We’ve all read about honor killings in Muslim countries – the murder of women whose behavior is considered “unchaste” by their families. Causes range from being sexually assaulted to being alone in a room with an unrelated male, as well as actual morally questionable actions like the commission of fornication and adultery – acts which still do not merit murder.

And now we are headed that way in the United States if we do not clamp down on such quaint socio-religious customs among Muslims in this country. Take this as an example.

The Oakland County Prosecutor's Office on Thursday will attempt to permanently end the parental rights of a Madison Heights couple who police say neglected to seek medical help for their daughter after her older brother allegedly beat her over her relationship with a non-Muslim boy.

The 15-year-old girl, who is a Madison Heights Lamphere High junior, suffered a broken back in the beating, according to court documents. The trial to determine whether parental custody rights should be terminated is set for Thursday before Oakland Circuit Judge Joan Young.

The girl's brother, Ahmad Abdelmomen, 21, is charged with aggravated assault in the April 29 incident at their home in Madison Heights. Abdelmomen is free on bond pending a July 13 preliminary hearing before Madison Heights 43rd District Judge Robert J. Turner.

"She complained of the injury to her parents, but they didn't take her to a doctor because they condoned the punishment her brother gave her," said Robert Zivian, an assistant Oakland County prosecuting attorney assigned to the neglect case.

The following day, when the girl was still complaining of injuries, her parents called for an ambulance, according to Madison Heights Police Detective Sgt. Ron Hillman.

"She was in a lot of pain, and when she eventually went back to school, it was in a wheelchair," Hillman said. "It was too painful for her to stand for any period of time."

The girl initially told hospital workers she fell, Hillman said. After being questioned by police, she admitted that her brother had beaten her because he was upset over her relationship with a boy who was not of their religious faith, Hillman said.

"She wrote me a two-page statement about how both her brother and her parents disapproved of the situation," he said. "She wrote that's what prompted the beating in the first place."

The girl was placed in temporary foster care following the incident, Zivian said.
"Now she is recanting the original story and also claiming she fell down some stairs," Zivian said.

One can’t blame the girl for retracting the story. She knows what happens to Muslim girls who make trouble. I mean, who wouldn’t try to avoid a fate like this one?

A father poured kerosene on his wife and daughter in an "honor killing" in Pakistan, a disturbing trend that has been gaining popularity in the middle east.

Jalil Ahmed, 45, "lost control" when Ahmed's brother informed him that his daughter had been having sex in a near by town with a neighbor.

The father and brother tied the two women to wooden bed's while they were asleep and torched the women to death. The mother was set on fire because she apparently had not done enough to discourage the daughters behavior.

Nor would you want to risk this.

In Amman, Jordan two weeks ago the second "honor killing" of the week took place. A young Muslim man tied the hands of his sister, gagged her and took her to a deserted area west of that town where he stabbed her to death. The divorced 25-year old woman was slaughtered because her brother said she was "involved in immoral relationships." Nineteen female citizens of that country died at the hand of that immoral ideology last year. Their murderers either went unpunished or received reduced sentences, often without jail time. Meanwhile, Amnesty International railed against the United States branding our government officials human rights violators.

And let’s not forget this one, either.

The mother of Rahila Iqbal has now been named as an accomplice in the alleged honor murder case in Pakistan. Rahila, a Norwegian citizen, died in mysterious circumstances linked to a car accident, and her father and grandfather have been charged with her murder.

Rahila's husband asked Norwegian police also to investigate his wife's mother, believing the accident to be a staged cover for an honor killing after his wife converted to his form of Islam.

Police in Pakistan told Aftenposten that have not been able to locate Rahila's mother.

Rahila's father, Azhar Iqbal, also a Norwegian citizen, risks a death sentence if convicted and his Norwegian lawyer Abid Raja is now working to have him extradited to Norway.

No, I don’t blame her at all.

And we, as a country, need to make sure that the uncivilized among us do not import this barbaric custom