.
as for the comment that "Muslim organizations and individuals widely denounced it"... i suggest that you read slower.
start with the 2nd link in my post.
and hey... let's ask people who actually knew aqsa personally...
"The friends and classmates of Aqsa, who aren't concerned with political correctness, have said without hesitation that Aqsa was abused and threatened at home because of the religious fanaticism of her family."
but janet... if anyone attempts to address any of this, they're automatically a card-carrying member of the kkk, right?
and again... not a word of sympathy for the murdered girl.
hmmm.
*
Neo wrote:
*
"as for the comment that "Muslim organizations and individuals widely denounced it"... i suggest that you read slower.
start with the 2nd link in my post.
and hey... let's ask people who actually knew aqsa personally...
"The friends and classmates of Aqsa, who aren't concerned with political correctness, have said without hesitation that Aqsa was abused and threatened at home because of the religious fanaticism of her family."
*
The quote from the article says what we know. Members of her family killed her, because of "religious fanaticism". It says nothing about muslim groups or individuals denouncing or not condoning the violence.
Plenty of examples are out there... Not sure if this is satisfying:
http://www.cair.com/ArticleDetails.aspx?ArticleID=23946&&name=n&&currPage=1&&Active=1
I did look at the articles you linked to. I think your choices are... not representative. One ways, if I recall, a quote from Elmasry. I assume when he was interviewed he said more than one sentence. Most statements from Muslim's I saw were along the lines of "That's horrible, my religion isn't like that".
Which is I think what most Christians or Atheists or Buddhists would say if a Christian or Atheist or Buddhist or whatever did something horrible, perhaps in the name of Christianity, Atheism, Buddhism, etc.
You interpret (part) of the Muslim response as "don't blame me, others do it too".
It can be read (I think more accurately) as: "that's horrible and repulsive and reprehensible, and that's now what we stand for, that person is not acting as one of us, whatever s/he says."
With white supremacist violence: We denounce it, even if it is done in our name, by people who look like us. And we'd say it a lot more if we were automatically implicated in it. (I know you may argue that we are... but I don't think so... not nearly as much or by nearly as many people as in other cases, e.g., Islam. The strength of your reaction to being implicated in the horribleness of others might be evidence of this...).
Either way, the sentiment behind the comments you seem to have a problem with (the "that's not our religion" comments) is, I suspect, similar to your reactions... leading to comments like:
*
"but janet... if anyone attempts to address any of this, they're automatically a card-carrying member of the kkk, right?"
*
I don't recall you denouncing the KKK here or white supremacist violence more generally. But you probably don't feel you need to, because you know what you and your friends/family etc are like (i.e., not crazy killers). Perhaps the same benefit of the doubt should be extended to others... Or to no one at all.
*
"anon1152 says... I don't recall you denouncing the KKK here or white supremacist violence more generally."
okay, i'll bite... i categorically denounce anyone associated with the kkk & white supremacist violence.
and i do believe there are voices of reason in the muslim community... just not enough of them...
"In my mind this was an honour killing," Tarek Fatah the founder of the Muslim Canadian Congress, says adamantly about what he calls a blight on Islam. Make no mistake, says Fatah: "This has happened before" and will again."
*
Thank you. [Though, for the record, I have seen you make similar denunciations in previous comments, and think the "racism" accusations are unfair (though I can see why some people might make them, without having read all of the few thousand posts you've left.... ok... not all... but enough. I have not read all of them. But I just got here)].
*
Though I would like to know more about him: based on the limited bits of information I've encountered (mostly by chance)... I like Tarek Fatah.
And the last thing we want to do is alienate someone like him... (or, more likely, alienating the larger group of people who fall somewhere in between him and Elmasry.
*
My close personal friend, Thomas Hobbes, is often misunderstood. I say that in case others out there have ideas about him... But one thing he wrote that sticks out for me:
"But for those that by Writing, or Publique Discourse, or by their eminent actions, have already engaged themselves to the maintaining of contrary opinions, they will not bee so easily satisfied. For in such cases, it is naturall for men, at one and the same time, both to proceeds in reading, and to lose their attention, in the search of objections to that they had read before..."
I want to be the best I can be at "proceed in reading" in pursuit of "objections"... But I worry about losing sight of the fact that there is often an entire book or many books, a whole body of work, from which I identify things that make my case... even though the whole body of work says something different... and that I might be misrepresenting it.
(Apologies. I just wrote/rewrote an essay on Thomas Hobbes and a couple of contemporary feminists, and am worried that I misrepresented them... though in general I admire their work...)
*
"anon1152 says... Though I would like to know more about him: based on the limited bits of information I've encountered (mostly by chance)... I like Tarek Fatah."
as i've said before, i'd be proud to have tarek fatah as my member of parliament.
he's also good pals with with noted conservative blogger darcey from dmb.
*
Small town values are that you judge people on what they do and say, not on what color they are or where the go to church.
I don't believe Neo has contempt for Muslims, just some actions by some of them, who then hide behind their faith.
*
"robins111 says... Small town values are that you judge people on what they do and say, not on what color they are or where the go to church."
words to live by.
*
We have three daughtters, and my husband would give his life for any one of them, not take it. This is the Canadian way. Forget euphanisims. Poor Aqsa died because too many of us 'white-bread' Canadians kept silence because of the work of the politically corrext brigade. Our resole must be to always speak out against such atrocities
I agree with most of what you said Frances; I also have two daughters and two granddaughters. As a father & grandfather I believe I would give my life before anything ever happened to them.
The truth is, Aqsa died because her father and brother couldn’t accept the fact that she wanted to be like her friends, and the family decided that this was shameful. Like it or not, they chose to destroy her because she was inconvenient.
I have always had a problem with the term ‘Honor Killings’ as it does not reflect the reason for the act, but attempt’s to give some sort of justification for these actions.
When white-bread Canadians try to focus light on these travesties, the media immediately attempts to portray them as racist, and/or will disregard the tone of the story to make it more acceptable for them.
I can tell you from bitter experience, that if a small town Canadian is disgusted by the actions of a killer and chooses to address it, the first response of the media is to deliberately misinterpret the story, and then to channel it into racism. Failing that, they will manipulate statements to cause dissent among the activists. I have come to the conclusion that any further interviews given will be videotaped by myself and made available to refute releases by the MSM.
The truth is, the definition of an honor killing, is when a member of the PPCLI, puts two rounds into a Taliban suicide bomber outside an elementary school.
Post a Comment