Your Singhs today (Niagara edition)

Here's a mug shot of Manpreet Singh, a typical Brampton ON man who is no longer in Brampton. Why? Because he's on the lam, believed by police to have caught the next plane to India (location of "free Khalistan") after having murdered 27-year-old Amanpreet Saini, a North York woman and co-religionist. 

Ms Sami's lifeless body was found with traumatic injuries at Charles Daley Park in Lincoln ON, part of Niagara Region, earlier this week. For reasons known only to themselves (so far), police have issued a Canada-wide warrant charging Mr Singh with second-degree murder. The cops figured Mr Singh had left Canada when he failed to show up for his regular shift at DiversityTransport Ltd.

Sounds like an honour killing, doesn't it? Actually, no. Such crimes are more common amongst followers of the Prophet. Sikh men are more likely to kill their women in some sort of crime of passion -- rejection of a marriage proposal, for example -- hence the charge of second-degree murder. 

With typical Canadian political correctness, police have said nothing about Mr Singh's citizenship -- he's assumed to be an Indian national -- or his status in Canada, which we can safely assume is "irregular". If our assumption turns out to be wrong, we'll post an apology here. Don't hold your breath.

Your Singhs today (Halifax edition)

Halifax, Canada, police have closed their file3 on the death, last October 19th, of Gursimran Kaur, a 19-year-old resident of the Canadian city. The young woman, originally from India, had immigrated to Canada with her mother about two years previously.

Balbir Singh, secretary of the Maritime Sikh Society, told the meeja that Ms Kaur's body was found by her mother at the Mumford Road Walmart, where the two had worked for about two years. 

According to police, the mother became frantic on the night of October 19th after her daughter failed to answer her phone during the Saturday night shift. The mother, whose name was not released, eventually opened the bakery oven and found her daughter's burned body.

On November 18th, a Halifax Regional Police spokesthingy posted a video on Facebook, saying police "do not believe that anyone else was involved in the circumstances surrounding the woman’s death." To this day, no further information, such as the cause of Ms Kaur's death, has yet to be released. 

If it wasn't for Mr Singh saying the quiet part out loud, we wouldn't even know her name, ethnicity, or religion. "We acknowledge the public’s interest in this case and that there are questions that may never have answers," said the cop in the video. "Please be mindful of the damage public speculation can cause."

So everything's OK then. Please stop asking questions such as:

- How is it that the mother was the first to find the girl's body?

- Did she not notify police before going to search the store by herself?

- How did she know exactly where to look, without saying anything to anyone else?

- Were there no CCTV cameras in the area?

- Did the oven not have a mechanism, similar to that on a microwave, preventing it from being operated unless it was locked from the outside?

- Was Ms Kaur engaged to be married to a suitable boy who was supposed to be coming from India?

- Was she, errr, with child?

On October 30th, the Sikh organization said Ms Kaur’s father and brother were headed to Halifax from the Punjab region of India, having received emergency visas on compassionate grounds. So far as is known, they arrived in Canada shortly thereafter, and are still in the country.

Any rumours concerning "honour killing" are, of course, completely unfounded.

UPDATED: Of Muslims, Islam and free speech

Four events over the last two weeks seem to be linked. I'll recap them and you can see how long it takes you to figure out the connection. [Kind of gave it away in the headline, didn't you? Ed.]

Item: Police in Albuquerque NM had their hands full, trying to figure out who was stalking and killing Muslim men. The lamestream press were quick to speculate that the murders were the work of a white supremacist, probably a Trump supporter. Fear struck the hearts of the local Islamic community, and politicians everywhere trumpeted the need for tolerance, and freedom of religion. 

There were not a few red faces -- not from sunburn -- when the coppers arrested Muhammad Syed, 51, a fellow follower of the Prophet. UPDATE ADDED 16/8/22: According to Reuters, Police now believe Shaheen Syed, 21, the son of the prime suspect, may have played a role in the murders.

"We have a free country here – why did he do that?", asked another member of the supposedly tight-knit Muslim community. Turns out Mr Syed was "possibly" infuriated that his daughter married into the "wrong" branch of Islam. Apparently Shia and Sunni Muslims don't mix in America any better than they do in Iraq.

Item: Last Tuseday a Texas jury found Yaser Abdel Said, 65, of Lewisville, guilty of the murder of his daughters, 18-year-old Amina Said and 17-year-old Sarah Said, in a taxi in 2008. Mr Said had evaded arrest for over 12 years following the slayings of his children, which was provoked, defenders said, by the girls' insistence on comporting themselves like other American teens.

Even though the crime was committed in Texas, prosecutors did not pursue the death penalty, so Mr Said received an automatic life sentence. Why was the death penalty not demanded? Perhaps because the killings were, according to Mr Said's religion and culture, a "matter of honour".  

No, those are not the Said girls. They are Asra Abdullah Alsehli, 24, and Amaal Abdullah Alsehli, 23, whose bodies were discovered in their Sydney, Australia, apartment on June 7th.  .

Item: The Alsehli sisters were last in the news five years ago, when they fled from a family holiday by jumping on a plane from Saudi Arabia to Sydney, where they claimed asylum, saying they renounced Islam and had become atheists. Their parents were said to be displeased and begged the girls to come home, but, so far as is known, made no attempts to repatriate them against their will.

When the rent on their apartment went unpaid for three months, the Aussie authorities went for a "welfare check" and found mail piled up outside the door. When they gained entry, they found the two women's bodies, fully clothed, in separate bedroom. There were no signs of forced entry or injury.

Police called their deaths as "suspicious" and "unusual", and are awaiting autopsy and toxicology results to figure out what could have happened. Although the sisters' background, and how they came to be in Australia, were common knowledge, Inspector Knacker said there is "nothing to suggest" their family should be considered suspects. So that's OK then.

Item: We come now to Friday's attack on author Salman Rushdie, as he was preparing to speak at the Chautauqua Institution, near Buffalo NY. Mr Rushdie suffered serious injuries to his neck, throat and liver when he was stabbed repeatedly by a Muslim now identified as Hadi Matar, 24, from Fairfield NJ.

Local police Sergeant Friday said they aren't sure what motivated the attack. Walt will explicate the muddification, and thereby come to the point of this article.

Salman Rushdie spent years in hiding after a fatwa (religious decree) issued by the Ayatollah Khomeini, for the grave sin of airing his "unacceptable views" of Islam and the Prophet Mohammed in his 1988 book The Satanic Verses.

 Mr Rushdie, who was born in India to non-practising Muslims and identifies as an atheist, was declared an apostate, and forced to go underground as a bounty was put on his head. He was granted police protection by the government in the UK, where he was at school and where he made his home, following the murder or attempted murder of his translators and publishers.

Hadi Matar reportetdly supported the Iranian government, which had demanded Rushdie's execution. He reportedly posted a picture of Ayatollahs Khomeini and Khamenei on his Facebook page. According to an analysis of Mr Matar's social media footprints, he supports Shia extremism and the goals of Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard. Investigators found pictures of Iranian commander Qassem Solemani, muirdered in 2020, on Mr Matar's cellphone.

