Samana Siddiqui

In the viewpoint that follows, Samana Siddiqui, a Muslim and daughter of Pakistani immigrants, examines the issue of honor killing—the practice of killing women for behavior that is believed to dishonor their family. Writing in response to a series of television documentaries about honor killings in Pakistan and Jordan, she argues that honor killing is a cultural practice that is not condoned by the Islamic religion—a fact she believes many Western reports and documentaries gloss over. Such media reports thus create and inflame prejudice against Islam and Muslims, she believes. The fact that honor killings do occur in some Islamic countries does not mean that the honor killing is an Islamic practice, she argues, any more than the fact that domestic violence occurs in the United States means that...