Violence Leaves Young Iraqis Doubting Clerics

From the New York Times - March 4, 2008

Johan Spanner for The New York Times

Muath, 19, a Sunni, joined an insurgent group in Baghdad last spring to help support his family.

Full article...

Video: Mississauga Father Appears in Court

Mississauga father appears in court

Man charged with killing his 15-year old daughter

Video link.

Muslim girls struggle with 'competing' cultures

From the Vancouver Sun

Many live double lives, expert says of slain teen's family conflict

Katie Rook and Amy Smithers
CanWest News Service

Wednesday, December 12, 2007

Aqsa Parvez

Photo courtesy of Ebonie Mitchell

TORONTO -- Many Muslim girls in Canada lead something of a double life when it comes to reconciling religious traditions while living in a secular, Western society, says a researcher at Wilfrid Laurier University.

"At home they're the good Muslim kid, they pray and they fast and go to mosque," said Jasmin Zine, a professor of sociology at the Waterloo, Ont., school.

"When they go to school they become a different person. They create a persona to fit with the competing cultural demands of home and school."

Zine made the comments Tuesday, the day after 16-year-old Aqsa Parvez of Mississauga, Ont., died. Her father Muhammad Parvez has been charged with murder and her 26-year-old brother, Waqas Parvez, has been charged with obstructing police.

A classmate at Applewood Heights secondary school said Tuesday Aqsa had worn her hijab, the traditional Muslim head scarf, in a variety of ways. Then in September, she started to go bare-headed -- a decision which apparently grated on some members of her family.

"She just chose to remove the hijab because she wanted to be like everyone else and her parents were pushing her, I guess," said Nadine Abrahim, 16.

"Last year [Aqsa] wore it. Maybe at the end she started removing it a bit. Like, showing a bit of her hair. And then this year she just completely removed it. She would take it off when she came to school, even change her clothes."

In her research with Muslim girls, Zine said, she has rarely encountered youth who are being coerced into wearing a hijab by their parents.

Still, many Muslim girls are unsure what line to tread between Islamic mores and the Western behaviour they see all around them.

She said some Muslim youth will alter their names to make them sound more English.

Girls may start to wear cosmetics but when some of them go home, they don the hijab.

The head covering is a way to identify yourself as a Muslim, Zine added.

Zine said Muslim scholars are not unanimous on whether the hijab is mandatory. "So for those who choose not to wear it," she said, "they are then sometimes seen as being less pious, that they are leaving Islam."

The decision whether to don the hijab is not always difficult for Muslim girls, says Ausma Khan, a human rights lawyer and the editor-in-chief of Muslim Girl Magazine. But, she acknowledges, the hijab has become a flashpoint.

"It can so easily be taken for a signal of difference and otherness and alienation, but it doesn't have to be read like that," she said. Khan, 38, is now based in Los Angeles, but grew up in Canada. "There is definitely an American-Islam or a Canadian-Islam that has imbibed the reality of growing up in a pluralistic society that accommodates difference, that respects difference," she said.

"I think we see that. We see this in the practice of this generation of young women. They are accommodating. Just as they want to put their own view point forward, have their religious freedom and be protected, they are equally willing to recognize and respect the rights of others."
© The Vancouver Sun 2007

The Meaning of Aqsa Parvez

An Op/Ed from the National Post in Canada

Wednesday, December 12, 2007

Whenever a girl dies at the tender age of 16, it's a tragedy. But the death of Mississauga, Ont., teenager Aqsa Parvez, many fear, may represent something more: a sign that the loathsome and barbaric practice of Muslim "honour killings" is making its way from South Asia and the Middle East to Canada.

Ms. Parvez's body was found in her home by paramedics on Monday morning. According to police, her father had called them earlier in the day to say he'd killed her. Friends of the dead girl told journalists that Ms. Parvez's relationship with her father was antagonistic. He wanted her to wear a hijab. Instead, she wore the latest garish teen styles -- sometimes switching from one outfit to the other in between home and school.

