Recently, in Saudi Arabia, two sisters were murdered by their brother after they were picked up by the Saudi religious police on suspicion of hanging around with boys. The incident inflamed the Saudi press, particularly because the brother killed them immediately after their father arrived to collect them from the police station. In her column in the Saudi daily Al-Watan, liberal Saudi columnist Maliha Al-Shahhab wrote that Saudi society was backsliding, and that honor killing was just like the custom of burying girls alive that prevailed during the Jahiliyya - which, she said, was one of the customs that Islam came to eradicate.
To read a translation of her column, which was titled
"[The Custom] of Burying Girls Alive is Still With Us," visit http://www.memri.org/bin/latestnews.cgi?ID=SD252109.
Following Ban on Burqa and Headscarf by Colleges in Southern India, Indian Islamic Scholar Says: 'The Burqa is Not a Part of Islam - It Is a Part of Culture'
In the southern Indian state of Karnataka, Sri Venkatarama Swamy (SVS) College in Bantwal and the Government College in Appanagri district have banned the wearing of the Islamic headscarf and the burqa on campus, according to an Urdu daily.
The Government College stopped 50 Muslim girls from attending classes for wearing burqas, while SVS College restricted a 19-year-old Bachelor of Commerce student from attending classes until she conforms to the college rules - that is, not displaying her religious identity, in this case, by wearing a headscarf.
Following objections from students, Aysha Asmin was told by the SVS College administration not to wear the headscarf, according to a report in the Urdu-language newspaper Roznama Rashtriya Sahara.
To read reactions to the ban from two Indian Islamic scholars, visit http://www.memri.org/bin/latestnews.cgi?ID=SD252209.
