From Yahoo News:

An Iraqi man killed his 19-year-old daughter after he discovered al-Qaida had recruited her as a suicide bomber in an area north of Baghdad, a police spokesman said on Friday.

Al-Qaida has been recruiting women for suicide attacks because they can pass police checkpoints easier than men by concealing explosives under an abaya, a loose, black cloak that conservative Muslim women wear. Suicide bombers have been al-Qaida’s most lethal weapon in Iraq, killing hundreds of civilians and members of Iraq’s security forces.

The killing of the young woman was discovered when security forces, searching for her on suspicion she had ties to al-Qaida, raided her father’s home Thursday outside the former Sunni-insurgent stronghold of Baqouba, 35 miles (60 kilometers) northeast of Baghdad, said Maj. Ghalib al-Karkhi, a police spokesman in Diyala province.

The father, Najim al-Anbaky, was detained in the raid. During questioning he told police he had killed his daughter, Shahlaa, a month earlier because he found out she intended to blow herself up in a suicide attack for al-Qaida, al-Karkhi told The Associated Press.

Al-Anbaky showed police what he said was the woman’s grave, al-Karkhi said. The father remains in custody and is under investgiation, but no charges have been made yet.

A police official at the interior ministry in Baghdad confirmed the killing. He spoke to the AP on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the media.

A female suicide bomber was behind one of the deadliest attack this year in Iraq, after she blew herself up among Shiite pilgrims Baghdad in February, killing 54 people.

 

So….is this murder?  Is this like killing Hitler rather than waiting to send him to trial?  Is the father wrong and should he be prosecuted?  Could he have saved hundreds, maybe thousands of lives?  While we often hear  rhetoric demanding that Muslims denounce terrorists, we need to think about several of the parents who have come forward and warned about their children being agents of terrorists. (underpants bomber for example).

 

9 Thoughts to “A Moral Dilemma”

  1. e

    so the father claims. more likely it was an honor killing, and he was covering his tracks

  2. I dont think you are the only one who thinks that, e. On the other hand, aren’t honor killings legal there? Why would he hide a legal act?

  3. e

    i don’t know if they are totally legal, they probably fall in a gray area, the perpetrator might have to sit in jail, if only for a short symbolic period of time, maybe then the judge would throw out the case on a legal technicality, it depends who you know and how important you are etc

  4. Well, let’s pretend he did kill her. Is that an honor killing? I really see that as a moral dilemma. That is still a strange country. Wouldn’t most people just tell the cops? 🙄

  5. e

    yes, if what he claims is true then he shouldv’e just told the cops, like underpants xmas wannabe bomber’s dad did. just dumping your daughter’s body and claiming whatever after it’s discovered?

  6. Raymond Beverage

    Diyala Province has been a trouble spot for years…there was the case of a woman who was arranging the rapes of young women, so she could recruit them as suicide bombers. If I recall right, it was around 90 of them before this woman was caught. Since the young lady was raped, in order to restore the family honor (since under the Quran, sex outside of marriage is one of the reasons honor is sullied), by her dying in the process of trying to kill the infidel, it restores honor.

    Family Honor is strong value in the Arab World, and also in many Latin American countries. This “honor killing” has occured among many of the different ethnics groups in their own countries and around the world.

    In Islam though, this is where the contridiction takes place. By the Quran, there is no such thing as an “honor killing”, as every life is sacred. It basically says the same thing the “Thou Shall Not Kill” commandment says in Judism & Christianity.

    The technicality E mentioned above may be the reference in the Quran that taking the daughter’s life may have been justified since she “forsakes her religion and abandoned her community”. All depends on how the court interprets that.

    One must also keep in mind many of the countries we are finding ourselves in operate under either tribal or religious law, or both. The concept of telling the cops does not hold – look at our Modern US History with our own Indian Tribes – long, long history of the Tribal Police not being contacted. Trust beyond the person’s small world is not easily given.

  7. @Moon-howler
    If he told the cops, the cops might torture her or worse. Dad might also be implicated. Reason to hide the crime. It still is a crime, but what kind, I don’t know. Might be a crime of mercy in a sick way?

  8. Wolverine

    That fellow in Nigeria (the underwear bomber’s father) came to the Americans because he knew we would play it straight with him. (Unfortunately, we managed to blow it nevertheless.)

    From my own experience, the police and other security agencies in countries with major terrorist problems are a prime penetration target of the terrorist organizations as a matter of self-protection. Sometimes you will not know until too late whether you are speaking in confidence to an honest cop or one who has been turned. In the latter case, the next visitors you have may be the guys against whom you lodged the complaint. This is not much different than the Al Capone era in Chicago, when many law enforcement and judicial personnel were corrupted by the Mob and served as purveyors of counterintelligence to the Mob bosses.

    Americans do not often realize how very tough and dangerous it is to be a “good citizen” in some of these countries. When you see evil, you do not automatically decide to call at the local constabulary. Trust is usually a major victim in these countries. I found that out personally on several occasions.

  9. ‘turned?’ Sounds like we are talking about vampires. All kidding aside, Wolverine, thanks for your insight on this issue. I do think it is a moral dilemma in this case, if our facts are correct.

Comments are closed.