Tomorrow in Israel: Dedication of Aqsa Parvez Memorial Grove to Victims of Honor Killing

FOR ATLAS


in Israel: Dedication of Aqsa Parvez Memorial Grove to Victims of Honor Killing

This is the first initiative of its kind, dedicated to calling attention to this enforcement of the most savage elements of Islamic law against women: wives, daughters, and sisters. One can't even begin to fathom the lost dreams and ideals and promises and hopes for a full life extinguished by the tyrannical, hatemongering macho culture of Islamic supremacism.

Demand the world's condemnation of Islamic misogyny, gender apartheid and the dehumanization of women. This should be the first of tens of thousands of memorials, but the point of the memorials does not end simply with the memorials themselves. The memorials show that we have not forgotten and will not forget these girls. And the memorials are just a part of a larger determination to show the Islamic world that we simply will not allow this barbaric practice of Islamic honor killing to stand in the West. We will plant millions of groves.

The grove that the Atlas activists planted in honor of Aqsa Parvez and honor killing victims worldwide will be dedicated in American Independence Park in Nes Harimn August 24th.

Tomorrow we will be dedicating the Aqsa Parvez Grove in American Independence Park in Nes Harim, Israel. If you can be in that part of the world, join me.


Non-Muslims have begun to take note of the victims of Islamic honor killing, and to serve notice to their killers that the victims will not be forgotten, or their murders ignored. Americans have seen a spike in the brutal murder of Muslim girls under Islamic law.

Aqsa Parvez was brutally murdered by her father and brother in December 2007 for refusing to wear the Islamic headscarf. But that was only the beginning: the abuse and dehumanization of this girl continued. She was buried in an unmarked grave. Her family refused to acknowledge her life, as she had "dishonored" them. In defiance of her devout father and brother, she had refused to live under the suffocating dictates of Islamic law. The eleventh grade student began taking off her hijab, a traditional Islamic headscarf, when she went to school, and would put it back on when she returned home. Her dad would go to her school during school hours and walk around trying to find her, trying to catch her not wearing Islamic garb, talking to boys or hanging out with "non-Muslims". "She wanted to dress like us," said one friend of Aqsa. "To be normal." For this, her family prefers that she be forgotten -- unknown, unloved, unmourned.

In December 2008, when I read that Aqsa lay in an unmarked grave, I was beside myself. I started a memorial fund at Atlas to get her a headstone. But I had no idea how difficult and ugly it would be simply to honor a teenage girl in Canada who just wanted to live free -- and how eagerly Western non-Muslims would aid and abet the family's efforts to dishonor her in death as they did in life.

Readers of my weblog, AtlasShrugs.com, opened their hearts and their wallets, and contributed $5,000 for a headstone for Aqsa. Robert Spencer of Jihad Watch joined the effort, and we approved a design for a headstone that read, "In loving memory of Aqsa Parvez, Apr. 22, 1991-Dec. 10, 2007 -- Beloved, remembered and free." All was going according to plan until, after much silence, Meadowvale Cemetery in Brampton, Ontario, where Aqsa is buried, advised me that the family (yes, the family that murdered her) had refused to "sign off" on the headstone. The director of the cemetery said: "The family wants changes and is planning on coming in to see me. They did not book an appointment yet but I hope to see them soon."

Of course, the family never came, and when we inquired as to purchasing a plot near Aqsa's body, we could not. Not a tree. Not a rock. Not a bench. All the plots were owned by the Islamic Society of North America. I tried to contact the family at that time, but they would not take my calls -- I spoke to the them once, but they pretended not to speak English. And they were adamant: the family refused to allow the headstone to be put on Aqsa's grave, and according to the cemetery, could remove it if it were placed there by others.

But those of us who had contributed to the Aqsa Memorial Fund were determined to make sure that Aqsa would be memorialized. We checked into other locations, made plans, only to see them canceled at the last minute out of ... fear. We checked into the arboretum at the University of Guelph in Ontario, but a university official wrote me to say that "no matter how worthy, a memorial to Aqsa Parvez would draw much public attention and would thus be inconsistent with current use of The Arboretum."

But not everyone was ready to cower before Islamic anti-woman violence.

Considering the fact that Islamic honor killings were a global problem (over 90% of honor killings worldwide are Islamic), I approached the JNF and worked to plant the Aqsa Parvez Grove in American Independence Park in Nes Harim, Israel, where the plaque before the grove will read: "In Loving Memory of Aqsa Parvez and All Victims of Honor Killings Worldwide." I loved the idea of a grove of trees that would continue to live and grow for decades in their name.

The memorial in Nes Harim is recognition of this horror and the first indication that in the Free World we are not going to stand by silently while the Islamic world brutalizes women and treats them as property and worthless trash. It is but a small, respectful step toward widespread resistance against honor killing in the West and elsewhere.

Tomorrow, join us when we dedicate the Aqsa Parvez Grove at American Independence Park in Nes Harim and remember the girls and the women who died brutal deaths merely because they wanted to be free. Please join us. It will be a very special event. Specific details will follow.

DIRECTIONS:
From the direction of Jerusalem .....

Travel on road #1 towards Tel Aviv (after about 12 minutes ... just past the Paz (Yellow) Gas station, veer right to road #38 - towards Bet Shemesh.

From the direction of Tel Aviv:

Travel on road #1 towards Jerusalem.

The junction AFTER Latrun (on your right) is the Road to Bet Shemesh (#38) .... take this turn off (to the right) towards Bet Shemesh ...

Then .....

Travel on road #38 to Bet Shemesh (about 10 minutes).

You will pass over the Train Track, and then take a left at the trafic Light ... towards Bet Shemesh .... (The Strip Mall "Big" is on your left).

Go straight ... you travel through the Bet Shemesh industrial area, after about 3 minutes you will come to a left turn where the sign says towards the Staligmite Caves (Road # 3866). Take this left ....

After about a mile you come to the sothern entrance of American Independance park (marked by welcome pillars on each side of the road).

You travel along this road (#3866) .... Up a hill ... and then you come to the "Chalanger Intersection, here the monument to the Chalanger is on your left (The sign says left to the Staligmite Caves .. do NOT turn left ... keep going along road 3866 for a further 2 minutes. You willl see a sign pointing to the right - "Dedication Center". Take this right and travel 20 yards down the hill ... here you can park your car

Time: 2:00PM Wednesday, August 24th

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