In fairness to the Muslim community of "Greater Toronto", and migrants from south Asia (and NOT because of M-103!) I feel obliged to pick up some loose ends and post something of a mea culpa for "Toronto-area honour killing (?) claims 4 family members", WWW 29/7/19.
I posted the first version of this story 48 hours ago, as the news broke. The only information that the York Region police were releasing was that four people had been killed in one house and that a young man had been arrested when he answered the door of the house. Nothing was said about the man's relationship, if any, to the victims. And there was nothing about the victims' identity, ethnicity, status in Canada or religion. But, since Markham ON is a "diverse" community -- the majority of Chinese ancestry, actually -- with a large immigrant population, Agent 78 checked Fairchild Radio to learn more. That was where we got the tip that the members of the household were south Asian. That was correct.
From the names and appearance of people -- former tenants of a basement apartment -- who spoke to the (((controlled media))), I jumped to the conclusion that the family were probably Muslim. A further clue was the name of the suspect who was arrested -- Menham Zaman. Although the "authorities" still haven't said as much -- M-103 is in effect! -- that inference appears also to have been correct, and I stand by it. We'll know for sure when the funeral is held.
Then I wrote, "South Asian family. Domestic violence. Murder. Don't be surprised if, as Walt hereby predicts, this turns out to be an 'honour killing'." Although I didn't use the word "Muslim", because "honour killings" occur in other religious communities -- Sikhs, for instance -- I did write that the murders could have been triggered (no pun intended) by "some sort of domestic situation arising from someone not following the strict laws of Islam regarding dress and deportment, or choice of spouse."
That insinuation appears to have been unwarranted. After I had posted two updates [which seemed like enough. Ed.] news emerged of disturbing messages and images posted by Mr Zaman on a gaming platform called "Perfect World", which he used regularly. According to an administrator of the site, "He messaged many of his friends, including myself, about the details of the murder, during the act.... He has been choosing self-devaluing names like 'subhuman' and 'don't deserve life' to represent himself."
According to the meeja, Mr Zaman said online that he killed his family becauase he was tired of lying to them about his life. (They believed he had been attending university, whereas, he said, he had been killing time, gaming, and generally doing nothing was his life.) What we see now is a picture, not of an affair of honour -- I was wrong about that* -- but of an affair of insanity, or something like it. The story is sad, no matter the ethnicity or religion of those involved. I propose to give it a rest now.
* Note from Ed.: Mind you, Walt didn't say flat out that the murders were honour killings. He wrote, "Don't be surprised if..."
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