Got the picture now, fellas? Can you say "Islamic extremist"? Maybe not, because the real story here is not that the victims and suspects all are (or were) believers in the Religion of Peace, but that the lickspittle media have consistently downplayed, or not reported at all, the religion and ethnicity of those involved. Mustn't stoke the fires of Islamophobia!

The liberal elites, especially the literary types, were quick to decry the attempted murder -- for that's what it was -- of Salman Rushdie as a heinous attack on the freedom of speech which we cherish and which must be protected, yada yada yada. 

That's a bit rich, coming from the likes of Blackie McBlackface, Prime Minister of Canuckistan, who demonstrated his belief in free speech by clamping down on the Freeedom Convoy protesters, whom he called a "fringe minority" who held "unacceptable views". 

It was his government who forced the Canadian House of Commons to pass M-103, a resolution that enjoins the sheeple of Canada from saying anything bad about any religion... but especially Islam. The Dumbocrats, especially the likes of Ilhan Omar, would like to see similar legislation passed by Congress. 

Ms Omar is notorious for her anti-Israel/anti-Semitic rantings, but woe betide anyone who points out that Jews and Christians generally don't go around killing their family members or other co-religionists because of their "unacceptable views".

In our headlong rush to commit what James Burnham called The Suicide of the West (Random House, 1970), we allow followers of the Prophet to preach the triumph of Islam and the extermination of  apostates (like Salman Rushdie and the Alsehli sisters) and infidels (like us!), because to speak ill of Islam or its prophets and leaders is... wait for it... "unacceptable". 

Further reading (and the point of this post): "Don't mention the Muslims!", WWW 14/10/15.

Still more reading (added 16/8/22): "Trudeau, Biden won't name actual threat to Salman Rushdie", by the estimable Rex Murphy, National Post, 16/8/22. Quote: "They ignore radical Islamists in favour of platitudes about free expression."

Another quote: "To listen to Mr. Biden or Mr. Trudeau...he was stabbed for standing up for the generalized idea of 'freedom of expression.' No, he was not. He was stabbed because a fundamentalist strand of Islam and the leaders of Iran regarded his book as a 'blasphemy' for in their words 'insulting the prophet.'"

Rex says it better, but Walt said it first!

Markham murders - clarification and correction

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..."

UPDATED: Toronto-area honour killing (?) claims 4 family members

First, the version of this story published by the state-owned, ultra-PC CBC (Canadian Broadcorping Castration).

Four people found dead in a Markham, Ontario, residence on Sunday afternoon were killed, York Regional Police have confirmed as a man arrested at the scene is set for a court appearance Monday. Const. Andy Pattenden told CBC Toronto that the man, 20, is in custody and will appear in court "at some point today." Pattenden also said the identities of the four would not be released until after post-mortems.

An earlier version of the CBC article said police would not disclose the relationship, if any, between the residents of the house and the man taken into custody. UPDATE added at 0750: That man has now been identified (even on the CBC!) as 23-year-old Menhaz Zaman, of Markham. He is charged with four counts of murder in the first degree.

Markham is a burgeoning town just northeast of the Little Apple. The majority of its residents are Chinese. Agent 78 tuned in to Fairchild Radio, the local Chinese-language outlet, and learned that the family -- for they were all related -- were south Asians. Another source quoted a family friend named "Rafiq" as saying they were a happy family who had just that weekend had a lovely picnic at Bluffer's Park in nearby Scarborough.

South Asian family. Domestic violence. Murder. Don't be surprised if, as Walt hereby predicts, this turns out to be an "honour killing" -- some sort of domestic situation arising from someone not following the strict laws of Islam regarding dress and deportment, or choice of spouse.

Such things are not unknown among the Middle Eastern and south Asian immigrant communities of Toronto and Vancouver. See, for example, the still-shocking Shafia murder case, in which an Afghan immigrant to Canada, his second wife (in a polygamous marriage) and his son, all devout followers of the Prophet, were convicted of the murder by drowning of the man's first wife and three of his daughters by his second wife.

Don't be surprised, either, if Walt and others who dare to suggest that people who believe that such atrocities are justifiable if it's a matter of honour or fidelity to one's religion shouldn't be admitted to our supposedly Christian countries are called "racists", "Islamophobes" and all the other pejoratives hurled at those who make the link between barbaric cultural practices and heathen religions. Lifetime pct .988.

UPDATE added at 1145: Walt is not the type to say "I told you so." Keep that in mind as you look at this pic of the murder victims -- Menham Zaman's father, mother, grandmother and sister. Why would a young man kill not only his parents, but his granny and his sister too? It may be some time before we learn the answer... if ever.

Further reading: "Max Bernier's PPC policy on immigration, in point form", WWW 25/7/19.

Saudi sisters' suspicious "suicide"

Amidst all the fuss about pipe bombs and the Pittsburgh synagogue massacre, the lamestream meeja seem to have pretty much ignored the strange case of Tala Farea and Rotana Farea, two sisters whose fully-clothed bodies were found on the bank of the Hudson River in New York on October 24th.

The girls, aged 16 and 22 respectively, had been bound together, face-to-face, with the handyman's secret weapon -- duct tape. The medical examiner's office is investigating the cause of death. The absence of any obvious signs of physical trauma cast doubt on the coppers' original theory that they jumped into the river from the George Washington Bridge in a suicide pact.

The Farea sisters moved to the USA from Saudi Arabia with their mother in 2015, settling in Fairfax VA, about 225 miles from where their bodies were found. Rotana was enrolled at George Mason University, but left in the spring. Police said the sisters left the family home and were placed in a shelter after an earlier disappearance, in December of 2017. They were reported missing again on August 24th.

New York police said their mother told detectives the day before the bodies were discovered, she received a call from an official at the Saudi Arabian Embassy, ordering the family to leave the USA because her daughters had applied for political asylum. The Saudi Consul General said embassy officials in Washington had contacted the family and "extended its support and aid in this trying time." It said the sisters were students "accompanying their brother in Washington."

The cops sent a detective to Virginia to learn more about the sisters. Chief of Detectives Dermot Shea said they were particularly interested in finding out what happened since they were reported missing and what led them to New York City. "We are looking at all clues in their past life," Shea said.

Walt suggests that the police consider the girls' ethnicity and religion, and the sad fate of other Muslim girls who have come to western countries with their parents, and then been killed for wanting to adopt western customs, like wearing western clothes and (horrors!) dating. Three cases, reported here on WWW, come to mind.

In 2009 there was the murder, in Ontario, Canada, of Aqsa Parvez, aged 16, whose father and brother killed her because she dared to change out of Islamic garments into western clothes when she went to school. See "Honour killings, family values and 'accommodation'", WWW 23/7/09.

There was an echo from Britain in 2012, when a jury found the Pakistani parents of 17-year-old Shafilea Ahmed guilty of her murder. According her sister, her mother and father suffocated the girl with a plastic bag for "being too western". See "Parents kill rebellious teen to preserve family honour", WWW 3/8/12.

