The Danes are going after "honor" killings like the FBI after the mafia:

As in the Surucu case the general practice so far has been to sentence only the actual murderers. Last Tuesday in Denmark, however, a jury of the Østre Landsret ruled that not only the man who pulled the trigger was guilty, but every family member who collaborated in “punishing” Ghazala Khan, an 18-year old Danish-born woman of Pakistani origin, who was shot by her brother, 30-year old Akhtar Abbas, on 23 September 2005, two days after her marriage.

This has been tolerated for far too long. If more countries take this tack, we'll see fewer murders of young women, and perhaps more of these people going back to their countries of origin, where they can practice their barbaric traditions in...errr...peace. Part of assimilation has to mean stamping out this nonsense. The failure to do so to date is another failure of the multi-culti myths.

[Update at 1:44 PM EDT]

I just noticed that nowhere in the article does it mention the religion of those involved. Guess they didn't think it was relevant.

[Update on Friday morning]

Some have pointed out in comments that religion is in fact irrelevant in this case, since this is a cultural practice, not a religious one (e.g., Hindus do it as well). It's a reasonable point.

We can all profit from the Danes' setting a good example. Bully for the Danes, sez I.

This is a very good thing

"Guess they didn't think it was relevant."

You can bet they would have thought it relevant if it were Baptists. And they would have used every adjective imaginable: right wing ultra conservative fundamentalist Baptists.

Or, since they're in Europe, they fear reprisal on a similar scale to the Mohammed Cartoon incidents.

I would think that printing their names and stating that they were from Pakistan would be enough to at least imply that they probably weren't WASPs.

However, I agree that a) more court decisions need to be handed down like this one, and b) the world needs to be reminded in every article about this sort of thing exactly which "religion of peace" caused the culture that believes that these killings are acceptable.

It doesn't mention the religion because the practices that you are citing in the article you excerpted are CULTURAL practices, and not religious practices. Even if the idiots who engage in them think they are, it doesn't make them so.

Cultural bastardisation has happened to both Christianity and Islam, with the usual predictable and regretable results. Or do you think that the lynching of blacks and the burning of black churches in America in the past 100 years was a shining example of Christ's love in action?

If you people who think you are so clever in sarcastically using the term "religion of peace" when referring to Islam were actually right about the religion (that it is evil, violent, etc), then you should be s**tting your pants, because there are 1 BILLION adherents in the world, and that is a force you don't want to mess with.

But, of course, the vast majority of them are just like the vast majority of Catholics, Buddhists, Hindus, and the rest - they are family people, keep to themselves, and really don't give a rats ass what you think of them.

Hey, shubber Ali:

When I see the first report of a Baptist suicide bomber blowing up women and kids in Riyadh, I'll agree with you.

When I see the first report of a crowd of screaming Buddhists stoning a woman to death for showing an ankle, I'll agree with you.

When I see the first report of a Christian government dynamiting an irreplaceable 1400-year-old Muslim monument, I'll agree with you.

And by the way: Why does a religion, one of whose central tenents is against idolatry, make it one of the holiest acts to travel thousands of miles to worship a rock?

Yes, Islam is violent. Its teachings are intolerant and violent, it was born in violence, and its fundamentalists are more violent than the fundamentalists of any other religion.

But the civilised world has more people, more hardware, and more knowhow than the Muslim world will ever have. They are also fundamentally just as violent. If the jihadists persist, then that message will be sent to them in the same way that Japan knows all about.

Shubber, you miss the point. Yes, the majority of Muslims are peaceful and non violent. But a significant minority are not. That means tens, if not hundreds of millions of people who support bin Laden, and his calls to restore the Caliphate and impose sharia, ultimately world wide. We (the west, and western values) are in an existential war with that belief. That belief and the values of the enlightenment are fundamentally incompatible, regardless of how peaceful most Muslims are. This is the new ideological battle of the twenty-first century. Regardless of your religious beliefs, you're eventually going to have to decide which side you're on, because the Sulafis won't let you sit on the fence.

Not to mitigate the crime of honor killings done by Muslims, but Shubber Ali has a valid point.

Vastly un(der)-reported in the Western media is the phenomenon of honor killings within Hindu society. They happen with great regularity--I'd suggest at least weekly--but never quite make it into Western media reports.

I distinctly recall the front pages of Indian newspapers on Sept. 27/28, 2001 which featured the story of a young couple who were hung by neck until dead by both sets of parents. The kids were of the same religion (Hindu), same caste, but had slightly different sub-castes. They went against their parents' wishes and so shamed them. Death was considered the only suitable punishment.

If this were a one-off case, it'd be bad. But it isn't. This particular issue made it into the Indian press because it took place in New Delhi, which views itself as quite modern and cosmopolitan. In the smaller towns and villiages, it's something that's constantly taking place. And it doesn't, most often, include Muslims.

Perhaps the stories simply get lost in the vast chunk of humanity that comprises India. It doesn't make the crimes less real or less horrific.

Lots of cultures have lots of problems like this. But how many honor killings by Hindus occur in western societies? My point was that almost uniquely, many Muslims in Europe have not assimilated in any way (including this, whether spurred by their culture or their religion). That simply has to change, and I suspect that the attempt to make it happen may set off a new round of the war there.