judge lets babykiller go free cultural relativism

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2-2142347,00.html

A BANGLADESHI woman who shook a baby boy so violently that he suffered brain damage walked free from court yesterday because a judge conceded that she did not know how to behave in the West.



Rahella Khanom, 24, caused the five-month-old boy in her care to suffer fractures to his breast bone and ribs as she tried to rid him of evil spirits, Southwark Crown Court was told.



NI_MPU('middle');The injuries inflicted on the child over several weeks had caused one side of his brain to shrink. It was believed that the boy would have been screaming in agony for eight weeks because his injuries went untreated.



Khanom, from Poplar, East London, said that she had wanted to purge the baby of evil spirits as it cried and cried. She was not found to be mentally ill.

The court was told that Khanom, a Muslim, did not understand that shaking a helpless baby would not exorcise an evil spirit.



Judge Rodney McKinnon told Khanom: “Normal and right-minded people will be horrified by this. Everybody must recognise how serious it is to treat children in this way and to use violence.” But the judge said that Khanom’s strong cultural and religious beliefs, and the fact that she had been forced by her husband to live in isolation since coming to Britain from Bangladesh, meant that there were exceptional circumstances in her case.



He said: “You are a young lady who came from Bangladesh. You lived there in a rural community, adopting the customs and ways of the people there so that getting to know the ways of living in the West and in this country were not easy.



“I accept you were kept really quite isolated from our society by your community and it would seem to a large extent by your husband as well. Under these circumstances I do not feel it is in the public interest to pass an immediate custodial sentence.”



Khanom was given an 18-month prison sentence, suspended for two years, after admitting one count of cruelty to a person under the age of 16.

Sailesh Mehta, for the prosecution, said that the baby was taken to the Royal London Hospital, in Whitechapel, on November 16, 2004, because he was refusing to eat.



“He had been vomiting and not eating and was having difficulty breathing with a bruise to his head,” Mr Mehta said.



“On examination, the doctor found the top of the head was bulging.”

He added: “On the last occasion the prosecution accepted that the child was doing well and thankfully had passed the developmental milestones expected of him.” Kate Bex, for the defence, told the court that Khanom’s religious and cultural beliefs had led to her shaking the child. She said: “She now knows that this was not an appropriate way to deal with her belief in manifestation of spirit.”

isnt this a wonderful case of moral and cultural relativism and possibly dhimmitude , as I understand it ignorance of the law isnt a defence why should this women have got off after killing her baby ?

 

Nowhere int he article is there any mention of any baby being killed. The child referred to is admittedly alive and progressing well according to the article.

But don't let the facts get in the way of yet another bigotted rant against those "evil" Muslims.

 

wow you appear to be right lickherish the child only had some brain damage and screamed in agony for 8 weeks and didnt die .

 

Yes Johnny, dead is quite different to alive, perhaps you should consider that when making such false assertions.

 

maybe he misread it ... wouldnt be the first time its happened ... for exaple i missread your name several times ..

 

sometimes being dead is exactly like being alive ..


and the act that was committed didnt take any deadness or alivness intto consideration .. the bairn seems to be lucky to still be here .. so ... its still a fearfully dastardly act.

 

Oh look it's Lickerish and it's amazing lack of comprehension skills.

The article had nothing to do with bashing Muslims, dolt.

It's about how some dumbass woman shook a baby into brain damage and got to walk free due to some lame defense that her culture made her do it. Give me a fucking break. If it was an American or other western person, their ass would have been put in jail for 5-10 years, for life if the kid died.

What's next Lickerish? Should we allow men to kill women on western soil, in honor killings "because it's their culture?"