That same year saw the horrific Shafia case, in which three sisters and their mother were locked in a car which was pushed into a canal near Kingston ON by the girls' father, his second wife and their brother, all of whom were convicted of murder and are (suprisingly) still guests of Her Majesty in Canadian prisons. See "GUILTY GUILTY GUILTY in Shafia honour killings", WWW 29/1/12.

There's also [That's enough Islamic honour killings. We're running out of space! Ed.] OK then, let's just leave it at my suggestion that the police have a word with the Farea sisters' brother. Perhaps he can explain how it's possible for two people to duct-tape themselves together, face-to-face, while allowing sufficient freedom of movement to jump in a river. Stay tuned...

Canadian Islamophiles plan National Hug-a-Muslim Day

The timing of hijab hoax girl's bathetic [There is such a word.* Ed.] little stunt last Friday seems to have been a little off, as it has cast something of a cloud over plans for a "National Day of Remembrance and Action on Islamophobia", to be held across Canuckistan on January 29th.

That's right, folks. Canadian Islamists (read: the National Council of Canadian Muslims), aided and abetted by well-meaning politicians and friends like (((Shari Schwartz-Maltz))) in government, the (((controlled media))) and the human rights industry, intended to cap off "Islamic Heritage Month" (read: hug-a-Muslim month) with a day of action in Ottawa and Toronto to "memorialize Islamophobia".

January 29th is the first anniversary of an attack on a Québec City mosque that left six dead and several others injured. This is what the NCCM wants "memorialized", while certain other events, like the October 2014 killings of two Canadian soldiers -- Cpl. Nathan Cirillo and Warrant Officer Patrice Vincent -- by two "radicalized Muslims" or "homegrown jihadis", are forgotten.

In "Canadians don't need a 'National Day' scolding us for being Islamophobic", (National Post, 17/1/18), Barbara Kay writes, "We deplore the horrific Quebec City mosque murders. Nevertheless, an annual day of national atonement sends the wrong message." She points out that Alexandre Bissonnette, the alleged perpetrator, had no known ties to violence-promoting groups, nor was he ever charged with terrorism. His motive remains unclear to this day. But, Ms Kay argues "an official Day of Remembrance focused on Muslim victimhood would receive funding to perpetuate in schools and other institutions the notion that Muslims are systemically targeted for hatred."

And that, dear readers, is the whole point of the hijab hoax girl's publicity stunt and the NCCM proposal. Ms Kay reminds us that the NCCM pushed for the inclusion in the Toronto District School Board [Again with the TDSB! Ed.] guidebook to Islamic Heritage Month of this definition of Islamophobia: "Islamophobia refers to fear, prejudice, hatred or dislike directed against Islam or Muslims, or towards Islamic politics or culture." Once the telling phrase "Islamic politics or culture" came to public attention, attracting forceful criticism that embarrassed the TDSB (Hello again, Shari Schwartz-Maltz!), the definition was narrowed.

Does the NCCM really want to talk about Islamic culture -- the culture that includes honour killings like those of Aqsa Parvez and four female members of the Shafia family? How about we have a memorial day for those victims of Islamic culture?

The highlight of National Be Nice to Muslims Day is supposed to be the tabling in Canada's House of Commons of the Standing Committee on Heritage report on Motion M-103. M-103 isn't a law and never will be. It's only a motion. Here, copied from the web page of Iqra Khalid, MP (and a Muslim, in case you didn't guess), is the text of the motion.

M103 - Systemic racism and religious discrimination
That, in the opinion of the House, the government should: (a) recognize the need to quell the increasing public climate of hate and fear; (b) condemn Islamophobia and all forms of systemic racism and religious discrimination and take note of House of Commons’ petition e-411 and the issues raised by it; and (c) request that the Standing Committee on Canadian Heritage undertake a study on how the government could (i) develop a whole-of-government approach to reducing or eliminating systemic racism and religious discrimination including Islamophobia, in Canada, while ensuring a community-centered focus with a holistic response through evidence-based policy-making, (ii) collect data to contextualize hate crime reports and to conduct needs assessments for impacted communities, and that the Committee should present its findings and recommendations to the House no later than 240 calendar days from the adoption of this motion, provided that in its report, the Committee should make recommendations that the government may use to better reflect the enshrined rights and freedoms in the Constitution Acts, including the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms.

Buried in all that jargon and verbiage is some pretty dangerous stuff, e.g. "collect data to contextualize hate crime reports". How would such data be collected? Why, through "social media surveillance", of course! Canucks, better watch what you write on FB or in the comments section of news websites -- the few that still allow commenting... sometimes... as long as you don't offend Muslims. And how about "conduct needs assessments for impacted communities"? Don't be surprised if the "impacted community" (read: Muslims) needs money for its mosques and schools where young Canadians can be taught how barbaric cultural practices like female genital mutilation, honour crimes and the killing of infidels are all right and good for followers of the Religion of Peace.

The most objectionable feature, though, of M-103 is its singling out of the Muslim community as the one minority group most in need of protection from "system racism" and "Islamophobia". What about the (((Jews))), asks Barbara Kay. What about indigenous peoples, especially indigenous women who keep being found dead along roadsides and river banks? What about the "black community"? Never mind BLM; don't all lives matter? Errr, no, not according to M-103 -- just the lives of Muslims.

Even though it has not yet been officially approved by Canada's Parliament, M-103 is already being used as the basis for self-censorship remarkable even for the politically correct Canuck lamestream media. Some people have asked by the CBC and other major networks didn't call BS on the hijab hoax even as the girl was speaking at the TDSB-arranged presser. The answer is simple. No-one wanted to be the first to cast doubt on the story told by a young, female member of the oppressed Muslim minority. Even the Toronto police were guarded in describing the false report, saying only that "it didn't happen."

Contrary to the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, M-103 is already being used to curtail freedom of speech. The term "Islamophobia", with its multiple and sinister meanings is, in itself, an example of "fake news", and should not be recognized as a "thing"... because it isn't! To state that there is systemic hatred and racial discrimination in Canada, is bogus and to single out one religious group for special treatment is divisive. If there's going to be some sort of "day of action" in the Great No-longer-white North on January 29th, Walt suggests something along the lines of the demonstration pictured here.

Canadians! Stand up for free speech! Write or e-mail your Member of Parliament! (Click here to find out who's supposed to be representing you.) Or e-mail Justin Trudeau Himself. Tell them what you think... while you still can!

Canadian Sikhs face extradition to India for honour killings

Not all honour killings -- in which young women (usually) are murdered by family members for bringing dishonour on the family -- are committed by Muslims from the Middle East and South Asia. Such despicable acts are all too common in south Asian Hindu and (especially) Sikh communities, not just at home in India, but wherever they may be found.

