Honor Killings

The Critics Accuse the Quran of promoting Honour Killings

Lately, honour killings have been brought to the fore in the media (UK),the victims of honour killings generally tend to be females who have deemed to have dishonoured their family by a sexual indiscretion (perceived or actual) or by dating. Interestingly enough, honour killings affect the West as well as the East. It is a world-wide problem where family members essentially murder their relatives by acting as judge, jury and executioner.

The unfortunate thing for Muslims is that this blight on society (honour killings) have been attributed to the Quran or Islam while other communities who also suffer from the problem of honour killings (ie Hindus, Sikhs etc) do not have the added problem of over-zealous critics pointing at their religion or religious book. The Muslims have to contend with these unfair critics.
The facts of the matter are that hononour killings are not Islamic as highlighted by Sheikh Ahmad Kutty:

“There is no such concept in Islam that is called “honor killing”. Islam holds every soul in high esteem and does not allow any transgression upon it. It does not allow people to take the law in their own hands and administer justice, because doing so will be leading to chaos and lawlessness. Therefore, based on this, Islam does not permit such killings.” (1)

Further reading:

http://www.islamonline.net/servlet/Satellite?pagename=IslamOnline-English-Ask_Scholar/FatwaE/FatwaE&cid=1119503543392

http://www.questionsaboutislam.com/women-in-islam/islam-honour-killing.php

References

1. http://www.islamonline.net/servlet/Satellite?pagename=IslamOnline-English-Ask_Scholar/FatwaE/FatwaE&cid=1119503543392