“Brilliant though she is, and with a wit so acute that it often gives the impression of wisdom beyond her years, she is in fact young and foolish. She compensates for her ‘repressive’ home environment by behaving very recklessly away from it, especially with boys. This is done with words, not acts; but if her father ever read her words, he would never believe she is actually quite chaste. Unfortunately, she has left enough traces of her wild, mostly imaginary, ‘alternative life’ — in places like the Internet where anyone could find them — that I fear for her. She herself contacted me immediately after the death of Aqsa Pervez was reported, saying, ‘That could have been me.’
“There is no possible excuse to be made for the crime of which Mohammad Parvez is accused. This was made clear enough by spokesmen at a news conference held by the Islamic Society of North America, in Mississauga, yesterday. But their awkwardly-phrased pleas for understanding should also be attended to. For it is worth asking ourselves if the society Aqsa Pervez wished to escape into, and in which this Harata wants to be ensconced, offers anything better than what they left at home.
“For it does not offer a better or deeper or more merciful religion. It only offers an escape from religion, and therefore from any religious formation that can make a person whole.”
