I apologize for my last post, I went on the attack a little too much and got off the subject.

It was not that long ago the US has had problem with gender equality...and some would argue it is still a major issue today in the US. While I think that it is a horrible thing to hold someone down because of the race, gender, religion, ethnicity or age, it is ultimately up to the citizens and local government to fix their own issues.

The West has given the most freedom of all...and and gender "inequalities" now and in the past don't compare to the serious gender inequalities in other countries where women *truly* have no rights.

As an American woman, I honestly do *not* feel curtailed at all...and am very glad I live in a country that has made it so.

I agree this is not a very compassionate thing to do and is very appalling. But lets look at some statistics. Worldwide there are an estimated 5000 victims of honor-keelings. This includes both men and women, because honor-keelings do not just happen to women. I'm not trying to downscale the problem because even if there was just one murder in the world annually that would be one to many.

Even more shocking is that a poll in Qatar, a fairly liberal muslim country (compared to surrounding countries), said that 42 percent of the women feel that domestic abuse is acceptable. This is a cultural phenominon, once more women in the Middle East feel this is unnacceptable it will start to become a hot topic in the region. Just as in the US, the people being abused or the minority opinion must stand up for itself before anything will be done.

I do not agree with how women are treated in the Middle East, but lets compare. In the US, approximately 1.3 million women are assaulted by their significant other annually. Each year almost 1500 women were murdered by their significant other. And remember, that honor killing was at 5000 for the entire world, while most occur in just a handfull of countries (btw, none of which the US is currently at "war" with), . Many of these murders in the US could be considered "honor" keelings as well. It's just not a Christian term, so it's not used. Same crime, different name.

The difference is what is done in the name of Islam. All violence is wrong but don't assume the violence in the US is done by Christians...we all know that there are plenty of non Christians out there.

The other BIG difference, and this is huge...is that Islam, as a culture SUPPORTS the honor killings while our culture does NOT support violence towards women. Big huge difference...world's apart. The fact that their governments and mosques feel this is OK is a huge red flag.

I am not sure you are aware of how many Christians throughout the world are being attacked right now.

I am not Christian at all...but I have read about it. And Christians come in all races and colors.

BTW, I am NOT from the Middle East nor am I Muslim. I dont' like any religion. No problem with faith or personal beliefs, it's just the religion part I don't like.