Stand Against Honor Killing

On August 24th, we will be dedicating the Aqsa Parvez Grove in American Independence Park in Jerusalem, Israel. If you can be in that part of the world, join me.

Non-Muslims have begun to take note of the victims of Islamic honor killing, and to serve notice to their killers that the victims will not be forgotten, or their murders ignored. Americans have seen a spike in the brutal murder of Muslim girls under Islamic law.

Remember Aqsa Parvez? She was brutally murdered by her father and brother in December 2007 for refusing to wear the Islamic headscarf. But that was only the beginning: the abuse and dehuminaization of this girl continued. She was buried in an unmarked grave. Her family refused to acknowledge her life, as she had “dishonored” them. In defiance of her devout father and brother, she had refused to live under the suffocating dictates of Islamic law. The eleventh grade student began taking off her hijab, a traditional Islamic headscarf, when she went to school, and would put it back on when she returned home. Her dad would go to her school during school hours and walk around trying to find her, trying to catch her not wearing Islamic garb, talking to boys or hanging out with “non-Muslims”. “She wanted to dress like us,” said one friend of Aqsa. “To be normal.” For this, her family prefers that she be forgotten — unknown, unloved, unmourned.

In December 2008, when I read that Aqsa lay in an unmarked grave, I was beside myself. I started a memorial fund at Atlas to get her a headstone. But I had no idea how difficult and ugly it would be simply to honor a teenage girl in Canada who just wanted to live free — and how eagerly Western non-Muslims would aid and abet the family’s efforts to dishonor her in death as they did in life.

Readers of my weblog, AtlasShrugs.com, opened their hearts and their wallets, and contributed $5,000 for a headstone for Aqsa. Robert Spencer of Jihad Watch joined the effort, and we approved a design for a headstone that read, “In loving memory of Aqsa Parvez, Apr. 22, 1991-Dec. 10, 2007 — Beloved, remembered and free.” All was going according to plan until, after much silence, Meadowvale Cemetery in Brampton, Ontario, where Aqsa is buried, advised me that the family (yes, the family that murdered her) had refused to “sign off” on the headstone. The director of the cemetery said: “The family wants changes and is planning on coming in to see me. They did not book an appointment yet but I hope to see them soon.”

Of course, the family never came, and when we inquired as to purchasing a plot near Aqsa’s body, we could not. Not a tree. Not a rock. Not a bench. All the plots were owned by the Islamic Society of North America. I tried to contact the family at that time, but they would not take my calls — I spoke to the them once, but they pretended not to speak English. And they were adamant: the family refused to allow the headstone to be put on Aqsa’s grave, and according to the cemetery, could remove it if it were placed there by others.

But those of us who had contributed to the Aqsa Memorial Fund were determined to make sure that Aqsa would be memorialized. We checked into other locations, made plans, only to see them canceled at the last minute out of … fear. We checked into the arboretum at the University of Guelph in Ontario, but a university official wrote me to say that “no matter how worthy, a memorial to Aqsa Parvez would draw much public attention and would thus be inconsistent with current use of The Arboretum.”

But not everyone was ready to cower before Islamic anti-woman violence.

Considering the fact that Islamic honor killings were a global problem (over 90% of honor killings worldwide are Islamic), I approached the JNF and worked to plant the Aqsa Parvez Grove in American Independence Park in Jerusalem, Israel, where the plaque before the grove will read: “In Loving Memory of Aqsa Parvez and All Victims of Honor Killings Worldwide.” I loved the idea of a grove of trees that would continue to live and grow for decades in their name.

The memorial in Jerusalem is recognition of this horror and the first indication that in the Free World we are not going to stand by silently while the Islamic world brutalizes women and treats them as property and worthless trash. It is but a small, respectful step toward widespread resistance against honor killing in the West and elsewhere.

I was told that the grove would be planted and the memorial plaque would be up late 2011. I had inquired recently if it could be up in late August, as we are traveling there for Glenn Beck’s rally in Jerusalem on the 24^th. Imagine my happiness and excitement when the JNF told me they could accommodate my request. How wonderful.

On August 24, 2011, join us when we dedicate the Aqsa Parvez Grove at American Independence Park in Jerusalem, and remember the girls and the women who died brutal deaths merely because they wanted to be free. Please join us. It will be a very special event. Specific details will follow.

Meanwhile, please join us in Tampa on June 10 for AFDI/SIOA’s Rally for Justice for Fatima Abdallah, at 2PM on June 10 at Lykes Gaslight Park in front of Tampa Police Headquarters. The Rally will include a news conference. We will call upon State Attorney Mark Ober, Tampa Mayor Bob Buckhorn and Tampa City Council Members to recognize the numerous anomalies in the Tampa Police Department report that ruled Fatima Abdallah’s death a suicide, and to open a genuine investigation into the possibility that she was murdered in an Islamic honor killing.

The Tampa Police report claims that Abdallah committed suicide by repeatedly striking her head against a coffee table. The idea defies logic, belies reality. The Rally for Justice for Fatima Abdallah will feature a great deal of evidence that the Tampa Police investigation was drastically flawed, and that the Police Department and Medical Examiner ignored numerous indications that Fatima Abdallah did not commit suicide, but was brutally assaulted. Then when challenged, their explanation only exposed more inconsistencies and raised more questions.

Fatima Abdallah was a Muslim woman shunned by her devout Muslim family for her “shameful” divorce – and hence a possible victim of Islamic honor killing, in which a woman who has brought “shame” to the family is murdered in order to preserve family “purity.” Neighbors reported that Fatima Abdallah was abused by her family, but that they had been too frightened themselves of the abusers to report it.

We cannot and will not tolerate the covering up of honor killings in the U.S. Our law enforcement authorities should be standing up against this practice. The cover-up is criminal, and we must protest the silence and complicity of Florida law enforcement. This looking the other way on honor killing is Sharia law — if this family weren’t Muslim, law enforcement would have handled this completely differently. Please join us at this rally and stand against the coverup of honor killing in the U.S.