Mike Ghouse Journal - News Analysis and columns

Muslim Father Kills Teenage Daughter

Mike Ghouse, December 12, 2007

http://www.mikeghouse.net/Articles/Muslim-Father-Kills-Daughter.asp

Muhammad Parvez, a Mississauga, Canada resident, was charged with killing his 16 year old daughter, Axa (aka Aqsa), apparently because of her refusal to wear the hijab.

If I kill someone, incarcerate me and punish me for my crime. Please do not malign my family, friends, town, nation or my religion. The crime was mine and no one but I should bear the responsibility and meet the punishment.

Axa's Dad is a cruel man, he murdered Axa, his own teenage daughter. Killing another human being is like killing the whole of mankind and it is forbidden in Islam and all the civil societies. Muhammad Parvez is a criminal and must be charged as such. Please keep Islam out of this equation. Islam did not kill Axa, nor did Islam authorize such a heinous act.

Every day in your own town, you will find stories where bad men and bad Dad's have abused their kids physically and emotionally, and there are a ton of instances where they have killed them. In all the cases, they wanted to control their offspring to obey them. Muhammad Parvez is no different than those criminals. In all the cases, religion of the criminal was not cited, and that was the right thing to do. And the same principled stand applies to Muhammad Parvez. Islam is not the reason, it is the controlling animal that is scares the insecure men, regardless of their faith, culture, ethnicity or race that killed Axa.

Every human should condemn this act of betraying the trust of a daughter, and certainly Muslims condemn this act. This Criminal's act is not inspired by Islam, although he referenced it in that fashion. We the Muslims additionally condemn Muhammad Parvez for killing another human being and wrongly labeling the religion for his abuse. He does not have a space in Civil Societies.

Mike Ghouse, President

World Muslim Congress

World Muslim Congress is a group of about 1500 people from around the globe. Membership includes Imams, Scholars, average Muslims and non-Muslims. As we share this planet, we ought to share our space, thoughts, spirituality and experiences as well. Our goal is to nurture co-existence. If you wish to be a part of this growing "not silent any more majority" , please send an email to: WorldMuslimCongress-subscribe@yahoogroups.com.

Additional Notes:

A Zafar Bangash wrote "I suggest this poor girl was as much the victim of incessant propaganda that has made Islam and Muslims the enemy, as she was the victim of her father's brutal assault."

It is a very thoughtful comment. If the society, in this case, Canada sets certain expectations as to what a Canadian ought to be, if it is defined by the mainstream's attitudes, culture and behavior, then it would exclude those who do not conform. That is an inherent flaw in the democratic system. We have to learn to accept and respect the God given uniqueness to each one of the 6 billion of us on this planet, then conflicts fade and solutions emerge. I hope the Canadian or any Government, states something to this effect, " Any one who breathes the air off this land, and can look, dress, worship and eat every which way he or she is endowed with, he or she is Canadian" .

The best one was from a leading newspaper editorial that someone quoted.

Moreover, family violence is not a "Muslim issue," in any narrow sense. Or even an "immigrant issue." It is a deeply rooted problem in our society, regardless of race, religion or length of time in Canada.

It is easy to find cases of conflict between parents and teens in families that have been here for generations, who do not profess any particular religion, and who share common cultural values. And occasionally, such conflicts spill over into violence, with tragic results.

The Story at: http://www.thestar.com/News/GTA/article/284350

Dec 11, 2007 10:29 AM

Dad charged in teen's death

Bob Mitchell
Jim Wilkes
staff reporters

A 16-year-old girl is dead and her father has been charged with murder after an attack in a Mississauga home.

Aqsa Parvez, a student at Applewood Heights Secondary School, had been on life support in hospital since yesterday morning.

Police went to the family's two-storey home on Longhorn Trail about 8 a.m. yesterday after receiving a 911 call in which a man allegedly claimed to have killed his daughter.

Paramedics found Aqsa with a faint pulse and rushed her to hospital. She was later transferred to a Toronto hospital and placed on life support.

Peel police said this morning that she died overnight.

Friends at the victim’s school said she feared her father and had argued over her desire to shun the hijab, a traditional shoulder-length head scarf worn by females in devout Muslim families.

Homicide investigators had been standing by, as it soon became clear the young girl wouldn't survive the attack.

Muhammad Parvez, 57, has been remanded in custody and was to make his first court appearance today in a Brampton court.

The victim's brother, 26-year-old Waqas Parvez, was also arrested on a charge of obstructing police.

Neighbours described the family as very private and said several members from three generations have lived in the two-storey home, near Hurontario St. and Eglinton Ave., for just over two years.

School chums say Aqsa had been arguing with her family for months over whether she should wear the hijab.

Pal Ebonie Mitchell, 16, and other friends said Aqsa still wore the hijab to school last year, but rebelled against dressing in 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 would change back for the bus trip home.

"Sometimes she even changed her whole outfit in the washroom at school," Mitchell said.

The teen was known to her classmates and Facebook friends as Axa. She posted several pictures of herself on the website in colourful clothes and accessories.

At Aqsa's high school, friends gathered in groups yesterday, struggling to come to grips with what happened and lamenting how she had quarrelled with her father to the point that she recently moved out to live with a friend.

"She said she was always scared of her dad, she was always scared of her brother ... and she's not scared of nobody," said classmate Ashley Garbutt, 16.

"She didn't want to go home ... to the point where she actually wanted to go to shelters."

Friends said the root of her problems was a desire to blend in with friends at school, to wear the fashionable clothes she liked to buy on trips to Toronto's garment district, where she went with friends just last month.

"She liked fashion," said Mitchell. "We went to different stores; she was shopping; she bought lots of clothes."

"She loved clothes, she loved shopping and she loved taking pictures of herself," classmate Dominiquia Holmes-Thompson, 16, said outside the school as friends sobbed at the news.

"She just wanted to show her beauty. She just wanted freedom, freedom from her parents."

"She just wanted to dress like us, just like a normal person," said Holmes-Thompson.

"She was a very kind person, she was really nice; everybody loved her."

Friend Shianne Phillips, 16, said she last spoke with Aqsa on Friday.

"She was crying and she was like ‘I'm really scared to go home. I don't know what I'm going to do.' And that was it," Phillips said.

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