Brit Muslim leader speaks out against "honor" killings

Sunday Independent:

One of Britain's leading Muslims has called on his community to rise up against a culture of fear and help stamp out forced marriages and honour killings after the third high-profile court case in Britain in the past year.

Dr Ghayasuddin Siddiqui, head of the Muslim Parliament in Britain, spoke out after a coroner ruled on Friday that 17-year-old Shafilea Ahmed was "unlawfully killed" and that "the concept of an arranged marriage was central to the circumstances of her death".

Mr Siddiqui said he was certain the schoolgirl, who wanted to go to university and become a lawyer, was the victim of an honour killing. No charges have yet been bought by police, a failure Mr Siddiqui blamed on members of her family and close community closing ranks, even though some may have wanted to speak out.

Five members of her family, including her parents, were arrested in connection with the death, but later released without charge. Shafilea's parents vehemently deny any involvement in her killing or disappearance.

"I think relatives won't speak out because they are scared," he said. "Somebody in the family disappears, relatives must have been concerned. But they would not co-operate with the police. The family and those who were close were not willing to come forward. That's why many of these murders are unresolved. There are now 12 cases a year on average."

Shafilea, from Warrington, was reported missing in 2003 by teachers soon after she returned from a trip to Pakistan. Five months later, her decomposed body was found near the bank of the River Kent in Cumbria. A pathologist said that "it was not credible" she had died of natural causes and suggested she had been strangled or smothered.

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People who do this kind of thing deserve the death penalty, but that can't happen in the UK or elsewhere in Europe. Usually the family puts either a young sibling or an elderly grad parent forward to take the rap. Muslim leaders need to do more than just speak out on this issue. They need to find who is teaching this sickness and make them stop it. If it can be shown that a cleric supported these crimes those clerics should be prosecuted as accessories to these murders.