Another Muslim Girl Decomposing
James Orr, with news services, writes for The Guardian:
The teenager Shafilea Ahmed was described as a bright and intelligent young woman who wanted to go to university and become a lawyer. But the 17-year-old was "torn" between her ambitions, and her family and religion, her inquest at Kendal county hall in Cumbria heard.The young girl, who received a traditional Pakistani upbringing, confided in her teachers that she feared being forced into an arranged marriage.
She later went missing from her family home in Warrington, Cheshire, in September 2003.
In February 2004, five months on, her badly decomposed body was found on the banks of the Kent river at Sedgwick, in Cumbria.
Ahmed was most likely strangled or suffocated, according to pathologists. No one has been charged over her death and her parents, Iftikhar and Farzana Ahmed, deny any involvement in her disappearance.
Giving evidence, Ahmed's friends and teachers revealed how the teenager had once arrived at school with a cut lip and bruising on her neck.
She allegedly said one of her parents had held her down while the other one beat her. Her father denied the claim.
Contrast this with the commenters who pop in here (in between all the sane and rational commenters) to opine that Islam is "no worse" than any other religion. I'm no fan of the belief, without evidence, in god, no matter what flavor it comes in -- but my friends who grew up Catholic, and kids I went to temple with when I was growing up, all actually were allowed to grow up.
What's with these people who are so determined to believe in this "I'm Okay/Mohammed Atta's Okay" vision of the world? At what point do they wake up? Is there any hope of waking them up? And if so, how?