Domestic Violence Respects No Religion
I've listened to Rod Dreher of The Dallas Morning News go on and on about the killings of two high school girls by their abusive father, a Muslim immigrant from Egypt. Rod Dreher repeatedly told us the tragedy had all the earmarks of an "honor killing". You know, something demanded by the father's religion and culture. Which is Islam, in case you missed it. The man just had to do it, being Muslim and all. It's not that he was an abusive husband and father. It's that he was a good Muslim. After all, Americans don't have "honor killings." Muslims do. Got it?
There was something about Dreher's coverage that made me feel, ... well, icky. It was as if Dreher had no real interest in the victims. As if he welcomed the story as evidence of his theory that Muslims are the source of evil in the world and, if good Christians don't wake up, America will be overrun by Muslims and our Christian daughters will all be killed, too.
Today, Megan Feldman of Unfair Park reveals that she had similar feelings, but she expresses herself much better than I. Her story points out the evil that led to the killings, the sad fact that domestic violence knows no cultural or religious boundaries, and the reprehensible behavior of journalists who exploit the tragedy to advance their own anti-immigrant, anti-Muslim agenda. All of us should take Feldman's conclusion to heart:
"So why don't people stop shouting about the evils of Islam and start talking about how to protect women and children who have been so brutalized, and are utterly dominated by their abusers that they are powerless to protect themselves? It happens all the time, and not just in immigrant families."
2 comments:
Dreher should be made to sit through a screening of "The Magdalene Sisters" and then try to say that Muslims are the only ones who treat their "errant" daughters brutally.
Dreher should be made to interview the family. They've lost their daughters and sisters. What do they have left? Their faith in God, the comfort of religion? Dreher can diss that, too, for them.
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