Thanks to decades of open-door immigration policies, the Great No-Longer-White North is now "home" to hundreds of thousands of Sikhs, who bring the religions and customs of the old country with them and refuse to adopt or even adapt to Canadian ways. One such area is Peel Region, west of Toronto. The other is British Columbia's Lower Mainland, surrounding Vancouver.

Two residents of the latter are Malkit Kaur Sidhu and Surjit Badesha, of Maple Ridge BC. They have fighting since 2012 to avoid extradition to India, where they are wanted for arranging the honour killing of Jaswinder (Jassi) Kaur Sidhu, right, and her husband, Sukhwinder (Mithu) Singh. Surjit Singh Badesha is Jassi's uncle; Malkit Kaur Sidhu is her mother. All of them are (or were) Sikhs.

Jaswinder Kaur Sidhu's body was found in a canal in India in 2000. Her throat had been slit. Her husband was badly beaten and left for dead at the scene. Jassi's crime, for which her mother and uncle are allegedly responsible, was secretly marrying Mithu, a humble rickshaw driver, a man of much lower social status, instead of the older man her family had arranged for her to wed in Canada.

Malkit Kaur Sidhu (Jassi's mother) and Surjit Singh Badesha (her uncle) were arrested in Canada in 2012, on charges of orchestrating the honour killing. Indian courts asked to have the pair extradited to face trial, but a surrender order signed by former Justice Minister Peter MacKay was challenged and ultimately struck down by a British Columbia appeals court last year. See "No Justice In Jassi Sidhu Murder Case: Court Rejects India’s Extradition Order For Victim’s Mother & Uncle", The Aerogram, 10/3/16. The appeal court found the pair could be subject to violence, torture or neglect ["neglect"? Seriously? Ed.] based on India's human rights record.

Mr Badesha's lawyer (((Michael Klein))) told CBC News the pair could be in danger if sent to India, and Canada is obliged to protect them. "Both of these people are elderly and both have health issues and that makes them more vulnerable in an Indian prison system, especially one which has been characterized as quite brutal."

The Attorney-General of Canada begs to differ. In a 46-page submission to the Supreme Court of Canada, the Crown says the BC appeal court erred, calling its decision an "unwarranted interference" with the minister's order to return alleged perpetrators in the "brutal and notorious 'honour' killing of a Canadian citizen." It said the ruling jeopardized Canada's ability to live up to its obligations to extradition treaty partners. "The need to fulfil Canada's obligations in relation to extradition is always a crucial factor," the brief says, "precisely because of the objectives of the extradition regime including the importance of seeing justice done in the jurisdiction in which crimes are committed and the need to prevent Canada from becoming a safe haven for criminals."

A number of SJWs and members of the human rights industry have intervened in the case. (((Juda Strawczynski))), president of Canadian Lawyers for International Human Rights, said alternatives to extradition are available in cases when a recipient country's human rights record is spotty. In a remarkable twist of logic, he told CBC News Canada cannot forego human rights in the pursuit of justice! "We have to look at what we can fully consider as justice, and here we have to be mindful of Canada's reputation and trying to avoid injustices as much as possible," he said.

Seven men were convicted of the crimes in India, but (Indian courts being what they are) several of those convictions have been overturned on appeal. Now apologists for Ms Sidhu and Mr Badesha say that justice for those who (allegedly) arranged the crimes trumps justice for Jassi and Mithu. Remarkable, isn't it?

Further reading - Latest on the Shafia honour killings: Do you remember Hamed Shafia? He was the young Afghan-Canadian who was found guilty in 2012, along with his father and his father's second wife, of the murder on his father's first wife and his (Hamed's) three sisters. Hamed was tried and sentenced as an adult, as all concerned admitted he was 18 at the time of the honour killings. After the conviction and sentence, Hamed suddenly discovered he was only 17, therefore should have been tried and sentenced as a juvenile. Oopsy!

The Supreme Court of Canada is now considering whether to hear his appeal on those grounds. See "Portrait of a young 'honour killer': How an old family photo could derail Hamed Shafia’s last-ditch appeal", Maclean's, 16/3/17. And click here for the complete play-by-play account of the Shafia case as posted on WWW, 8/12/11 to 4/3/16.

Shafia honour killers appeal conviction: link here to e-book

Readers with long memories may recall that way back in January of 2012, an Afghan immigrant to Canada, his second wife (in a polygamous marriage) and his son, all devout followers of the Prophet, were convicted of the murder by drowning of the man's first wife and three of his daughters by his second wife. See "GUILTY GUILTY GUILTY in Shafia honour killings" (WWW 29/1/12).

The murders were said to be a matter of "honour", or the Islamic concept thereof. The daughters, you see, were "bad girls" -- caught in the ultimate culture clash, living in Canada but not allowed to be Canadian. They were expected to behave like good Muslim daughters, to wear the hijab and marry a fellow Afghan. And when they rebelled against their father’s traditions and customs -- covertly at first, then for all the community to see -- the shame became too much to bear. Only a mass execution (staged to look like a foolish wrong turn into the Rideau Canal at Kingston) could wash away the stain of their secret boyfriends and revealing clothes. The infertile first wife was simply a convenient throw-in, an afterthought.

Under the Canadian justice system, Mohammad Shafia, his second wife Tooba Mohammad Yahya, and their eldest son, Hamed Shafia were entitled to an appeal as of right from their convictions of murder in the first degree, for which they had received sentences of life imprisonment with no chance of parole for 25 years. Agent 3 is following the proceedings in the Ontario Court of Appeal in Toronto this week.

The parents are appealing on the grounds that expert evidence about honour killings, the teachings of Islam and the culture of Afghanistan should not have been admitted because -- this is the argument -- the jury might have been prejudiced and made to feel that there was something wrong with Muslims who were only acting in accordance with their faith. The Crown's response is that without such evidence, it would have been difficult to establish a motive for what would otherwise have been senseless killings, or perhaps "just an accident", as the Shafias said.

The appeal of Hamed Shafia is even more implausible. A defence lawyer interviewed on Canadian TV last night described it as an argument that made him roll his eyes. At the time of the killings, the son was apparently 18 years old, as his ID and other documents said. Now, nearly seven years after the young man helped push the car containing the four women into the canal, his lawyers are telling the court that he was only 17, thus shouldn't have been tried as an adult, but a juvenile!

"New evidence" to that effect, the defence says, has fortuitously just arrived from Afghanistan, a country not known for its ability to keep accurate records or indeed tell time. The defence is asking for a new trial for Shafia fils, or at least a reduction of his sentence to the 10-year max he would have received as a youthful miscreant, which would put him back on the street in another five years or so.

With the hearing in the Court of Appeal entering its second day, Maclean's has decided to republish The Shafia Honour Killing Trial, an e-book by Michael Friscolanti which first appeared in February 2012. Follow this link to the Maclean's longread.

As you read, ask yourself if Muslims like Mohammed Shafia are the kind of people you want to be welcomed into your country -- as refugees, asylum-seekers or immigrants -- from the sandpits of the Middle East. If the answer is no, and you're a Canadian, you could write to your MP, Minister of Refugees John McCallum or Prime Minister Just In Trudeau... but it won't do you any good. If you're American, Walt reminds you that there's an election coming up in just over eight months. Need I say more?

