'Honor killings' in Canada: 5 responses to the Shafia verdict

Here are five opinions and editorials published in Canadian news outlets after the guilty verdict, which carried a sentence of life in prison with no parole for 25 years.

- Whitney Eulich, Staff Writer

2. No religious community has monopoly on violence against women

Editorial, The Toronto Star

“The case so shocked Canada’s Muslim community that prominent leaders and scholars felt moved to decry the fiction that Islam condones such mistreatment of women. 'Murder is … haram (prohibited) to the severest degree,' warned Imam Sikander Ziad Hashmi of the Islamic Society of Kingston, 'and cannot be justified in any way.' That message was firmly reinforced by imams in mosques across the nation.

To be sure, no religious or social community has a monopoly on violence against women. The hundreds of shelters across Canada for abused women and children are proof enough that this blight cuts across religious and cultural borders.

But the Shafia case struck a nerve with Muslims because Mohammad Shafia sought to justify murder on the grounds that the women 'betrayed us,' 'betrayed Islam,' and betrayed 'our (family) honour.' As the trial showed, it was Shafia, his wife and son who betrayed both their faith and their family by terrorizing those close to them, stooping to violence and then lying under oath.”