Sharia law in action, no coverage on BBC news as yet...

'Police in Kahta, Turkey say they have recovered the body of a 16-year-old girl they say relatives buried alive in a so-called "honor" killing as punishment for talking to boys.

Turkish police found the girl's corpse after following up on an anonymous tip. The tipster told police that the family killed the girl shortly after deciding her fate at a family council meeting. Her body was then buried under a chicken pen.

The girl's family then reported her missing to the police. Police say that the girl had complained two months earlier that her grandfather beat her for talking to boys. Police, who identified the girl only by her initials, M.M., said she had significant amount of soil in her stomach and lungs, indicating she had been buried while still alive. "The autopsy result is blood-curdling. According to our findings, the girl – who had no bruises on her body and no sign of narcotics or poison in her blood – was alive and fully conscious when she was buried," one source reported. Police have arrested the girl's father, mother and grandfather. The mother has been released, but the father and grandfather remain in jail awaiting trial. The case is expected to bring highlight the issue of so-called "honor" killings in Turkey. Official statistics show that more than 200 such killings occur each year, accounting for nearly half of all murders in Turkey.'

More here http://patdollard.com/2013/06/religion-of-peace-strikes-again-muslims-bury-16-year-old-girl-alive-for-talking-to-boys-in-honor-killing/

Nothing on the BBC.

Buried alive for talking; the wonders of Islamic honour killings

The Guardian report that:

"Turkish police have recovered the body of a 16-year-old girl they say was buried alive by relatives in an "honour" killing carried out as punishment for talking to boys.

The girl, who has been identified only by the initials MM, was found in a sitting position with her hands tied, in a two-metre hole dug under a chicken pen outside her home in Kahta, in the south-eastern province of Adiyaman.

...

The informant told the police she had been killed following a family "council" meeting.

Her father and grandfather are said to have been arrested and held in custody pending trial. It is unclear whether they have been charged. The girl's mother was arrested but was later released.

Media reports said the father had told relatives he was unhappy that his daughter – one of nine children – had male friends. The grandfather is said to have beaten her for having relations with the opposite sex.

A postmortem examination revealed large amounts of soil in her lungs and stomach, indicating that she had been alive and conscious while being buried. Her body showed no signs of bruising.

...

Official figures have indicated that more than 200 such killings take place each year, accounting for around half of all murders in Turkey."

Murdered by being buried as punishment for talking to boys; what a wonderful tradition "honour killing" is.

Banoz Mahmood (an update)

Banoz Mahmood was the young English Muslim girl who "was brutally raped, stamped on and strangled by members of her family and their friends in an "honor killing" carried out at her London home because she had fallen in love with the wrong man." You can see my previous postings about this girl's case here, here and here.

Today I read in the Daily Mail that "Honour killing victim Banaz Mahmod was failed by police when she turned to them for protection, an investigation has ruled.

The 20-year-old Muslim begged police for help four times before her brutal murder at the hands of her father and her uncle.

Her fears were not taken seriously, even after she smashed her way out of her grandmother's house to escape her family's first attempt at killing her.

The police officer who took her statement, PC Angela Cornes, dismissed her account as fantasy and wanted to charge her with criminal damage because she broke a window during her escape, her Old Bailey murder trial was told."

Do read the rest and maybe watch this piece of video from Sky news...

Banoz Mahmood (more information)

I make no apologies for returning to this subject as it is a story that has a message for us all. Some more news has emerged from the trial of Banoz Mahmood's father and uncle for her murder, they were found guilty of this last week. The Reuters report tells us that Banoz Mahmood "was brutally raped, stamped on and strangled by members of her family and their friends in an "honor killing" carried out at her London home because she had fallen in love with the wrong man...Banaz Mahmod, 20, was subjected to the 2-1/2 hour ordeal before she was garroted with a bootlace. Her body was stuffed into a suitcase and taken about 100 miles to Birmingham where it was buried in the back garden of a house...In the recordings, transcripts of which were relayed to the court, Hama and his friend are hearing laughing as he described how she was killed with Banaz's uncle "supervising". "I was kicking and stamping on her neck to get the soul out. I saw her stark naked, only wearing pants or underwear," Hama is recorded as saying."

