Pakistani Father Slays 4 Daughters in 'Honor Killings'
Sunday, December 25, 2005
MULTAN, Pakistan — A father, angry that his eldest daughter
had married against his wishes, slit her throat as she slept
and then killed three of his other daughters in a remote
village in eastern Pakistan, police said Saturday.
IMHO:
What a idiot- he is a selfish fool and
deserves to die.
Nazir Ahmad, a laborer in his 40s, feared the younger girls,
aged 4, 8, and 12, would follow in their sister's footsteps,
police officer Shahzad Gul said.
Ahmad surrendered to police after the killings late Friday
and was arrested
Ahmad contacted Bibi this week, saying he was ready to
forgive her, Gul said.
During a visit by Bibi to her parents' house, Ahmad slit her
throat as she slept and then killed the other three girls,
Gul said. He said police were investigating whether other
relatives helped in the killings and were also looking for
Bibi's husband.
Gul said police are looking for Bibi's husband to inform him
of her death.
Hundreds of women are killed in Pakistan every year, many
by male relatives, after they are accused of staining their
families' honor by having affairs or marrying for love
without family consent.
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Muslim Christmas in Senegal
Saturday, December 24, 2005
DAKAR, Senegal — Hundreds of young men decked with
tinsel wander outside Senegal's mosques, hawking plastic
Christmas trees.
Women pray to Allah on a sidewalk where an inflatable
Santa Claus happens to be hanging.
Senegal may be 95 percent Muslim, but it certainly knows
it's Christmas.
In fact, for this nation of 12 million it's a national holiday.
Senegalese revel in the trappings of Christmas because
they can and want to.
Muslims recognize Jesus Christ as a prophet, but don't
generally celebrate the date of his birth.
Many Muslim societies discourage Christmas hoopla.
But Senegalese say they have a long history of tolerance
and coexistence with Christians, so why not share
Christmas?
"Officially, we Muslims don't celebrate Christmas.
But the Catholics are our neighbors.
So, we all celebrate all the religious holidays,"
said El Hadj Diop, 60, sitting in front of his African
antique store.
"We share the same houses, even graveyards,"
Diop said. "It has been the same for years."
Islam arrived at this western tip of Africa hundreds of
years ago, borne across the Sahara by slave and spice
traders from the north.
Few Muslim women in Senegal wear head scarves or cover
up in robes.
Nightclubs party until dawn, although the drink of choice
is more likely juice than booze.
Christians and Muslims alike wear "gris-gris," magic
charms meant to ward off bad luck.
Unlike in countries such as Saudi Arabia, where images
of humans are taboo, Senegalese Muslims paint pictures
of their spiritual leaders on the sides of buses.
Most of Senegal's Christians live in the south, far from
Dakar, and the capital has only a few churches and nothing
resembling a nativity display.
******Christians say they welcome the solidarity and
repay it by partaking in Islamic holidays.
"People here believe in God; it's what nourishes us and
binds us," said Eric Midahuen, a Christian who works in
a spectacles store next door to Diop's antiques shop.
"It's our tradition, this cohabitation. When we're born
and baptized our Muslim neighbors are there.
They help us all the way, even into the grave," said the
40-year-old father of two.
"We're all the same before God, who allows us to
recognize him in all others."
"The Quran says Muslims mustn't
force their religion on others.
Aggression has no place in Islam,"
he says.
This is the life we should all live, side by side
in peace together.
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