Killings In The Family

I will admit the story out of Dallas is what planted the seeds for this post. Namely the brutal double murder of Sarah and Amina by their father. But I have held off on posting about it because all I thought I would do is push forward, again, the concept of Islam condoning such barbaric acts.

Mr. Said might try to hide behind the concept of honor killing is part of Islam and that his daughters shamed him by daring to date without his permission, but a typical American father is not going to kill their daughters for dating someone they do not approve of. If this held true every time there was such disapproval, then there would be graveyards full of dead teenagers.

Then there is the horrible case out of Alabama of Lam Luong, age 37. After an argument with his 23 year old wife, he takes their four children – he first took two and then came back for the other two, all under the age of 3 and apparently threw them all off a bridge in Bayou La Batre. Luong is now in custody facing four counts of murder as authorities try to locate the bodies even as he now claims he confessed to killing the children to stop the police from interrogating him.

Then ABC News puts together a pretty decent article on parents killing their children in the United States. They call the act familicide. They mention the Luong case plus Benoit killing his son and wife before killing himself. But they lead off with the horrific case of Banita Jacks in Washington D.C. When police entered the house, they found the bodies of four girls ranging in age from 5 to 17. Ms. Jacks, 33, claims all of them were possessed by demons and had died in their sleep. Naturally she is charged with four counts of murder even as police try to ascertain cause of death and whether all four were Ms. Jacks’ children.

I think ABC in this case comes closer to the truth than many bloggers who are screaming about honor killing. Does Islam need to be more forceful in stamping out the mistaken assumption the religion condones such acts? Yes it does need to be more forceful with this, perhaps one of those Saudi clerics issuing fatwas over goats can break away to issue a serious fatwa instead condemning these acts. Thus stripping away from Mr. Said the tissue-thin lie he clutches close to his heart to justify his evil killing of his own daughters.

In all three cases, the suspects need to be hauled before the American legal system and the charges against them heard by a jury of peers. If the evidence is there and it looks like it is, then that jury should find all three guilty and all three to suffer the punishment for killing their children so they can be sent to a Higher Authority for a more competent judgement.

Postscript: After I finished writing this post I looked at the links contained on the ABC News article and I am totally shocked and appalled at this story. Lawrence Douglas Harris Sr is being held in the murders of his two step-daughters. Firefighters and police responded to calls of a house on fire. Once the flames were put out, they found upstairs the bodies of 10 year old Kendra and her 8 year old sister Alysha. Both had been strangled and stabbed. As the mother grieves for her daughters and the girls' extended family struggle with their own grief, the explanation that is offered is incredible. Apparently the little girls were killed because Mr. Harris Sr had mis-cast a spell. You heard me right, a spell gone wrong and two beautiful little girls are dead. And this happened in Sioux City Iowa. My heart goes out to all the families in all these tragedies.