A Muslim beauty who bared all for Playboy may well be the next victim of an honor killing in Germany, if orthodox Muslims get their way. Sila ?ahin, a Turkish knock-out and soap-opera star who shed her clothes for pornographer Hugh Hefner's German edition of Playboy, is under fire from those calling her a "whore" and a "western slut" and who believe she must die.
?ahin vs. Islam
When ?ahin threw down the g-string, Islam was not amused. ?ahin, apparently, grew up in a strict Muslim household. "What I want to say with these photos is, 'Girls, we don't have to live according to the rules imposed upon us,'" she told Playboy magazine. "For years I subordinated myself to various societal constraints. The Playboy photo shoot was a total act of liberation."
Liberation for women isn't exactly a top item on the Muslim man's agenda. According to the New York Daily News, "Commenters [on the Internet] spewed that ?ahin was 'shaming Muslim womanhood' and 'prostituting herself for money,' while others warned that she 'needs to be very careful.' "
According to London's Sun, "A kebab shop owner, asked on German TV what he would do if Sila were his daughter, replied: "I would kill her. I really mean that. That doesn't fit with my culture." Another website posted this comment: "She must pay."
That means ?ahin may soon have her throat slashed or be shot by one or several Muslim men.
Reported the Daily News, "The Berlin-based star's parents are said to be horrified at the pictorial, and Sahin told Germany's Bild newspaper that her mother has cut off contact."
Honor Killings
Because of the millions of Turks who live in Germany, honor killings are a common feature of German life. Muslim men become enraged when their wives and daughters become "too Westernized" and rebel against authority. In Germany, that has meant a virtual bloodbath for Turkish women seeking to free themselves from the heavy hand of Mohammed's apostles.
Consider this passage from an article in Der Spiegel magazine in 2005:
The Turkish women’s organization Papatya has documented 40 instances of honor killings in Germany since 1996. Examples include a Darmstadt girl whose two brothers pummeled her to death with a hockey stick in April 2004 after they learned she had slept with her boyfriend. In Augsburg in April [2005], a man stabbed his wife and 7-year-old daughter because the wife was having an affair. In December 2003, a Tuebingen father strangled his 16-year-old daughter and threw her body into a lake because she had a boyfriend.
Now such killings are occurring with more frequency in the United States as its Muslim population grows.
Just last week, a Somali Muslim was found guilty of beating his wife and murdering his four children. He slashed their throats after using a hammer on his wife. He thought she was having an affair. That killing was similar to one in Sterling Heights, Michigan, in 2009. In that case, one news account says, police "found [the Muslim murderer] standing outside his apartment, covered in blood. Inside, his wife lay in a pool of blood, dead from multiple stab wounds."
Another Muslim mowed down his daughter in a car outside a welfare office in Arizona, while the prominent Muslim founder of a Muslim television station, ironically meant to dispel stereotypes about Muslims, beheaded his wife.
But back to Germany, where honor killings are quotidian routine. ?ahin had better watch out. As a German cop told The Sun, "I think what she did was either very brave, or very stupid. She will be double-locking her door at night for a long time to come."
Photo: S?la ?ahin with German actor Jörn Schlönvoigt last year.