It is important to emphasize that nothing has been proven in regards to Ms. Parvez's death. Even if her father did confess to the crime during a call to police, as alleged, the killing may have been an accident -- or the result of some unknown dispute entirely unconnected to religion and culture. And even if the dispute was over Ms. Parvez's Western-style demeanour, there is no evidence that this was an "honour killing" of the type we read about from overseas -- that is to say, a premeditated assassination plotted and perpetrated by father and son to avenge a renegade daughter who "disgraces" the family name by violating the patriarch's edicts.

Since 9/11, Western societies have begun to closely scrutinize the toxic cultural practices of unassimilated Muslims in Europe and elsewhere. These practices include not only honour killings, but also anti-Semitism, support for terrorism, misogyny, forced veilings and forced marriages. Several high-profile conservative columnists -- some of whom appear on these pages -- have been particularly vigorous about highlighting these pathologies. And so when a young Muslim girl gets killed by her father, there is a natural tendency to see it as an indicator that Canadian Muslims are about to follow the radicalized path of militant, unassimilated co-religionists in Paris, London and Stockholm.

In truth, however, Canada's Muslim community is moderate by world standards. The sight of a woman in a full burka is an extraordinary rarity outside of a few small urban pockets. And such horrors as that allegedly visited upon Ms. Parvez remain almost unheard of. Moreover, for all our elites' overwrought emphasis on Canada's "multicultural" character, the concept of cultural relativism has not advanced so far that it is taken to excuse domestic abuse, let alone murder (though no doubt our letter writers can dig up a few troubling counter-examples).

This may change. But for the moment, we should not read too much into this family tragedy. Canada is no Europe, where immigrant communities are left to fester within impoverished ghettoes in perpetuity -- with their imported violent and backward practices passed on from one generation to the next. Thanks to economic opportunity and a lack of class structure, assimilation typically takes just two generations in Canada.

As the case of Ms. Parvez shows, that assimilation process can be so rapid and wrenching that a parent can be driven to perform the ultimate evil against a child he doesn't recognize anymore. But it is rare enough that we may at least view it as an isolated criminal act, not part of a larger epidemic.

20 Canadian Muslim Groups Urge 'Zero Tolerance' for Domestic Violence

20 Muslim Groups Urge 'Zero Tolerance' for Domestic Violence

Tuesday, December 11, 2007 4:10 pm

- For Immediate Release -

(Ottawa, Canada - December 11, 2007) - The Canadian Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR-CAN), the Islamic Social Services Association (ISSA) and the Islamic Society of Toronto, along with 19 other national and regional organizations (see endorsers below) urged "zero tolerance" for violence against women and domestic abuse. The Muslim groups are calling on Canadians of all faiths to address the realities of domestic violence.

The groups extend their heartfelt condolences to the family for their loss. They also asking for the strongest possible prosecution in the strangulation death of 16-year-old Aqsa Parvez, a Mississauga teen allegedly attacked by her father.

SEE: Teen Dead After Alleged Attack By Father http://www.cbc.ca/canada/ottawa/story/2007/12/11/teen-attacked.html

"There should be zero tolerance for violence of any kind against women or girls," said ISSA President Shahina Siddiqui. "The strangulation death of Ms. Parvez was the result of domestic violence, a problem that cuts across Canadian society and is blind to colour or creed."

"Muslims and Canadians of all faiths need to reflect on the realities of domestic abuse and take concrete steps to eliminate violence against women," said CAIR-CAN Board Member Selma Djukic. "Our heartfelt condolences go out to the Parvez family for their tragic loss."

"We call for the strongest possible prosecution of Ms. Parvez's alleged attacker," said CAIR-CAN Legal Counsel Faisal Kutty.

- 30 -

CONTACT: ISSA President Shahina Siddiqui, (204) 781-7993;
CAIR-CAN Spokeswoman Selma Djukic, (416) 726-4992;
CAIR-CAN Communications Coordinator Sameer Zuberi, (613) 254-9704 or (613) 795-2012.

