Killing your child in the name of "honor"

It seems to be a growing trend outside of the Middle East that has crossed over into Western culture with the migration of Islam. If your children disgrace you, kill them.

There is a line where culture and rule of law have to come to an agreement. The line exist because it has been determined that there are things that are not going to be permitted, regardless of the culture one has come from. In the United States, there are no laws that allow for family members to kill family members over matters of "honor," and arranged marriages are something that generally went by the wayside long ago. And yet we are seeing an incident involving both of these situations coming out of Georgia today as a Pakistani man, Chaudhry Rashid, has allegedly killed his daughter, Sandeela Kanwal, after she expressed the desire to be released from an arranged marriage to a man, who lives in Chicago, that she has not seen in months.

According to police, there was "friction between father and victim" in the weeks leading up to the killing. Rashid had not spoken to his daughter in more than two months.

Police said Rashid was so angered that his daughter planned to divorce her husband that he killed her after a heated argument at the family's home, FOX News affiliate MyFoxAtlanta reported.

Police who arrived at the scene said they found Rashid's two sons at the end of the driveway and their father sitting behind a car smoking a cigarette. Officers said that Rashid appeared "distraught and possibly mournful" and told police "my daughter is dead" when they arrived.

After entering the home, Kanwal's body was discovered in the doorway of a bedroom, cold to the touch, officials said.

All indications are that the girl was strangled to death, according to ligature markings on her throat and neck.

So many random thoughts run through the mind in these instances.

So many questions.

There are many times when parents are displeased or disappointed by the desires or actions of their children; there are many times when the inverse is true, as well, and children are disappointed by their parents. There is no excuse, however, in the case of divorce, or the expressed desire for a divorce, that justifies the murder of one's child for seeking to remove themselves from a situation that they find untenable.

Honor killings are carried out for a number of reasons. From refusal or trying to leave an arranged marriage to even finding ones self (female) the victim of a sexual assault, the results wind up being the same; a woman is killed at the hands of a man or men for bringing about "dishonor."

I'm curious how someone who has been the victim of a sexual assault is the one doing the dishonoring? That line of thinking seems to be inverted, in my way of thinking. And it would seem that the law is on my side in this matter.

The First Amendment to the Constitution of the United States states, "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances." This is another one of those things in which a mountain is made of a mole hill in it's meaning. There is no "seperation of church and state" implied here other than that "Congress shall make NO LAW respecting the establishment of religion or prohibiting the free expression thereof."

Law's prohibiting murder are not a prohibition of "the free expression thereof."

Western culture is at a crossroads, and many do not seem to realize the very nature of the situation at hand as it plays out daily in towns and communities across the area once referred to as Western Christendom. The foundations of nations and their cultures are being challenged by an influx of a mind-set that has not, in some instances, left the Middle Ages and progressed into modern time. One can not refer to ones self as being "progressive" in ones thinking when one is allowing a mindset that victimizes the victim.

The "honor killings" are a misnomer. There is no honor, nor is there valor, in the murder of one's child for seeking to leave a marriage.

Once and Always, an American Fighting Man

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Breaking - Body of Missing Vermont Girl Possibly Found

After a week of searching and investigating, Vermont law enforcement officials believe that they have located the body of 12 year old Brooke Bennett.

Police have announced that the body, presumed to be the missing Bennett, was found on property near Crocker Road in Bethel, Vermont, near the home of Bennett's uncle Michael Jacques, who has been under investigation for the girls disappearance. The body was found around 4:45 pm EST, after which the girls parents were informed that police believed that they had found the missing girls remains. An autopsy has been scheduled to confirm the identity and cause of death.

It's been a week filled with rumors and speculations as the search for the missing girl was underway, including tales of an initiation into a sex ring, sexual abuse, rape, and now homicide. The rumors have been hard on Bennett's family during the week that the girl has been missing.

Missing poster signs hang in the windows of storefronts in downtown Randolph, where Brooke Bennett was last seen on Wednesday morning. On many, people have added the words, 'still missing.' That's because there have been rumors that the young girl was found dead yesterday in Sunset Lake in Brookfield.

"There was an issue yesterday in South Royalton that they were taking posters down," said Brooke's father, Jim Bennett. "She wasn't found dead. The rumors aren't true."

The rumor wasn't just spread by word of mouth. On the social networking Web site, Facebook, people were writing on a special "Find Brook(e) Bennett" page that the 12-year-old was dead.

Adding to the rumors are allegations of an affidavit filed in district court by a 14 year old girl who alleges that she was involved with 42 year old Michael Jacques, Bennett's uncle, in taking the girl to Jacques home for initiation into a child sex ring. The 14 year old alleges that she herself has had an ongoing sexual relationship with Jacques, and that part of Bennett's initiation into the ring was that she was to have sex with adult males.

The teenager said she understood that as part of the initiation, Brooke "would have sex with adult males," according to the affidavit in U.S. District Court.

She and Brooke watched television for a while before Jacques told her to leave and took Brooke upstairs, the teen said. The girl left the house with her boyfriend and did not see Brooke again, she said.

Bennett's stepfather, Ray Gagnon, 40, of San Antonio, Texas, was to appear in court on Wednesday on charges of destroying evidence in Bennett's disappearance. If convicted, he could face life in prison for obstructing justice.

