Lebanon's top Shiite cleric bans 'honor killings'
Sheikh Mohammad Hussein Fadlallah issues religious edict banning honor crimes, saying they contradict Islamic law; says perpetrators will end up in hell
Lebanon's top Shiite Muslim cleric Mohammed Hussein Fadlallah Thursday issued a fatwa, or religious edict, banning so-called honor killings as repulsive acts that contradict Islamic law.
"Honor killings are a repulsive act banned by Sharia," said Fadlallah, the spiritual leader of Shiite fundamentalists whose influence extends beyond Lebanon.
Fadlallah said in a statement that he was issuing the edict amid reports of an increase in the practice across the Arab world, particularly in "Palestine, Jordan, and Lebanon."
He denounced "honor crimes in which men kill their sisters, daughters, or other (female) relatives on the pretext of committing acts against decency and honor.
"Honor crimes are like any other crime which does not carry extenuating circumstances," he said.
Laws in many Arab and Muslim countries stipulate extenuating circumstances for so-called honor crimes.
"A man has no right to punish his wife and this right is reserved for the sovereign authority. Anyone violating this law should be punished in this world and should also expect to end up in hell," he stressed.
Earlier, al-Quds al-Arabi newspaper reported that honor crimes were a spreading phenomena in the Gaza Strip, with offenders facing only one year in prison.
The report said that a Gazan youth was recently arrested for the murder of his three sisters, who were found stabbed to death in the Gaza Strip.
The sisters, aged 16, 18, and 22, were found dead from multiple stab wounds and buried in a shallow grave in the central Gaza Strip a week-and-a-half ago.
A resident of the area noticed the youth attempting to bury his sisters and alerted the Hamas force that polices the Strip. Two days later Hamas announced that the youth was arrested and confessed to the killings.
The suspect also confessed to participating in the gang rape and murder of a 16-year-old retarded girl in the northern Gaza Strip three years ago.
At the time, the group of perpetrators was sentenced to death, but the youth managed to escape prison during the factional fighting that took place in Gaza a few weeks ago.
Roee Nahmias contributed to this report