---

Endorsed by:

Canadian Council of Muslim Theologians (CCMT)
Canadian Council of Imams
Canadian Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR-CAN)
Canadian Muslim Civil Liberties Association (CMCLA)
Canadian Muslim Forum (CMF)
Canadian Islamic Centre - Al Rahsid Mosque, Edmonton
Canadian Islamic Congress (CIC)
DawaNet Canada
Islamic Circle of North America Canada (ICNA Canada)
Islamic Information Foundation
Islamic Social Services Association (ISSA)
Islamic Society of Kingston
Islamic Society of Toronto
Muslim Association of Canada (MAC)
Muslim Association of Newfoundland and Labrador
Muslim Community Council of Ottawa-Gatineau (MCCOG)
Muslim Council of Calgary (MCC)
North American Spiritual Revival
Ottawa Muslim Association (OMA)
South-Western Ontario Muslim Students' Association (SWOMSA)
United Muslims
Young Muslims Canada

Father charged with murdering daughter allegedly for not wearing hijab

Father charged with murdering daughter allegedly for not wearing hijab

TORONTO (AFP) — The devout Muslim father of a 16-year-old girl, whose friends say was killed for not wearing a hijab, was charged Wednesday with second-degree murder in the case, and denied bail.

Aqsa Parvez died Monday night in hospital after being attacked in her home in a suburb of Toronto.

Police have not commented on any motive in the case.

But the girl's friends said Parvez frequently clashed with her estranged family over her reluctance to wear a traditional Islamic headscarf, or hijab.

"She would tell us how her dad would always yell at her and how he wanted her to be someone else," her friend Natalie Rance, 14, told the daily Toronto Star.

"Her dad wanted her to be a person who followed the religion. But she wanted to follow her own rules, wear her own clothes. But her dad wouldn't let her do that."

Police said in a statement they received an emergency call at 7:55 am local time Monday from "a man who indicated that he had just killed his daughter."

In fact, the girl clung to life for hours after she was rushed to hospital, said officials, without disclosing the nature of her injuries.

Her father, cab driver Muhammad Parvez, 57, was arrested at the scene.

The victim's 26 year-old brother Waqas was also charged with obstructing police in the investigation.

According to her friends, Aqsa had worn the hijab at school last year, but rebelled in recent months.

They said she would leave home wearing a hijab and loose-fitting clothes, but would take off her head scarf and change into tighter garments at school, then change back before going home at the end of the day.

Two weeks ago, she left home for the second time in three months, and had been staying with a friend. According to reports, she returned to her parents' home Monday only to collect her belongings.

Wendy Horton, executive director of a Toronto shelter where Parvez found refuge during a previous altercation with her father, told the Star the root cause of their strife is not uncommon.

Immigrant parents want their children to remain faithful to traditional ways but find themselves at odds with kids growing up in Western society. "It creates a lot of tension," she told the paper.

The Parvez family had emigrated from Pakistan, she noted.

Across Canada, the killing has taken on larger proportions, with many using it to more broadly indict fundamentalist Islam, and one Internet blogger going as far as suggesting a boycott of all taxicabs driven by Muslims.

But a spokesman for the Canadian Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR-CAN) said he is dubious of opinions the girl's death resulted from a clash of cultures.

"Teen rebellion is something that exists in all households in Canada and is not unique to any culture or background," CAIR-CAN's Sameer Zuberi told AFP. "Domestic violence is also not unique to Muslims."

The death of Parvez "was the result of domestic violence, a problem that cuts across Canadian society and is blind to color or creed," echoed Shahina Siddiqui, president of the Islamic Social Services Association.

The two groups and 18 other Muslim groups in an open letter to prosecutors asked for the strongest possible prosecution of her killer, and "zero tolerance for violence of any kind against women or girls."

Dressed in orange prison garb, Muhammad Parvez appeared unemotional during his brief court appearance, muttering his responses to the judge. His next court date is scheduled for January 29.

Outside the courtroom, one of the victim's seven siblings, Sean Parvez, told reporters, "We don't know" what led to the assault.

Murdered teen feared for her life, friends say

From the Mississauga News

Students and staff at Applewood Heights Secondary School set up a memorial table today for 16-year-old Aqsa Parvez. The teen was killed Monday in her family's home. Her father has been charged with murder.

Students and staff at Applewood Heights Secondary School set up a memorial table today for 16-year-old Aqsa Parvez. The teen was killed Monday in her family's home. Her father has been charged with murder.

