Zubia Jahangir on Lila Abu-Lughad's Seductions of the Honor Crime

In Seductions of the honor crime, Lila Abu-Lughad highlights that many institutions often link honor crimes to Muslims living in the Middle East and South Asia that illustrates a negative image of the culture to the world and make people believe that honor crime is a part of Islamic culture.

The purpose of Abu-Lughad is to enlighten people that honor crimes may happen by some people in the Middle Eastern and the South Asian countries, but they are not the part of Islamic culture or tradition as believed by many people. The author is trying to explain that many people fail to realize that Islamic law does not promote honor crimes; these crimes are made and done by some people mostly living in Muslim majority countries. In the reading, the author says that the “honor crimes are not condoned in Islamic law or by the religious authorities” to give people evidence in order to help them realize that honor crimes are not associated with the Islamic faith; instead, these crimes are the creation of criminal minded and violent people.

The author highlights that because many reports of such crimes are from the Muslim majority countries, people believe that there is a connection between this religion and this violent crime. This happens because often time media mentions the religion when reporting the crime which makes a connection between the religion and the crime in a lot of its viewer’s minds. This tarnishes the reputation of the religion because of the false information that many people believe is true. Thus, many people perceive Islam as a violent religion and that Muslim women are oppressed and are in need of saving by the Western people who presumably knows what is best women living in the Muslim majority countries of the Middle East and South Asia. Such reports are on of the reasons why many people have a negative opinion about the Islamic faith and Muslim women and men.

In “Honor killings, and Islamic terrorism," the Western media bashes the whole religion once again because of just one criminal minded individual’s honor crime. Such reports aids people not familiarized with the Islamic faith to form bad opinions about the religion.

            Honor crimes are subjective to one’s mind and are not a product of any religion, culture or tradition.