More as this story develops.

Once and Always, an American Fighting Man

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Woman Stabs her Daughter Claiming Child Possessed by Demons

One has to wonder if there wasn't some indication that this was going to happen. One has to wonder if there were not indications that could have alerted someone that there was a problem that was brewing. One has to wonder, could there not have been some sign, some symptom, that was evident that could have prevented the death of a six year old little girl?

A Waukegan woman charged with fatally stabbing her 6-year-old daughter initially told police the girl was possessed, attacked her with a knife in bed and slammed her into a wall before the mother grabbed the weapon and slashed her daughter's neck, Lake County prosecutors said in court Tuesday.

Nelly Vazquez-Salazar, 25, later admitted there was no attack and that she stabbed her daughter, Evelyn Vazquez, after she awoke and found the girl on her bed holding a knife, they said.

Sobbing throughout her bond hearing, Vazquez-Salazar listened through a Spanish interpreter as prosecutor Stephen Scheller laid out to Circuit Judge Dan Shanes the details to support first-degree murder charges against her.

Investigators have stated that from all accounts, after interviewing the little girls teachers and others who knew her, the demon possession claim by her mother was far from the truth, with one investigator stating, "she was an angel."

Neighbors say they were awakened by Vazquez-Salazar at around 4:30 in the morning, finding Vazquez-Salazar pounding on their door, hysterical and begging to use the telephone to call 911. 6 year old Evelyn was found dead in her bedroom from multiple stab wounds to her upper body and neck, according to Coroner Richard Keller. Her mother was found to have cuts on her arms and hands. She was not injured when she called for help from the neighbors apartment.

Vazquez-Salazar remains in custody pending a $5 million bail. She has been charged with first degree murder; her next court date is set for May 1st. Police say that there are no indications of drug or alcohol abuse, nor problems with mental illness in her background.

My question is: what snapped. What happened. What makes a woman who has been a mother for 6 years suddenly take a knife and attack her child with it, killing her?

It frankly baffles me.

I'm sure that there will be no conclusive answers to come from this case. At least nothing satisfactory to explain why a mother would kill her own child, especially in such a horrendous way. Psychologists will attempt to offer all sorts of explanations at her trial. Lawyers will make claims of this and that about how the woman is a victim of some societal ill or another in an attempt to get her off the hook, probably on some sort of insanity plea.

Whatever the reason, whatever the real motivation was for this, there is one thing that to me is clear. The demon wasn't in the child...

Once and Always, an American Fighting Man


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Judge Denies Bail for Accused Chicago Teen Gunman

Two Chicago area teens, one 19 and one 17, are being held on first degree murder charges for a Saturday shooting outside Simeon Career Academy. The 19 year old is being held in lieu of a $1million bail, the 17 without bail.

Circuit Judge Adam Bourgeois Jr. set bail at $1 million for 19 year old Ronald Little and denied bail for 17 year old Samuel Hill in the parking lot of Simeon Career Academy shooting this year, which left 18 year old Chavez Clarke dead on Saturday, the 20th this year for Chicago Public Schools. Two other teens were arrested in relation to the shooting but released without charges.

Prosecutors Monday said Little pulled a gun from his waistband after he and his three friends were approached in the parking lot of the school by a large, unarmed crowd. An argument broke out. Hill took the gun from his friend and fired the shot that struck Clarke, officials said.

As Hill and his friends ran off, Hill handed the gun back to Little, prosecutors said. When police responded to reports of shots being fired near the school they saw Little drop the weapon, police said.

Hill's lawyer, Howard Weisman, stated that they shooting was in self-defense, and that the men had been confronted by around 18 people in the parking lot. Both he and Gresham Police Cmdr. Eddie Johnson said that there had been previous altercations between the two men and Clarke.

The incident was captured mostly on the schools surveillance equipment and is being examined. Johnson said that he believed that Saturday was chosen by Hill and Little because they thought that there would be fewer security guards and police in the vicinity.

Both teens admitted their involvements in sworn video statements to the police.

School leaders and Chicago Public Schools chief Arne Duncan met with Simeon students behind closed doors this morning, and later made statements in which they called for more gun control. Current Illinois law prohibits the sale of handguns to persons under the age of 21. Hill and Little are both in their teens.

Duncan also compared the two teens to al-Qaeda, stating, "These are basically suicide missions. They are not just destroying somebody else's life, they are destroying their own. They are done forever."

Once and Always, an American Fighting Man


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Breaking: Body Found in Mall Bathroom

in the second incident in two days, Mesa, Arizona police have had to respond to the Fiesta Mall after a body was discovered in a bathroom near the food court, prompting a homicide investigation.

Police responded yesterday to the stabbing of a 22 year-old man at Macy's, who suffered non life-threatening injuries.

Police said the suspect grabbed the victim from behind, then stabbed him with a knife once in the neck and three times in the stomach.

The victim tried to get away, and walked toward a cash register, according to authorities.

Police are unsure at this time if the two incidents are related, and investigations are underway in both incidents.

At this time police have no suspects in either case.

More on this story as it develops.

[Update-] The stabbing from Sunday and tonights murder are connected, according to police.

Police say that two recent stabbings at Fiesta Mall are related, and they have a suspect in custody.

Once and Always, an American Fighting Man


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