The motive is “not known.” It is likely that this was an honor crime. The husband of the victim is not identified as the father of the perpetrator, and it is possible that that had something to do with the crime itself. Perhaps the mother was divorced and remarried someone the son disliked.
In the Qur’an, a mysterious figure, known as Khidr in Islamic tradition, kills a boy in an apparently random and gratuitous attack. He then explains: “And as for the boy, his parents were believers, and we feared that he would overburden them by transgression and disbelief. So we intended that their Lord should substitute for them one better than him in purity and nearer to mercy.” (18:80-81)
And according to Islamic law, “retaliation is obligatory against anyone who kills a human being purely intentionally and without right.” However, “not subject to retaliation” is “a father or mother (or their fathers or mothers) for killing their offspring, or offspring’s offspring.” (Reliance of the Traveller o1.1-2).
Muslims commit 91 percent of honor killings worldwide. The Palestinian Authority gives pardons or suspended sentences for honor murders. Iraqi women have asked for tougher sentences for Islamic honor murderers, who get off lightly now. Syria in 2009 scrapped a law limiting the length of sentences for honor killings, but “the new law says a man can still benefit from extenuating circumstances in crimes of passion or honour ‘provided he serves a prison term of no less than two years in the case of killing.’” And in 2003 the Jordanian Parliament voted down on Islamic grounds a provision designed to stiffen penalties for honor killings. Al-Jazeera reported that “Islamists and conservatives said the laws violated religious traditions and would destroy families and values.”
“He kills his mother with hammer blows, her 23-year-old son is arrested,” translated from “Uccide la madre a martellate, fermato il figlio 23enne,” L’Unione Sarda, March 9, 2023 (thanks to L.):
A 45-year-old woman was killed this morning by hammer blows by her 23-year-old son of Pakistani origin. The murder took place this morning in an apartment in via Sommeiller 32, in the center of Pinerolo, in the province of Turin. It was the victim’s husband who raised the alarm.
Rescue was useless, there was nothing they could do for the woman. The young man was arrested. The investigations are entrusted to the carabinieri of the Pinerolo company. At the moment, the motive for the crime is not known.
