Photo: MORNING (Turkish News)

In the old days, that is to say, more than twenty years ago before the Internet came along, it was easy for Muslims to spout lies and distortions because ascertaining the truth of events far from your home country was always a difficult if not impossible task.

Take for example a comment left by a reader called Taner in response to the following blog article:

Jihad Watch, 6 Jan 2009, "Allahu akbar": Israeli basketball team attacked in Turkey

I lived in both rural and cosmopolitan areas. First off all there is no stoning in Turkey. I cant accept it. Turkey is a republic and there are rules. You cant stone someone :)

Yes, yes, there are laws on the books in Turkey saying stoning someone is illegal. But if one did stone someone to death prior to 2003 to defend the family honor that person would have received a reduced prison sentence for the murder. It wasn't until the summer of 2003 that the Turkish Parliament approved a slew of human rights laws, including one that abolished reduced prison terms for murders committed in the name of ''family honor.''

If you are wondering why Turkey, after being a Muslim country for centuries, would finally pass laws at this late date abolishing brutal, medieval practices, the answer is simple: Turkey did so to show that it is a civilized country worthy of joining the European Union.

But while they may pass laws to make Turkey acceptable to the modern world, one cannot make the modern world acceptable to Muslims. Contrary to reader Taner's assertion, there are indeed stonings in Turkey.

NY Times, 13 Jul 2003, 'Honor Killings' Defy Turkish Efforts to End Them

YAYLIM, Turkey — Last month a woman named Cemse Allak was buried in a corner of a municipal cemetery here. Ms. Allak, unmarried and pregnant, had died from a stoning.

Villagers and local lawyers said Ms. Allak -- as well as the man who had made her pregnant -- had been killed to restore the honor of their families.

For seven months after her stoning, Ms. Allak lay semi-conscious, her skull crushed, unable to move or speak. Still, according to the people who watched over her, Ms. Allak was capable of expressing a wide range of emotions with her eyes.

Relatives visited once, in the beginning, to tell the hospital staff that they could not pay for her care. The fetus inside Ms. Allak died six weeks after the attack.

When Ms. Allak died on June 7, no one from her family claimed her body, and none of her relatives attended the funeral.

...

The death of Ms. Allak, 35, underscores the distance between legislative pronouncements emanating from Ankara, Turkey's modern capital, and the sometimes grim, medieval realities of everyday life in other parts of the country.

...

The stoning of Mr. Acil and Ms. Allak appeared to follow in the tradition of recm, which is, according to villagers here, the religiously sanctioned trial and stoning of a dishonored woman or man by an entire village.

Then we have this description of the brutality of another stoning in Turkey as witnessed by the victim's sister:

FaithFreedom.org, 13 Mar 2005, An Untold Love Story

I still remember her black eyes; she stared at the sky while she was dug into the ground. She was wrapped in white sheets and her hands were tide to her body. She was buried up to her waist. The rabid mob circled her with stones in their hands and started throwing them at her while the roars of Allah-u-Akbar Allah-u-Akbar added to their frenzy. She twitched with pain as the stones hit her tender body and smashed her head. Blood gushed out from her face, cheeks, mouth, nose and eyes. All she could do was to bend to the left and to the right. Gradually the movements slowed down and finally she stopped moving even though the shower of the stones did not stop. Her head fell on her chest. Her bloodied face remained serene. All the pain had gone. The hysteric mob relented and the chant of Allah-u’Akbar stopped. Someone approached and with a big boulder in his hand smashed the scull of my sister to finish her off. There was no need for that; she was already dead. Her bright black eyes that beamed with life were shut. Her jovial laughter that filled the world around her was silenced. Her heart that beat with such a heavenly love for only a short time had stopped. Her unborn baby was not given a chance to breathe one breath of air. He (or she) accompanied his young mother in her solitary and cold tomb, or who knows, maybe to a better place where love reigns and pain and ignorance are not known. These two budding lives had to be nipped so my father could keep his honour.

Since it is technically illegal in Turkey to kill women for dishonoring the family, women who do so are harassed and pressured into committing honor-suicide. Women who refuse to honor-kill themselves are subsequently stoned, burned, hanged, strangled, shot, stabbed or beaten to death. These murders, if they are reported at all, are ruled an accident or suicide. The police are often bribed (and encouraged by their government) to ignore crimes and hinder investigations. In this manner, Turkey is able to show itself as having the least honor-killings among nations with Muslim-majority populations. See my article How Many Honor Killings are There in Islam?

Even though there are few official reports of women being stoned to death, there are thousands of gravesites of victims of stonings throughout Turkey known by women's groups opposed to honor killings. In the photo top right we see one such group visiting the graves of victims of stonings in Southeastern Turkey to commemorate "International Solidarity Day Against Violence Against Women."