Remember this story the next time the phrase "Honour Killing" is used, there was not a lot of honour in this killing.

Banoz Mahmood

I blogged in June about the murder of Banoz Mahmood. I have just read that her father has received a "life sentence", of course life does not mean life so "Mahmod Mahmod was told that he would serve a minimum of 20 years for the murder of Banaz Mahmod. Her uncle, Ari Mahmod, was also jailed for life and told he would serve a minimum of 23 years" This report describes Mahmod Mahmod as "a strict Muslim father". The BBC however are still describing Mahmod Mahmod as "her Iraqi Kurd father", still the BBC cannot bring themselves to mention the 'M' word despite the following facts emerging during the court case (all quotes are from the Times on-line article referenced above) "A father of six and a strict Muslim, he ruled the family home with a rod of iron. When Bekhal, an older sister, wore Western dress her father called her a whore, beat her and demanded that she wear the veil...Because Mr Sulemani was not a strict Muslim and not from the Mirawaldy region, Miss Mahmod's father ruled that she would never marry him. To enforce this point, she was taken to a Kurdish home in Sheffield and beaten for two weeks. On her return, the couple continued to meet in secret...In January last year, Mohamad Hama, 30, along with other Kurdish men, attempted to bundle Mr Sulemani into a car. As Mr Sulemani escaped, Hama shouted after him: "We are Muslim and Kurdish. We are not like the English where you can be boyfriend and girlfriend.""

Why are the BBC so squeamish about the 'M' word? Don't worry, I will explain why they are so "squeamish" soon...

BBC shhhh don't mention the M word

I was listening to the news on BBC radio (I can't remember if it was Radio 4 or 5Live) about the Kurdish girl murdered by some of her relatives in Birmingham last year in a so-called "honour killing". I had heard of this case before and assumed that she and her family were Muslim and the boyfriend wasn't, I had even thought of blogging about the BBC's reluctance to ever bring a negative view of Islam into any news report. Then I heard the piece on BBC radio yesterday that said both of the families were Kurdish and it was a difference in tribes. I felt somewhat ashamed that I had jumped to the wrong conclusion and was glad that I had not blogged about this issue.

Then this article on Reuters was brought to my attention and I see that I was right in my assumptions - "Her family decided to kill her because they believed the relationship had shamed them as Suleimani was an Iranian Kurd and not a strict Muslim." Maybe the BBC are now covering this part of the story, here is the relevant BBC news web page, can you see any mention of religion? The BBC prefer to say "Miss Mahmod was killed after falling in love with a man her family did not want her to marry. Her father and uncle ordered the murder because they believed she had shamed the family, the three-month trial heard."

Now I feel doubly mislead by the BBC, their coverage on this case was so biased that it actually made me feel that I had jumped to a wrong and biased conclusion and that I was guilty of assuming that this case might have a Muslim angle.


Some more extracts from the Reuters article that I think deserve further publicity and it sure isn't going to get any on the BBC. "Honour killings were almost unheard of in Britain until a few years ago but police and the Crown Prosecution Service now estimate there are about a dozen such murders a year." That's around 12 young woman killed every year for falling in love with someone who follows (or comes from a family that follows) a different religion.

"Campaigners say that the issue was misunderstood and that the authorities had been unwilling to get involved in minority community matters for fear of being culturally insensitive." "Hannana Siddiqui of Southall Black Sisters, an organisation experienced in dealing with honour killings, said the authorities were worried about being seen to be heavy handed. That's often been the reason why agencies like the police and social services have not wanted to get involved in cases of abuse within communities because they think it would be culturally insensitive to do so," she told Reuters." Culturally insensitive... people are being killed, if that is part of someone's culture, then it bloody well shouldn't be!

UPDATE - A sad addendum to this story is this article about Banoz Mahmood's sister, Bekhal. This story gets sadder and sadder and I get angrier and angrier that this is happening in this country