Muslim clerics denouce honour killings in sermons
Posted December 9, 2011 2:56 pm.
This article is more than 5 years old.
Some Muslim clerics in Canada are banding together to denounce domestic violence and remind their followers that violence against women has no place in their religion.
The imams are devoting their Friday sermons to the subject, saying the Qu’ran grants men and women equal status.
Calgary imam Syed Soharwardy says the Islamic holy text denounces violence against women and requires men to treat all family members with kindness.
He says the scripture forbids Muslims from taking the law into their own hands and killing family members who threaten their honour.
The co-ordinated sermons come amid an ongoing murder trial in Kingston, Ont., in which two parents and their son are accused of killing four women over family honour.
Mohammad Shafia, 58, his wife Tooba Yahya, 41, and their son Hamed, 20, have each pleaded not guilty to four counts of first-degree murder in the deaths of three teenage Shafia sisters and Shafia’s first wife in a polygamous marriage.