Syrian immigrants in London (Canada) murder-suicide

Here's a story from London (not THE London, but the one in Canada) that has received very little attention, possibly because Inspector Knacker has been less than forthcoming with details. Why? Political correctness, of course! For -- according to the London Free Press -- the story involves immigrants from, errr, Syria.

Here's what the London police say. Last Friday afternoon, a woman was found dead inside a fifth-floor unit of an apartment building on Grand Avenue. Five blocks away, the cops enter an auto repair shop, with guns drawn, and find a man’s body. Errr, that's it. Tight-lipped investigators still haven't said who died or how, nor were they releasing any names or ages, citing "family privacy".

Neighbours of the dead couple haven't been quite so reluctant to talk. Fifth-floor residents of the building in which the woman's body was found told the Free Press they'd heard a man wailing after police made the grisly discovery. "It’s super-eerie. I don’t think I’m ever going to forget that sound," said resident Christiane, who didn’t want to give her last name. When she looked out in the hall, she said, she saw the distraught man punching the wall.

Neighbours said "a Middle Eastern couple" with young children recently moved into the unit where the body was found. Meanwhile, neighbours of an auto mechanic's shop at 201 High Street became worried after the owner of the garage failed to show up for business on Saturday morning. Later that morning, they watched as police with weapons drawn surrounded the shop and smashed the front door to get into the building, where a man’s body was found.

The shop is (or was) owned by Mahmoud Abdulrahim, a Syrian immigrant, who opened "Miriam Tire & Auto Repair" four years ago. Mr. Abdulrahim and his family had recently moved to a Grand Avenue apartment, neighbours said. Repeated phone calls to Abdulrahim over the weekend weren’t returned and his voice-mail was full. A black Suzuki Swift parked outside the shop, identified by neighbours as belonging to Mrs. Abdulrahim’s, was covered in snow. A letter addressed to Mr. Abdulrahim was visible on the passenger seat.

Mr. Abdulrahim, the owner-operator and sole employee of the garage was well known in the area. A retired carpenter who lives across the street told the paper the he'd often chatted with the mechanic, a man he said has two grown sons from a previous marriage and young children from a more recent marriage to a woman who doesn’t speak English.

Autopsies were performed over the weekend, but police haven't said how the two people died, or given any further information. If, as so often happens, investigators are baffled, Walt suggests a line of inquiry. They might ask if Mr. Abdulrahim was divorced from his first wife, the mother of his sons, or, alternatively, had taken the "woman who doesn't speak English" as his second wife, as is perfectly legal according to Sharia law. If that be the case, they might also ask how the "junior wife" got an immigrant visa to Canada, contrary to Canadian law. And which of the wives was it whose body was found in the apartment?

Finally... has there been a breach of Canada's Zero Tolerance for Barbaric Cultural Practices Act, which amended the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act to specify that a permanent resident or foreign national is inadmissible on grounds of practising polygamy in Canada? Honour killings, it should be noted, are not forbidden by the Zero Tolerance etc Act, merely by the Criminal Code of Canada. In this case, however, it seems there's no-one left to prosecute.

Further reading (added 20/2/16): "Advocates denounce London police secrecy on Old South murder-suicide: London Free Press, 19/2/16. The reasons given by police for not naming names are lame! The real reason (Walt can reveal) is political correctness! Mustn't say anything that would offend or stigmatize Muslims!

Barbaric cultural (= religious = Muslim) practices

In the last session of Canada's 41st Parliament, the Conservative government of Steve "Call me Stephen" Harper passed the Zero Tolerance for Barbaric Cultural Practices Act, a law which proscribes, inter alia [That's enough Latin. Ed.] things like honour killings, forced marriage, and polygamy. Genital mutilation (aka female -- only -- circumcision) and sex-selective abortion were omitted because the neocon Tories were afraid to go there.

The barbaric cultural practices enumerated are more common in the Great Not-so-white North than you might think, largely because of the massive influx of immigrants, refugees, asylum-seekers etc from the Middle East and South Asia, parts of the world where non-Christian religions, particular Islam hold sway.

Since culture and religion are inextricably conjoined, we're really talking about barbaric religious customs that Muslims, Hindus and Sikhs cling to even after they find refuge in the nominally Christian West. The old saw "When in Rome, do as the Romans do," has no meaning for those who bring their religious and cultural baggage with them. That's why laws like the Zero Tolerance for Barbaric Cultural Practices Act are sadly necessary.

But you can't tell that to the bleeding-heart liberals, "progressive thinkers" and the hordes of lawyers and social workers getting rich forcing us to celebrate diversity. The ink was barely dry on the ZTBCPA [Got tired of writing it in full, eh? Ed.] before the chattering classes started denouncing it as Eurocentric, discriminatory, racist, yada yada yada.

The ZTBCPA is Islamophobic too, they tell us. Muslims aren't really barbaric, they tell us. As evidence to the contrary, Walt passes on a horror story from today's Guardian. Here's a photo of Sonia Bibi, a young Pakistani woman who died yesterday after a rejected suitor set her ablaze for refusing his marriage proposal.

Ms Bibi is ethnically Punjabi, a resident of the village of Multan, in the central Punjab district of Pakistan. She is, or was, a Muslim. So is Latif Ahmed, the former lover now accused of murdering her. She was admitted to hospital, where this picture was taken, last month.

Ms Bibi told police that she had fallen out of love with Mr. Ahmed, and preliminary investigations suggested he had set her on fire after she refused to marry him. Medical staff originally thought she would recover, but doctors told AFP yesterday that she had died after her injuries became infected.

What's disturbing about this case is that it's not unusual, at least not in Pakistan where hundreds of women are murdered every year in cases of domestic violence or on the grounds of defending family "honour". The Aurat Foundation, a campaign group that works to improve the lives of women in Pakistan's conservative and patriarchal society, says more than 3000 women have been killed in such attacks since 2008.

Such killings will doubtless continue, until Pakistan gets a Zero Tolerance for Barbaric Cultural Practices Act of its own. Chances of that happening? Slim and none! (Lifetime pct .989.)

Raped, hanged girls committed suicide, Indian police claim

Last May, in "Shitting in fields leads to gang rape, hanging of Indian girls", Walt told you the sad story of two teenage Indian girls found hanging from a mango tree in May, apparently following gang rapes by persons unknown. Like millions of Indians who have no toilet of any kind in or near their homes, the girls had gone to a nearby field to relieve themselves, when they were fallen on and brutally attacked.

Such events are common enough in south Asia. What was unusual about this story was that the girls' families raised enough of a fuss to catch the attention and outrage of the international media. That led to an investigation by India's Central Bureau of Investigation, which has just released its findings.

What did Inspector Singh and his colleagues conclude? Wait for it... The girls, they announced yesterday, were not gang-raped and murdered, but, errr, took their own lives.

