'To hell with them' — father in honour killing trial caught on tape

Soul_jyot · #1 (**permalink**) 15-Nov-2011, 03:40 AM

'To hell with them' — father in honour killing trial caught on tape

By Rob Tripp, Postmedia News - November 14, 2011 12:47 PM

L to R: Hamed Shafia, Mohammad Shafia, and Tooba Mohammad Yahya walk into the Frontenac
Reference:: Sikh Philosophy Network http://www.sikhphilosophy.net/canada/37602-hell-them-father-honour-killing-trial.html
Court courthouse in Kingston, Ont. on October 20, 2011.
Photograph by: Lars Hagberg, Montreal Gazette

KINGSTON, Ont. — The Montreal man accused along with his wife and son of killing four people, including three of his daughters, was captured on secret police wiretaps talking often and angrily about his lost honour and disparagingly about his dead children.

Jurors at the murder trial of Mohammad Shafia have now heard most of the secret recordings made by police in a four-day span in 2009, just before Shafia, 58, his wife Tooba Mohammad Yahya, 41, and their son Hamed, 20, were arrested and charged.

They are each on trial on four counts of first-degree murder. They have pleaded not guilty.

"They're gone now . . . **** on their graves," Shafia says in a recording of a conversation between him, his wife and son that was captured inside the family's minivan on July 20, 2009.
Reference:: Sikh Philosophy Network http://www.sikhphilosophy.net/showthread.php?t=37602

"I am happy and my conscience is clear," he says in a recording made the following day, while he and his two family members were inside the van. "They haven't done good and God punished them."

Several times during the recordings, Shafia is heard complaining that his daughters dressed in revealing clothes and had boyfriends.

"Damn their boyfriends," Shafia says, in a recording in the van on July 18. "To hell with them and their boyfriends . . . filthy and rotten children."

Sisters Zainab, 19, Sahar, 17 and Geeti Shafia, 13, and Rona Amir Mohammad, 52, were found dead in a Nissan Sentra submerged in a canal in Kingston on June 30, 2009. Rona was Shafia's first wife, whom he married in Afghanistan.

"I know (Zainab) was already done, but I wish two others weren't," the accused mother says, in a recording inside the van from July 20.

"No, Tooba, they messed up," Shafia replies. "There was no other way."

Shafia says the girls were "treacherous" and betrayed Islam, dishonouring the family.

"Even if they hoist me up onto the gallows . . . nothing is more dear to me than my honour," Shafia says, speaking to his son, Hamed, in the July 21 recording. "Let's leave our destiny to God and may God never make me, you or your mother honourless. I don't accept this dishonour, so don't think about it anymore."

In one of the recordings, Shafia tells his wife and son that they were not a strict family but "kind of liberal" and that nothing he did amounted to "meddling" in the lives of his daughters.

The recordings, which captured the family speaking in their native language, Dari, were translated into English.

© Copyright (c) Postmedia News

source: http://www.theprovince.com/life/hell...125/story.html

Inderjeet Kaur · #2 (**permalink**) 16-Nov-2011, 08:31 AM

This is a Muslim family.
Reference:: Sikh Philosophy Network http://www.sikhphilosophy.net/showthread.php?t=37602

Let us not forget that to our very great shame, "honour" killings also occur in our Sikh community.

Tejwant Singh · #3 (**permalink**) 17-Nov-2011, 01:31 AM

It is ironic to notice that a Muslim man can have 4 wives, beat them at will, lynch them whenever he claims they have not followed the rules set by him and kill his daughters because of his own bad parenting skills due to lack of dialogue, interaction and conversation with them.
Reference:: Sikh Philosophy Network http://www.sikhphilosophy.net/showthread.php?t=37602
Reference:: Sikh Philosophy Network http://www.sikhphilosophy.net/showthread.php?t=37602

One wonders who is dishonourable in this scenario!

These are all dishonourable killings. There is no honour about them and it is sad to say that some Taliban Sikhs have adopted the same rather than honing their own skills about being good and caring parents.

Tejwant Singh

Inderjeet Kaur · #4 (**permalink**) 17-Nov-2011, 01:53 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Tejwant Singh

It is ironic to notice that a Muslim man can have 4 wives, beat them at will, lynch them whenever he claims they have not followed the rules set by him and kill his daughters because of his own bad parenting skills due to lack of dialogue, interaction and conversation with them.

One wonders who is dishonourable in this scenario!

These are all dishonourable killings. There is no honour about them and it is sad to say that some Taliban Sikhs have adopted the same rather than honing their own skills about being good and caring parents.

Tejwant Singh

Absolutely true!

I do think, however, we need clean our own house of these "taliban" Sikhs as strenuously as we criticise Muslims. The Muslims are, after all, following the tenets of their religion, while these "Sikhs" are breaking the basic teachings of Sikhi.

Not to excuse these dis"honour" killings in any way, but our objections would be much more convincing if we cleaned our own house first.