What did your parents used to tell you when you were little? I bet I know. They said:
Respect others. Don't touch. Leave other people's stuff alone. Mind your own business. Keep your hands to yourself. Treat others the way you want to be treated. Remember to share. Fun is fun when it's fun for everyone.
Don't stare at people. Were you raised in a barn? Don't shout; I can hear you. Do you see other children doing that? What's the magic word? Did you remember please and thank you? If you act like that, they won't let us shop here anymore.
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Stop. That's mean. Don't pick on people smaller than you are. Empty hands are the devil's workshop. Nobody likes a bully. Leave your sister alone; she isn't bothering you. That was rude. Say you're sorry. If you can't control yourself you're going to your room.
Now another question, and I don't have the answer to this one: What do Muslim men's parents tell them when they are little? If you look around, it doesn't seem like they have been getting the same message as other kids.
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In Egypt, 83 percent of native women and 98 percent of foreign women report that they have been sexually harassed by Egyptian men, and not just verbally. Yes, that Egypt – the cradle of civilization, the folks who ran the world before Muhammad was born. Before Jesus. Before Moses. Before Abraham.
To confound popular logic, in the same study more than half the Egyptian women reporting attacks were veiled. Of Egyptian men surveyed, 62 percent admit to having harassed women, but 53 percent say it was the women's fault, and the veiled women agree. Among excuses given by the harassers were that they were bored, and that the women must either be beautiful or be hiding something. Being beautiful is against the law in Egypt? Even if you cover it up? I hear that getting a job and going home to your family in the evening work wonders in the jihad against boredom, but that probably isn't as much fun as hanging out on street corners acting like a sleaze ball.
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On a more felonious note, Muslim boys seem to be not just allowed but encouraged by their sires to play prominent roles in what euphemistically have come to be known as "honor" crimes. Some father-son teams that come to mind are Yaser and Islam Said, Muhammad and Waqas Parvez, and now, at least allegedly, Mohamed and Rilvan Bary. Parents have had years to spend cultivating this kind of evil within themselves, but you've really got to wonder what gets into a kid to make him want to destroy another child like himself, a child he has grown up with and presumably bonded with. Whatever it is, it's hard at work in some families. Is there a word in the Quran for "mean"?
Readers who feel safer thinking these things don't really happen should particularly stay away from the website TheReligionOfPeace.com. In addition to this site's running account of deadly attacks performed in the name of Islam (over 13,000 since Sept. 11, 2001) are its links to newspaper stories citing "honor" crimes around the world. All are presented objectively, without editorializing, presumably because any comments added to the original reports would be, well, gilding the lily. Samples of current headlines read:
Sisters Tortured for Leaving House without Permission
Husband Slaughters his Wife and In-Laws for Leaving Him
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(U.K.) Mother Stabbed to Death in Front of Child
(Germany) Told to "Get Strict" with Wife, Man Stabs Her in the Eyeballs, Runs Over Her with Car
Pakistani Province Boasts 40 Honor Killings in One Month
First Wife Objects to Polygamous Marriage (Quickly Gunned Down)
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Woman Shot for Refusing Marriage Proposal
Man Kills Wife, Daughter, Niece on Suspicion of Loose Character
And that's just the small minority of crimes that actually get reported, and just those posted in the last seven days (as of this writing).
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One TROP story in particular showcases what I mean about the Muslim male's unwillingness to accept responsibility for his own actions, a flaw that must be attributed either to the way he grew up or to the fact that he was planted here by space aliens, who then slipped out quickly and anonymously. A man on trial in Britain for breaking into a woman's home and stabbing her 14 times in the neck, chest and back in front of her 7-year-old daughter pleaded not guilty, not because he did not kill her, but because she "provoked" him by breaking up with him.
Who raises these monsters?
I know, I'll probably hear from scores of Muslim parents who really do say, "Stop … Don't … Keep your hands to yourself." Their kids aren't the problem; the troglodytes in the news stories are. But my question is this: If the problem is not essentially an Islamic one, how come other religions don't do these things? If the problem is a social rather than religious one, then where are all the Presbyterian, Rastafarian and atheist men who throw acid in their wives' faces for going to the store, or set their sisters on fire for talking on the telephone? Where are all the Shinto, Baptist and Buddhist men who think God has given them some divine mandate to determine how the rest of the world should live? And if they exist in any numbers, how come decent people aren't setting up websites to chronicle their barbaric behavior?
Marylou Barry is a journalist and Christian Zionist with a special interest in the Middle East. Visit her blog at Marylou's America.