But why would they do that? On this point, the investigators were less than clear. Perhaps, it was suggested, they were chagrined at being dalits -- members of the lowest of the Hindu castes, formerly called "untouchables". Or perhaps, as the CBI chief stated, the girls took their own lives "because of family pressure" over their friendship with a villager.

Ah yes, "family pressure". Or we could say "family honour", as in "honour killing". Perhaps it was the girls' own relatives who killed them, "pour encourager les autres", as the French say. [How do the Indians say it? Ed.] The identities of the men standing around in the grainy photo above are unknown, but Walt thinks they are more likely to be relatives than the actual perps.

Sohan Lal, the father of one of the girls, told the BBC, "CBI has tried to fudge the case and save the accused from the very beginning. I am very angry with their decision. The team did not show any promptness while investigating the case."

Further details of the CBI investigation, and how they arrived at their verdict of suicide, were expected to be released today. In just six months, there have been three different theories about how the teenagers died and each theory has raised more questions than it has answered. Indians are now beginning to wonder whether they will ever know the truth of what occurred on the night the two girls died so horribly. All that can be said is, "This is India. Anything could have happened."

Lesson for Pakistani lovers: don't marry without your parents' consent!

WARNING: Reading this post may shock and sicken you! ...

Now that Walt has have your attention... Here, courtesy of the online edition of The Telegraph, are horrific details of the "honour killing" of a young Pakistani couple, barely a week after they had married. Walt had this story on Saturday, but now we have a picture and some quotes from parties involved.

Sajjad Ahmed, 31, and Muafia Bibi, 17, were deeply in love, so decided to marry against the wishes of the girl's parents, who disapproved of Ahmed because he was from an inferior tribe. Residents of the town of Satrah said relatives of Ms Bibi had told the couple they supported the marriage and invited them to the town, where they were drugged.

Muhammad Ijaz, who runs a mobile phone shop, said, "Their legs and arms were tied while their mouths were gagged with pieces of cloth. The father of the girl announced loudly that he was going to slit the throat of her daughter and her husband."

A crowd gathered as they were brought to the courtyard of the family house. Someone said the children should be sent away, but, according to Ijaz, Ms Bibi’s father told them to stay and watch. "He said they should learn what would happen to them if they married someone of their own choice."

The town's police chief, Muhammad Knacker [Ed., check name please] told reporters "It is a case of honour killing. The couple were not beheaded, but were killed with the knives and had severe signs of torture on their heads."

Satrah is close to the city of Sialkot in a Punjabi area known for its conservative customs, where women have little value beyond their worth as a bride. Honour killings are nothing new in Pakistan. Hundreds go unnoticed every year, written off as domestic accidents or suicides. As reported on WWW, nearly 2.4 women were reported killed every day in 2013, but the real number may be much higher.

Why is Walt telling you these horror stories? Because, dear gentle readers in America, Britain and Canada, these people are coming to your country in droves, as immigrants or "refugees". They bring with them not just their physical baggage but their cultural baggage as well, including Sharia law and honour killings.

For the sake of political correctness [not to mention the vizmins' votes! Ed.] our governments are importing barbarism and Islamic extremism. Is that what you want for your country? No?! Then why do you sit silently while your country is being overrun?!

Nearly 2.4 "honour killings" in Pakistan EVERY DAY

Pakistan's Human Rights Commission recently stated that 869 so-called "honour killings" were reported in the media last year. That's 2.38 per a day. But, the Commision says, the true figure is probably much higher since many cases are never reported.

Here's an example of what Pakistani Muslims consider a matter of "honour". A few days ago, a young couple in the village of Satrah were tied up and had their throats slit with scythes. Why? Because they married for love!

The 17-year-old girl and 31-year-old man married on June 18th without the consent of their families. Very misfortunate for them that the girl's family considered the groom unsuitable because he was a member of a "less important tribe". According to police, the girl's mother and father lured the couple home late Thursday, promising that their marriage would receive a family blessing. When the couple reached home, the girl's father cut their throats.

Since this happened in a Punjabi area of Pakistan, it's possible the victims and perps might have been Sikhs, but nooooo, they were Muslims. The reports in the PC lamestream press gloss over this, saying only that "cultural traditions" in many areas of Pakistan mean that killing a woman whose behaviour is seen as immodest is widely accepted. The people's false religion -- an integral part of any culture -- has nothing to do with it!

What is "immodest behaviour"? For a woman to marry a man of her own choice is considered an unacceptable insult by many families. So is singing, looking out of the window or talking to a man who is not a relative.

Pakistani law means that even if a woman's killer is convicted, her family is able to forgive the killer. Many families simply nominate a member to do the killing, then formally forgive the killer. That's what happened earlier this week, when a tribal council in Muzaffargarh district sentenced another young couple to death for marrying for love.

The couple's lawyer said the two had appealed for police protection after their marriage on June 21st, but had not received any. The 19-year-old girl's family came to take her from her husband's family, swearing on the Qu'ran that they would not harm her and would hold a proper wedding ceremony, he said. "During this the girl shouted, cried and mourned for her life and her husband's life because she knew that they will kill both of them."

The girl was shot by a member of her family when she returned home, police said. Her husband went into hiding and her father registered the murder complaint so he could forgive the killer. "That will end the case," concluded the lawyer.

Husband of woman stoned to death killed his first wife, cops say

Yesterday's story about the "honour killing" of a Pakistani woman by a mob of her family and friends -- including her father -- gets crazier. Farzana Bibi (aka Iqbal) was bludgeoned to death Tuesday in the eastern city of Lahore by family members who were enraged that she had married "the man she loved" -- Muhammad Iqbal -- of whom they did not approve.

Today police allowed that perhaps Farzana's family had good reason to disapprove, since her new husband hadn't divorced his first wife. Instead, he murdered her. Police spokesthingy Zulfiqar Hameed said that Iqbal, was arrested after the 2009 killing, but the charge against him was withdrawn because he was forgiven by a family member. According to Pakistani law -- a modified form of Sharia law -- that makes it OK!

Iqbal did not respond to repeated requests for comment from AP, but two of his cousins said he had been forgiven by one of his sons for the killing.

Although unwilling to discuss the 2009 killing, Iqbal criticized police for their failure to intervene in this week's stoning on the street outside the Lahore High Court. "I begged [police] to help us," Muhammad Iqbal told Reuters. "I took off my shirt [to be humble] and begged them to save her, but they said 'This is not our duty.'"

Pakistan is a nation of 180 million people, the overwhelming majority of whom are Muslims. According to their culture and religion, women are expected to agree to arranged marriages and refusal can mean an "honour killing", since many Pakistani families think it dishonourable for a woman to fall in love and choose her own husband. Farzana's family had chosen a partner for her -- a cousin -- but she preferred Iqbal. Whether she knew the fate of his first wife is unknown.