By: Louie Rosella

December 11, 2007 - Friends of Aqsa Parvez said she feared for her life in the days prior to her murder.

The 16-year-old Applewood Heights Secondary School student was strangled on Monday morning inside her family's Longhorn Trail home.

Friends of the teen say she feared for her life and had been embroiled in a cultural dispute with family members in the weeks before her death.

Parvez, a Grade 11 student, was rushed to the Hospital for Sick Children in Toronto, where she succumbed to her injuries late Monday night, Peel Regional Police said.

Parvez's father, 57-year-old Muhammad Parvez, has been charged with murder. He'll appear in court tomorrow.

The victim's 26-year-old brother, Waqas Parvez, is charged with obstructing police.

Police aren't ruling out additional charges.

Police said that just before 8 a.m. on Monday, a 9-1-1 call was allegedly placed by a man who indicated that he had just killed his daughter. Police rushed to a home near Hurontario St. and Bristol Rd., where a teenage girl was found dead in her bedroom.

Police wouldn't comment on her injuries, but a source close to the case said the girl was strangled.

The News spoke with several students at Applewood today. They said their friend, known by those close to her as "Axe," feared her father and had argued with him over her desire to shun the hijab, a traditional shoulder-length head scarf worn by females in devout Muslim families.

Ashley Garbutt, 16, said Parvez was so afraid, that she recently moved out and was living with a friend.

She had returned home late Sunday night to pick up clothes, friends said.

Police aren't saying what time Parvez was attacked.

"She said she was always scared of her dad...and, normally, she's not scared of nobody," said Garbutt.

Ebonie Mitchell, 16, and other friends said Aqsa wore the hijab to school last year, but rebelled against wearing it this fall.

They said she would leave home wearing the traditional garment and loose clothing, but would often change into tighter garments at school.

"She was really into fashion," Mitchell said.

Another classmate and close friend, Dominiquia Holmes-Thompson, said Parvez "got threatened" in the past year during her tumultuous relationship with members of her family.

Carla Gianetti said Parvez's father imposed several restrictions on his daughter, all in the name of religion. Parvez couldn't take it anymore and threatened to move out, she said.

"He wouldn't let her go out. He wouldn't let her socialize and she rebelled. She wanted to go out with her friends; just be like a normal person," Gianetti said.

Staff members at the school were aware of the "conflict" between Parvez and members of her family and were working with them to resolve the issues and "bridge the gap," said Peel
District School Board spokesperson Sylvia Link.

"They were trying to connect (Aqsa and her family) with support services in the community," she said, adding school staff had no idea of the extent of the conflict.

Hundreds of students signed a memorial book in the school foyer yesterday. Several left messages of how they remember the teen.

"Aqsa was honestly the brightest girl around," one student wrote. "She had the biggest smile and was the happiest person in school. She loved to dance and take pictures."

Grief counsellors were at the school yesterday helping students deal with the tragedy. Several sobbed uncontrollably outside the school.

"Aqsa was a well-liked Grade 11 student here at Applewood Heights, and her death is deeply felt by everyone at the school," said principal Ted Byers. "Even students who did not personally know Aqsa have been affected by this tragedy."

Parvez's father has been a cab driver for Mississauga-based Blue & White Taxi for the past several years.

"He was a normal-type guy," said one Blue & White cabbie who asked that his name not be used. "He was pleasant enough, always kept his vehicle nice and clean. He was a devout Muslim."

The family moved into the home on Longhorn Trail about three years ago, neighbours said.

Police are asking anyone with information to call them at 905-453-2121, ext. 3205 or Peel Crime Stoppers at 1-800-222-8477.

Canadian father charged with murdering daughter in headscarf dispute

From the Globe and Mail

RELIGIOUS EXTREMISM: 16-YEAR-OLD'S LOVE OF DANCING, FASHION AND PHOTOGRAPHY BROUGHT HER INTO CONFLICT

Teen tried to leave strict family
Father now faces murder charge

OMAR EL AKKAD AND KENYON WALLACE

December 12, 2007

Aqsa Parvez was largely estranged from her family and sleeping away from home in recent days. The 16-year-old's friends said she returned to her home in Mississauga on Monday only to collect her belongings.

