The Honor Killing of Gays: Islam and the Left

The very idea that killing one’s son could be an honor because the son is gay is profoundly disturbing and rather difficult to fathom.  Yet, it appears that this is what Yahya Yildiz did to his son, Yamet Yildiz.  In the name of family honor and the honor of Islam, Yahya killed his son Yamet who, it would appear, was a quite talented young man in one of the most difficult of all fields, namely physics.  In terms of honor killing generally and, in particular, the honor killing of gays, Islam stands alone among the three monotheistic religions.

While many in traditional Christianity regard homosexuality as a sin, Christianity has never counseled killing gays; and there has been no practice of killing of gays as a form of honor among Christians.  The same holds for Judaism.  Indeed, it is very difficult to cite a passage from either the Old or the New Testament that would warrant the idea that killing gays is justified in the name of honor.  Thus, in this regard Islam stands alone among the three monotheistic religions.

It is often pointed out by defenders of Islam that it is a religion of peace.  I shall not debate that claim.  It suffices that many adherents of Islam have found a way to justify honor killing in the name of Islam—so much so that honor killings of some form or the other have been widely practiced in Islamic countries.  It will be remembered that there were honor killings of gays in Iraq.

Consider the following words from Surah 1 of the Quran:

190. Fight in the cause of Allah those who fight you, but do not transgress limits; for Allah loveth not transgressors.

191. And slay them wherever ye catch them, and turn them out from where they have Turned you out; for tumult and oppression are worse than slaughter; but fight them not at the Sacred Mosque, unless they (first) fight you there; but if they fight you, slay them. Such is the reward of those who suppress faith.

The proper context for the above words may very well be that when Islam has been and is under attack.  Alas, what we know about human beings generally is that they are able to be very creative in extending the applicability of a passage if that is what they want to do.  Indeed, while the Quran itself never mentions suicide killers, any number of imams have a found a way of justifying such behavior in the name of Islam itself.  This is made abundantly clear by Farhad Khosrokhavar’s book, Allah’s New Martyrs.

Now, the Left can see that wrong of Christianity in just about any objectionable behavior that takes place, even when it is not common practice among Christians to commit such behavior and even when in fact Christians generally object to such behavior.

As we know, abortion-clinics have been bombed and doctors who perform abortions have been murdered by so-called radical Christians.  Many on the Left are quick to blame Christianity in general, notwithstanding the fact that it is not remotely plausible to construe Christianity as condoning such a thing and notwithstanding the fact that any person who does such a thing is part of a very fringe Christian group of the obnoxious Westboro Baptist Church variety.

The point here is this: Although honor killings—including the honor killing of gays—have considerable standing in Islamic countries, and nothing of the sort holds for countries throughout the world where Christianity dominates, the Left does not bother to criticize this aspect of Islam at all.  Quite the contrary, the Left seems to have a fetish for blaming George Bush for anything about the United States that they do not like rather than have the honesty to admit that there are some egregious forms of social injustice in the world that have nothing whatsoever to do with any ineptitude on the part of Bush.

President Barrack Obama seems to think that the United States has been so wrongheaded about so much that he needs to issue apologies for America to people all around the world.  Yet, he cannot seem to find a way to express his concern about the truly oppressive practices that prevail in Islamic countries and which are done in the name of Islam even if, alas, it turns out that strictly speaking the Quran itself does not license those practices.  It is in fact rather difficult to imagine George Bush being that intellectually agile with words.  Not so with Obama, however; for he is easily one of the most gifted speakers that America has seen in years.

It is equally disconcerting that Nancy Pelosi does not seem have anything to say about some of the horrific practices of Islam.  Then, too, where is Oprah Winfrey?  Nor have we heard anything from Hollywood.

The horror over the torture and killing of the gay student Matthew Shepard (1998) almost transmogrified into a day of national morning.  Surely, the Left does not think that the life of a citizen of the United States has greater moral worth than the life of a citizen of Turkey.  And consistency requires holding that if the United States is morally obnoxious in its failure to be fully accepting of gays, then the same moral assessment holds for any other country, be it Islamic or Christian or Jewish.  That is, in order for the Left to criticize Islam, it would have to acknowledge that there is indeed an objective morality; and that right and wrong is not just about who can yell the loudest or get the most votes.  The Left does not have the courage to do that; and Islamic radicals are counting upon that very reality.

Honor killings will continue in Islamic countries.  Likewise, the Left will continue to find a way to ignore that reality.