Police said her father, two brothers and a former fiancé [the cousin? Ed.] were among attackers. Muhammad Aurangzeb, Farzana's 20-year-old stepson -- Muhammad Iqbal is his father -- described how one relative tried to shoot her, then grabbed her head scarf, causing her to fall over. [Another good reason not to wear a hijab or niqab. Ed.]

While a member of Iqbal's party tried to wrest the gun away, a female cousin grabbed a brick and hit Farzana with it, Aurangzeb said. "She was screaming and crying 'Don't kill me! We will give you money!" said Iqbal. He said he tried to save her but the mob of more than 20 beat him back.

At one point, six people were beating her with bricks as she screamed, he said, and he and his stepson begged police to help. Finally she stopped screaming...because she was dead. All the suspects, except Farzana's father, have disappeared. The father said he gave himself up to police without fear of being prosecuted, since killing his daughter was a matter of honour.

Muslim woman stoned to death at courthouse door by her own family

This isn't the first time Walt has posted a story about the killing of women by Muslims -- or Sikhs or Hindus, but usually Muslims -- in the name of "family honour", but never before have I seen such an egregious example. Today's story comes from Lahore, Pakistan, where the father, brothers and former fiancé of Farzana Bibi, aged 30, killed her with sticks and bricks on the steps of the high court. Why? For marrying against their wishes, thus besmirching the family's "honour".

Ms Bibi's parents accused her husband, Muhammad Iqbal, of kidnapping her, and had filed a case against him at the High Court. However, police said the couple had been engaged for "a number of years", and that she had told them she had married him of her own accord. As she arrived at the court building for a hearing, police said about a dozen family members pulled her aside and began to attack her and her husband, who managed to escape.

Inspector Muhammad Knacker [Ed., please check name] told Reuters that all the family members escaped after the killing, apart from her father, Muhammad Azim, who waited on the courthouse steps for the police to arrive, and admitted his role his daughter's death.

In the BBC's report of the story, Shumaila Jaffery says marriage against the wishes of relatives is culturally unacceptable in some parts of Pakistan. Under Pakistani law -- a version of Sharia law -- the victim's family is allowed to forgive the killer. However, in many cases family members are themselves responsible for the killing.

Arranged marriages are the norm among conservative Muslim Pakistanis, and hundreds of women are known to be murdered every year in so-called honour killings carried out by husbands or relatives as a punishment for alleged adultery or other illicit sexual behaviour. Many more cases go unreported, indeed unnoticed. Stonings in public settings, however, are extremely rare. Tuesday's attack took place in broad daylight on a busy downtown street, before a crowd of onlookers who were reportedly more curious than horrified.

Iqbal said he started seeing Parveen after the death of his first wife, with whom he had five children. "We were in love," he told Associated Press, "but her family wanted to fleece money from me before allowing her to marry, so I simply took her to court and registered a marriage."

The bride's father called his daughter's murder an "honour killing". A police spokesthingy quoted him as saying, "I killed my daughter as she had insulted all of our family by marrying a man without our consent, and I have no regret over it."

If you use the "Search this blog" function at the bottom of the Blog Archive column to search WWW for "honour killings", you'll find 33 previous posts about such crimes in Muslim and Sikh communities in various parts of the world, notably Canada. [I'm looking for details of a "domestic" stabbing which occurred just yesterday in Brampton, Canada's Sikhest city. Ed.]
Here's another one from Pakistan: "Muslim couple doused daughter with acid because 'it was her fate'"
And here's how honour crimes were dealt with in Pakistan when it was part of the Raj: "How the British dealt with barbaric religious practices"

Note from Ed.: I hope you're not expecting a video. Even if I had found one -- yes, I did look -- I wouldn't show it. Some things are just too much, even for WWW. However, I did come across an interview -- part of the "Canadian Dream" series on CBC News -- with Dr. Amin Muhammad, a professor of psychology. He explains the motive for what the interviewer calls this "brutal cultural import".

Muslim man wore burqa while killing wife who wanted divorce

If you're a Muslim and your wife demands a divorce, what do you do? Give her one, obviously! Or you could kill her, to preserve the family honour.

How would you disguise yourself if you chose the second option? Perhaps by donning a burqa and slipping into a pair of wedgies (shoes, that is) so you might pass for a woman? That's what Abdul Malik Rustam did on 22 July 2011. That's him in the picture. He was sentenced yesterday to life in prison (with no chance of parole for 17 years) for the second-degree murder of his 21-year-old wife, Shaher Bano Shahdady, after she asked for a divorce.

Then he left their son, not yet 2 years of age, with his mother’s body for 15 hours before she was discovered in her Toronto apartment. "The accused demonstrated an exceptionally callous disregard for that young child’s well-being," said the sentencing judge. "It’s hard to fathom what that child went through. The only glimmer of hope is that he’s so young it will fade into that child’s memory."

The deadly attack occurred shortly, but not immediately, after Rustam entered his estranged wife’s home. "This was not a case of a heated argument that escalated into physical violence," the judge said. "This courageous young woman fought for her life," leaving scratch marks on her husband's face and neck.

After the murder, the very righteous Rustam returned to his victim's parents' home and accompanied his father-in-law -- yes, the father of the girl he had just killed -- to the mosque for 4:30 a.m. prayers. Later that day he confessed to his brother that he had "finished her by the throat."

The brother alerted the victim’s family to go to her home. While they were knocking, Rustam showed up and opened her door. When he saw her corpse, he rushed away in grief [Really? Ed.] and confessed the killing to police, saying he had "certain justifications for his actions". The judge, however, said women "have an absolute right to end their relationships” without fear of violence.

Shahdady had lived apart from her older, jealous husband from an arranged marriage for almost two years — using a cellphone and the Internet and expanding her social network while raising their son who had heart problems from birth. The court was told that when Rustam joined his wife and child in Canada in March 2011, he objected to her having a cellphone and "an online friendship with another man" in Dubai. Within days, it was so unbearable that Rustam was asked to leave the family home.

In May of 2011, Rustam reunited with his wife in her parents’ home. But his wife refused to surrender her cellphone and the tensions flared again. She left the home in early July while Rustam stayed. Their marriage was over, said Shahdady, who repeatedly rejected his bids for reconciliation. The killing occurred only two weeks after the woman went on welfare and moved into a community housing apartment.

The presiding judge said that Rustam displayed "elements of planning and forethought" by donning a burqa, women’s footwear and gloves. He manipulated the surveillance camera in front of the victim’s doorway so that he couldn’t be seen when he went inside.

Defence counsel had argued this homicide was not an honour killing. "[Rustam is] a simple and unsophisticated man who snapped under great psychological torment," his lawyer said. The judge disagreed.

Further reading on WWW: "Honour killings in Canada now average nearly 1 per year".

Muslim couple doused daughter with acid because "it was her fate"

Agent 3 seems to have been mesmerized by this weekend's electoral antics, so has failed to report to us on the Toronto trial of Peer Khairi, accused of severing his wife's head from her torso (or just about) to preserve his honour. The alleged murderer is an immigrant from Afghanistan, and apparently was not told by Canadian authorities to check his barbaric customs at the door of the welfare office.