Shortly afterward, she was taken to hospital, where she died early yesterday morning - leaving friends grief-stricken and igniting a public debate on religious extremism in Canada.

Her father, 57-year-old taxi driver Muhammad Parvez, is charged with murder. Her brother, 26-year-old Waqas Parvez, is charged with obstructing police.

Ms. Parvez's friends described the Grade 11 student at Applewood Heights Secondary School as someone who was drawn to Western culture even as her family adhered to a devout form of Islam. Friends paint a picture of a hardworking and cheerful girl who loved dancing, fashion and photography - interests that often clashed with her strict home environment.

"Aqsa was always trying to get us to go shopping with her," schoolmate Dominiquia Holmes-Thompson said. "We were supposed to go to the mall together today."

Last week, Ms. Parvez temporarily moved in with a friend from school.

"She said she wasn't getting along well with her family and that things weren't right," said Trudy Looby, the mother of one of Ms. Parvez's friends, Alisha. "When she was here, she was very happy."

Ms. Looby said she told Ms. Parvez to inform her parents about where she was staying. "She notified me that the school was aware of where she was staying and that that was okay," the mother said.

During her stay, Ms. Looby said, Ms. Parvez didn't wear the hijab, a head scarf that friends said was a hot topic within her family.

Krista Garbutt remembers walking down the street with Ms. Parvez earlier this year, when the two of them spotted Ms. Parvez's brother walking toward them. Panicking, the teenager quickly fumbled for her head scarf, trying to put it on. "There were times when we'd be walking down the street and she'd see her brother and she wouldn't be wearing her hijab and she'd have to put it on," Ms. Garbutt said. "She said, 'He'll kill me, he'll kill me.' I said, 'He's not going to kill you,' but she said, 'Yeah, he will.' And nobody believed it."

On Monday morning, Peel Regional Police responded to a 911 call from a man who said he had just killed his daughter. When officers arrived at a single-family detached home on Longhorn Trail, they found Ms. Parvez suffering from life-threatening injuries. She was taken immediately to Credit Valley Hospital and later transferred in critical condition to the Hospital for Sick Children, where she died.

Peel police said the Crown is waiting to decide whether Mr. Parvez should be charged with first- or second-degree murder, pending a police investigation. Although police would not elaborate on the ongoing homicide investigation, the difference between laying a first- or second-degree murder charge often rests on proving that the killing was premeditated.

Ms. Garbutt said the teenager went home on Monday to collect her belongings, at which point her father "basically went ballistic."

For weeks before, Ms. Parvez had been living something of a double life, friends said.

"She wanted peace with her family," Alisha Looby said. "She wanted to make them happy but she wanted to be herself at the same time, and there's nothing wrong with that."

A makeshift memorial is already in place at Applewood Heights, full of mementoes and messages left by grieving students.

"Aqsa was honestly the brightest girl around. She had the biggest smile and was the happiest person in school. She loved to dance and take pictures," one student wrote.

Across Canada, the killing has taken on larger proportions. On call-in shows and websites, many have used the incident as part of a wider indictment of fundamentalist Islam. One Canadian conservative blogger suggested Canadians boycott taxicabs driven by Muslims.

In a statement yesterday, the Canadian Council on American-Islamic Relations called on Canadians of all faiths to address issues of domestic abuse, and called for "the strongest possible prosecution" of those responsible for Ms. Parvez's killing.

Trudy Looby, who let Ms. Parvez stay at her home last week, said she now wishes the teen had not left.

"I was feeling that whatever it was she was dealing with at home was a bit too personal to involve me in," Ms. Looby said. "I wish she would have stayed longer, that's all. It's a sad waste of life."

Education is Key to Understanding Muslims

Tuesday, September 11, 2007 - Bangor Daily News
By Judy Harrison

Omar Conteh was a 15-year-old student at Bangor High School six years ago.

Now a student at University College in Bangor studying mental health and human services, he said Monday that his relationships in the community haven’t changed since Sept. 11, 2001.

Conteh, who has lived in Bangor for a decade and played soccer in high school, also said that Muslims who come to Maine from overseas to attend the college feel much more apprehensive than people who have roots in the community as he does.

Full article...