It does damage the community's image as a whole.....but in general, Muslims coexist quite peacefully in Canadian society, and are valued and productive members...their conduct as a whole is exmplary.

Some narrow minded people will point to this as an example of how "ALL" muslims are evil....but rest assured (that in Canada at least) people (on the whole, becuase there are always exceptions) will not fall for that any more than they would condem all black people if one of them murdered anyone.

The act is outrageous, and the motive (while not publicly disclosed yet....though obviously will have to be during the trial) is what is most schocking.....honor killings (to remove the stain of a preceived slight on one's family name) is anathema to Candian culture and values.

To answer Knoxcollege: it is different because the motive (to remove a stain on one's honor) is different from say loss of control brought about by anger (when a spouse walks on on a cheating spouse and kills them in a fit of rage) or Greed (when one kills a spouce to collect insurance money), etc...

In the end they are all murder, but the laws prescribes different punishments based on the circumstances (ie manslaughter, second degre murder, first degree, etc...)....now whether one thinks this is right or not is another topic entirely.

Unfortunately, honor killings seems to be the purvue of religions, and as Gypsy said is not even exclusive to any one religion (they all do it)....the fact that this is the first one in Canada should give you an idea of how rare this is for us....for the record I don't know if it really is the first or not, but its certainly the first i've heard of!

And to top it off, as a new dad myself with a baby daughter that gives meaning to my life, I find it hard to describe in words the emotions that went through my mind as I read the article.

Stay safe all.

Perfection does not exist. The question therefore, is: what level of imperfection are we willing to settle for?