While we wait to find out if the Khairi trial has gone to the jury, and what they decide, we can consider another honour crime horror story, this one coming from Pakistan courtesy of the BBC.

Behold -- in their his 'n' hers jail cells -- Zaheen and Mohammad Zafar, a Muslim couple accused of killing their 15-year-old daughter by giving her a bath -- an acid bath. Why? Because she sullied the Zafar family's honour by looking at a boy. Find it hard to believe? Click here to see a clip from the BBC's interview with the couple.

Hear the girl's parents give their version of the events of 29 October. The father said the girl had turned to look at a boy who drove by on a motorcycle, and he told her it was wrong.

In case you didn't hear the voice-over properly, the interviewer interprets the mother as explaining, "She said 'I didn't do it on purpose. I won't look again.' By then I had already thrown the acid. It was her destiny to die this way."

The father said the family had already come under public censure because of their older daughter's behaviour, but he did not detail what exactly he meant.

According to Pakistan's Human Rights Commission, at least 943 women were killed in 2011 in the name of "honour" last year. Only 20 of them were given medical care before they died, the report said. The real toll is believed to be higher because many of the crimes go unreported.

"Throughout the year," the same report continues, "women were callously killed in the name of honour when they went against family wishes in any way, or even on the basis of suspicion that they did so. Women were sometimes killed in the name of honour over property disputes and inheritance rights."

Some people from Pakistan and other countries where Islam and Muslim culture prevail are allowed to immigrate to the so-called Christian (or should we say "secular") societies of the West, where such enormities are not tolerated.

At least, that's the way it used to be. Today, in the name of tolerance and "celebrating diversity", Muslim men -- sometimes aided by their wives, brothers or sons -- kill their (other) wives, sisters and daughters with little or no regard to the laws of civilized society. All for the sake of "honour", of course. Isn't multiculturalism great?

Footnote: Honour killings are not unknown in the Sikh and Hindu communities of North America and Europe. But we mustn't judge other religions and cultures. We all pray to the same God, don't we? Hm?

Muslim wife-killer pleads self-defence

With all the commotion about Sandy and the presidential election, it's not easy to remember that there are other events unfolding. Like the trials of third world immigrants accused of murdering their wives or sisters or daughters or all of the above to "preserve their honour".

One such is Peer Khairi, an Afghan Muslim who immigrated to Canada by way of India, and allegedly cut off his wife's head -- or nearly so, as he couldn't sever the spinal column -- a few years back. He's on trial, at last, in Toronto this week, and yesterday took the stand in his own defence.

Why would a man attempt to decapitate his wife? (The decapitation didn't quite work, by the way, but he did succeed in killing her.) Khairi's first problem with Randjida was that she called him names -- "honourless" and a "cuckold" -- and he couldn't tolerate such insults any longer.

But on the occasion in question, Khairi told the court, it was worse than that. On that fateful day, she lunged at him with a knife -- for no reason, of course -- leaving him no choice but to slit her throat, stab her repeatedly, and let her bleed to death on their Toronto apartment floor while he called 911.

"I totally lost my control. I was not able to control myself," Khairi said, through a Dari interpreter (in spite of having been in Canada for close to a decade). He testified that "I was thinking about killing myself, not killing her." Why he didn't then start hacking away at himself went unexplained.

The trial continues today. Agent 3 is following the story and will let us know if Khairi comes up with a further or better excuse. Stay tuned.

"I'll kill you! And your little dog too!"

OK, Hamed Shafia didn't say those exact word directly to his sister Geeti, aged 13, on their sister Zainab's wedding day. When 19-year-old Zainab's husband-to-be arrived at the wedding reception alone -- unaccompanied by any members of his family -- Hamed told his sister "If you leave with him, I'm going to kill everyone here and then I'll kill myself."

And, even though the wedding was called off, that's just what he did. Or someone did. Late last year, Hamed Shafia was convicted of first-degree murder, along with his father, Mohammed Shafia, and mother -- Shafia's #2 wife -- Tooba Yahya.

The Ontario Superior Court jury found that the three of them had acted together to murder Zainab, and two of her sisters, Sahar, 17, and Geeti (the one with the little dog) and Rona Amir Mohammed, their father's first wife in his polygamous marriage. Their bodies were dumped into the Rideau Canal near Kingston, Ontario.

As reported in WWW in January, the convictions are being appealed, but journalist Ron Tripp isn't going to await the results of the appeal. His book on the most sensational "honour killings" ever to be perpetrated in Canada will be released by Harper Collins this coming week.

Without Honour: The True Story of the Shafia Family and the Kingston Canal Murders reports Hamed's threat, and details the layers upon layers of violence and control exerted by the Shafia men over the female members of the Muslim family. Here, from the book, are a few glimpses of life inside the brutally oppressive Shafia household.

• Sahar told a schoolmate just weeks before her murder that she was pregnant, although the truth behind that claim remains unknown;
• Before arriving in Canada, the Shafia family was kicked out of Australia, when trying to immigrate from Afghanistan, for violating the terms of their visa, a fact that contradicts evidence presented at their trial;
• The Shafia children got into trouble at a school in Dubai, including Geeti, who was suspended for kicking a teacher, and a younger brother (not named because of a publication ban) who was expelled when caught with pornography;
• A schoolmate, who did not testify at trial, said the girls' younger brother had told him that shunning Sahar at home was a Shafia family "rule" because she upset her father;
• Other school friends with stories of the girls' abuse at the hands of their father and brother Hamed, and others with accounts of the desperate ploys the girls used to avoid their father's wrath, were not interviewed by investigators or called to give testimony at trial.

Although the girls spoke out to friends, classmates and even teachers, there was no effective follow-up by provincial or local authorities. Mr. Tripp puts the lack of concern or action down to political correctness. When talking of the missed opportunities, the writer told an interviewer, "Teenaged girls trying to be teenaged girls is no rationalization for murder."

"The cultural sensitivities among organizations and institutions [suggested] that we need to allow this family to preserve their culture, and that is a noble goal," he said. But the good intentions meant that a dangerous family situation went unchecked. "Political correctness and this belief that families are sacred cows, and cultural sensitivities: all those things conspired to seal the fate of these [women]."

Even after the horrific murders, Mohammed Shafia had nothing good to say about the dead girls. "Even if they come back to life a hundred time, if I have a cleaver in my hand, I will cut [them] in pieces. Not once, but a hundred time," he ranted.

"May the devil shit on their graves… whore… honourless girl… They betrayed kindness, they betrayed Islam, they betrayed our religion and creed, they betrayed our tradition, they betrayed everything." He added, "There is nothing more valuable than our honour."

Click here to read the National Post 's full report on Without Honour: The True Story of the Shafia Family and the Kingston Canal Murders.

Previous posts here on WWW:
"Honour killing trial: video on dad's testimony"
"GUILTY GUILTY GUILTY in Shafia honour killings"
"What's wrong with Afghans?"