Mother’s Day – Why The Culture War With Muslim Fundamentalism Will Last A Hundred Years

Rand Abdel-Qader, 17 years old, butchered by father and brothers for “honour”.

It Is Not About Iraq, Afghanistan Or Even Israeli-Arab Wars – The Conflict Runs Much Deeper Than Mere Territorial Issues

We often hear the idea that at our most basic selves, people around the world are the same because “everybody wants the same thing for themselves and their family”.

What a lie that is. Some cultures are at their very heart so different that there cannot be a meeting of the minds or genuine compromise. We can be aware of other cultures, but we cannot in good conscience possibly accept or validate all other cultures with our polite, politically correct silence.

On this Mother’s Day, think about women in some other cultures who are oppressed and considered little more than chattel. Read about yet another young Muslim girl murdered by her family for “honour”.

But remember this unless you wish to deceive yourself: this is not an “isolated incident” or a father gone mad. This is a common and accepted behaviour in the culture. Indeed, murder of women who violate the simplest of rules is not only accepted in the culture – it is expected of any man who is a true man.

‘My daughter deserved to die for falling in love’

For Abdel-Qader Ali there is only one regret: that he did not kill his daughter at birth. ‘If I had realised then what she would become, I would have killed her the instant her mother delivered her,’ he said with no trace of remorse.

Two weeks after The Observer revealed the shocking story of Rand Abdel-Qader, 17, murdered because of her infatuation with a British solider in Basra, southern Iraq, her father is defiant. Sitting in the front garden of his well-kept home in the city’s Al-Fursi district, he remains a free man, despite having stamped on, suffocated and then stabbed his student daughter to death.

Abdel-Qader, 46, a government employee, was initially arrested but released after two hours. Astonishingly, he said, police congratulated him on what he had done. ‘They are men and know what honour is,’ he said.

What Shall Bajans Call Their New Political Party?

This article was first published in May of 2008 when the truth about the DLP hit home. We’ll leave it posted here for a few days to start the conversation again.

Robert thinks it’s nonsense, but Shona thinks that if the Green Party formally embraced and implemented ITAL (Integrity, Transparency and Accountability Legislation) for its own candidates, the Greens would do some serious damage to the two old guard parties. They wouldn’t win, but they would sure upset the barrel of crabs that call themselves the BLP and DLP.

It is time to begin the discussion folks…

We were told that David Thompson and the DLP would adopt a Ministerial Code immediately upon forming a government. We were even provided with a draft document.

No Ministerial Code was adopted. Why not?

Did Thompson and the DLP only make this promise for expediency during the election? Or did the majority of Government MPs rebel at Thompson’s promise after they achieved power?

We were told that David Thompson and the DLP would not only act with integrity, but that they understood that they must be seen to be acting with integrity. We were told that the DLP and David Thompson understood the necessity of having rules about conflicts of interest. We were promised by David Thompson that his government would act with transparency and integrity.