Israel Suppressing Islamic Culture By Reducing Honor Killings

The conference  called on international bodies such as UNESCO to protect the cherished practice from Israeli “cultural genocide.”

Jerusalem, July 2 – Islamic scholars and leaders gathered in the Jordanian capital city of Amman to denounce Israel for suppressing the ancient Islamic culture by attempting to eliminate the murders of women accused of bringing dishonor on the family.

Clerics and academics convened at the annual conference of the Muslim International Society for Observation of Gender and Youth Needs in Islamic Societies and Territories (MISOGYNIST) to decry Israeli efforts to eliminate honor killings, which occur in Israel chiefly among more traditional tribal elements of the country such as Bedouin. Thousands of honor killings take place every year throughout the Muslim world, whereas in Israel, the number has been reduced to the single digits in recent years, though the phenomenon may be underreported in all countries.

The practice of stoning, stabbing, beating, burning, beheading, hanging, throat slashing, splashing with acid, shooting or strangling a woman because her name has been mentioned in connection with a romantic or sexual liaison the community finds distasteful is not strictly an Islamic practice, but it is far more common in Islamic societies than in, for example, Europe or the US – or Israel, which has led MISOGYNIST to conclude that the Jewish State is trying to suppress this widespread characteristic of Islamic culture.

A MISOGYNIST statement approved by the conference attendees called on the international community to put a stop to what it called Israel’s “barbaric policy of exterminating this aspect of authentic local culture,” and called on international bodies such as UNESCO to protect the cherished practice from Israeli “cultural genocide.” It further called for penalties to be imposed on Israel if the latter fails to meet MISOGYNIST’s demands.

“This organization demands that the Zionist interlopers desist at once from imposing their alien values on Palestine, and allow the authentic native population to conduct its life in peace,” read the statement, in part. “The preservation of family honor represents a cornerstone of our society, unlike Jews, who have never missed an opportunity to push other ethnicities into the sea and make sweeping generalizations about them.”

The MISOGYNIST conference also discussed other pressing issues in the conflict-ridden Muslim world, such as the importance of keeping the descendants of Palestinian refugees from 1948 stateless and second-class in their host countries, in the interest of stability. They also passed a resolution reaffirming the organization’s position that the only way to achieve lasting peace in the region is to remove the country in its midst with the highest per capita income, best health, lowest mortality, most stable economy, and only democratic system.