Crimes in Name of Customs

Crimes inthe name of honour
Our study found that the ideas of honour which cause acts such as forced marriages and honour killings are rooted in a belief that the reputation and honour of a community or family grouping is dependent on the sexual behaviour of its female members. In particular, these beliefs manifest themselves in an obsession with female virginity and chastity. In many such communities, these beliefs result in a determination to prevent women from exercising any freedom which might endanger the group's reputation.
Women who disobey this enforced moral code may be physically beaten, imprisoned in their homes, cut off from their friends, withdrawn from school or married to whoever their family deems most beneficial to their collective interests. In extreme cases they may even be killed - as was the young Kurdish woman, Heshu Yones, who was murdered by her father in October 2002 because he felt that she was dishonouring her family by having a boyfriend.
Crimes in name of islam

Unfortunately more and more often, Islam has been associated with terrorism and violence due to the actions of a few extreme individuals who’ve taken it upon themselves to do the most heinous crimes in the name of Islam. | |
| Tragic events such as the attack on the twin towers in New York, the bombings of Bali, Madrid and London are assumed to be justified by Islam in the minds of some people. This idea has been fueled further by many media channels which defame Islam by portraying these bombers as ‘Islamists’ or ‘Jihadists’, as though they were sanctioned by Islam, or had any legitimate spokemenship on behalf of Muslims. The actions of a few fanatical individuals who happen to have Muslim names or ascribe themselves to the Muslim faith should not be a yardstick by which Islam is judged. For the same reason, that one would not do justice to Christianity if it where perceived as sanctioning the genocide of the Native Americans, the atrocities of world war II or the...