Are "Honor Killings" an Islamic practice?

Question:

I read in the papers something that disturbs me about Islam. I read that a Muslim man in one of the Islamic countries killed his seven-year-old daughter because he suspected her of being raped. He is quoted to have said: "The motive behind the killing was to defend my honor, fame, and dignity." Is this what your religion teaches?

Answer:

That father is guilty of murder.

The teachings of Islam should be taken from the correct sources – the Qur’ân and the Sunnah of our Prophet (peace be upon him).

There are false practices to be found in some Muslim societies are only but these are alien to the Islamic legal injunctions. Such practices cannot in any way be attributed to Islam. You should know that the Muslim scholars’ objective is to remove these evil regional customs and steer Muslim societies towards the true teachings of Islam.

The mistakes of Muslim people should not be attributed to Islam. You know from history that the massacres of the Native Americans and the slavery of Africans should not be attributed to Christianity, even though these atrocities were carried out by beople who called themselves Christians.

The events you have mentioned are unlawful and the one who commits such crimes is a criminal for illegally killing someone.

In Islamic Law, no one can be punished for adultery, man or woman, until it is legally confirmed that he or she did it. In case of this seven-year-old girl, she would never be punished in any case, since she was a minor.

According to Islam, it is not a simple thing to accuse someone of adultery, and even more difficult to punish someone for it. Anyone who falsely accuses someone else of adultery will receive a severe legal punishment of flogging with a whip, as he slandered another person and injured the accused person’s reputation. If this is the punishment for accusing someone else of adultery, then how could it be Islamic that a person can not only accuse someone but also kill that person on the basis of his accusation?

Legal punishments will not be applied on people who were coerced into doing things, such as being raped, neither in this life nor in the Hereafter. It is the duty of the raped victim’s family to request punishment of the rapist and not to punish their poor daughter. In fact, it is the Islamic right of the daughter on her family that they protect her, defend her, and pursue justice on her behalf.

http://en.islamtoday.net/node/1072