Honor Killings and Political Correctness

A 20-year-old was allegedly run over by her father for being westernized, and bloggers wonder at the lack of media coverage

Yesterday, Noor Almaleki of Arizona died of injuries sustained when her father allegedly ran her over in his Jeep in what officials called an attempted honor killing. The twenty-year-old Almaleki had apparently become, according to The Arizona Republic, "too Westernized." In the past few days, the incident has caused a furor among conservative bloggers. Why? They believe that political correctness has prevented the story from getting picked up in the mainstream press. Are big media sources too wary of discussing honor killings? Right-wing bloggers think so:

• What If Christians Were Doing This?   "Imagine for a moment," suggests Patrick Edaburn at The Moderate Voice, "that a segment of the Southern Baptist Church was supporting the idea of parents killing their teenage daughters for going out on dates." Public outcry would ("rightly," he adds) be instantaneous. "Media figures like Bill Maher would go ballistic, labeling the entire Christian Church with such behavior." He wonders why this hasn't been the case with honor killings. "I am not suggesting that this behavior represents the mainstream of any faith," he says. "But it is something that ought to be condemned regardless of where it is being done and the PC silence on the topic is disturbing."

• Honor Killings and Islam  At Pajamas Media, Phyllis Chesler wonders why no Muslims have emerged with the "usual" argument that "this was not an 'honor killing' or that if it was, it has nothing to do with Islam or with Muslims." She also points to an earlier case in which some argued that "focusing sensationally on Muslim domestic violence only was not only racist but also served to render invisible the much larger incidence of both domestic violence and domestically violent femicide." She argues that such arguments, while reasonable, "[miss] the point, namely, that apples are not oranges, and that honor killings are not like western domestically violent femicides."

• Either Forfeit Your Jeep or Ditch the 'Culture' Argument  The National Review's Mark Steyn is outraged by a quote from the girl's brother: "One thing to one culture doesn’t make sense to another culture." Steyn lets loose:

This would be a less ludicrous argument if Mr. Almaleki hadn't run down his daughter in a Jeep Grand Cherokee. It's all a bit culture à la carte, isn't it? Infidel motor vehicles, fine. Infidel guarantees on individual rights, no way.

• Media? Hello?  Dan Riehl at Riehl World View sarcastically laments that the slain girl "wasn't a census worker," and thus worthy of greater coverage. "I went looking for different stories to see what I might find out," he writes. The result? "Not a single Google News link except for The Examiner and the Freepers picked it up. That's it. End of story. That's surprising for something of a sensational crime." Riehl says the case shows "just how sensitive American media has become when it comes to potentially offending Muslims."