the thing that caught my attention about this story is that this supposed traditional family lived in kingston, on- which is like 99.9% white anglo saxon protestant(WASP). the ppl i fear most in this world are religious nutjobs and their romanticized "revivalist" notions of life, e.g. the birthers and honour killers
These are the kind of incidents that make me frustrated, annoyed, and with my culture (I know these cases involve Muslims, but similar incidents have occurred with Punjabi-Sikhs in the past). It's like they've conditioned themselves to be weak, fearful, and unreflective. And when someone or something comes along to challenge those entrenched habits, they lash out in the most horrific ways. Britain has it so much worse, though. In Canada, you see these cases every so often, but most ultra-conservative immigrant families tend to stick with disownment/banishment. The Islamic communities in England have become more and more radicalized in each successive generation, and their is so much hostility and rage bubbling within them
There's another issue being brought to the forefront, by this case IMO: the mainstream Canadian media's ignorance of the difference between culture and religion. For the most part, this honour killing is being attributed to the family's "hardcore" Islamic beliefs, when in reality, the religious conviction of "honour killers" is usually irrelevant. At the core of these incidents are certain cultural norms and ways of thinking that just don't jive with Western values. There may be religious influences on its development, but by and large, those cultural norms have morphed into a thing of their own. In the East, that distinction between culture and religion is unrecognized and unacknowledged, which makes it easy for outsiders to assume that a specific cultural mindset is preceded by some religious commitments. In reality, there are so many (technically-speaking) non-religious families that foster domestic abuse.
Apparently they lived in Montreal and were travelling through. I'd hate to be a minority living in Kingston.
ill cosign. the best example of that is female circumcision practiced in east africa which is predominately muslim, yet most muslims abhor it outside of east africa. hence, the distinction between cultural (east african) and religion (muslim). although, this case as well as other honour killings are really about "idiots" who cling to their religion and customs in a world they frankly cant understand.
