Comments on: Iraqis protest horrific stoning of Kurdish girl

By: USpace

USpace — Mon, 09 Jul 2007 00:40:08 +0000

These people are barbaric, if it is their culture, it is barbaric and inferior…

.
absurd thought -
God of the Universe says
fathers may kill their daughters

if they feel dishonored
like when she dates the wrong boy
.

By: Bob Morris

Bob Morris — Thu, 10 May 2007 01:47:18 +0000

She was Kurdish and not Muslim. That 23 Muslims were killed in retaliation suggests that others see a distinction too…

By: Joe Hartley

Joe Hartley — Wed, 09 May 2007 23:50:16 +0000

My comment was prompted by the second sentence in paragraph 2:

“This is important. When blood-drenched violence spirals into insanity (and thereÃ¢â‚¬â„¢s already been a retribution killing of 23 Kurds by Muslims) letÃ¢â‚¬â„¢s all take a deep breath and remember that many people there oppose what happened too”

“Killing of 23 Kurds by Muslims” to me suggests a distinction between Kurds and Muslims, which was why I wrote the original post.

(Note: I wish blogging software gave some ability to format text in responses!)

By: Bob Morris

Bob Morris — Mon, 07 May 2007 20:34:47 +0000

Joe, did you think our esteemed and learned Polizeros readers would not know Kurds are an ethnic group and Islam is a religion?

The girl was Yezidi, not Muslim, something which was reported as being part of the reason for the atrocity. Some thought she’d converted.

http://altreligion.about.com/library/faqs/bl_yezidism.htm

The boy is in hiding, fearing for his life.

By: DJ

DJ — Mon, 07 May 2007 19:38:41 +0000

Honor killings persist in various places throughout the Islamic world where certain traditional and extremist interpretations of Islamic law hold sway, including India and our buddies Pakistan. Would that this were an isolated incident, but alas it is not.

I would also add that not all interpretations of the Koran are this severe– just as not all interpretations of the Bible call for Crusades. (The War in Iraq is seen by some as a Holy War.)

By: Joe Hartley

Joe Hartley — Mon, 07 May 2007 14:25:23 +0000

Small point, Bob: most Kurds ARE Muslims. Muslim indicates religion; Kurd indicates ethnicity and linguistic differences (Kurdish is a member of the satem branch of the Indo-European language family [along with Aremnian Farsi and Armenian], whereas Arabic is a Semetic language and Turkish and its cousins are Ural-Altaic (linked structurally, ironically, with Korean and Japanese.))

To make matter somewhat more complicated, most Kurds are Sunni Muslims. Most of the area surrounding the Kurds is populated either by Arab Sunni or by Turks (also Sunni). The Arab Shi’a are more to the south and east, and, of course, the Iranians to the east tend to be Shi’a (about 60%, notwithstanding the theocracy in Iran).

It’s complicated, but no more so than American politics!