Also I don´t often hear people justifying murders, rapes, etc. with religion. If they say that god commanded them to kill somebody they would usually be locked up in a psychiatric facility, at least in the USA, and heavily medicated. There are serious issues too that are related to religion in the USA, for example, denying to homosexuals same rights as heterosexuals have when it comes to marriage and relationships, if it wasn´t for the Bible and people who take the book as god-inspired word, those people would be treated as human beings and not as "abominable sinners". Or the issue of "teaching abstinence" to children as their entire sexual ed (and then being surprised at teenage pregnancies and STDs). Or blocking vital stem-cell research. Or teaching "creationism" in schools. Or using Christian rhetoric by former administration and media to justify the war in Iraq. And so it goes ...

 Yes, I also remember seeing in the original link that it was a cast problem. Muslims don´t use the cast system. Interestingly, the recent posts on it don´t mention that, they say his family was poor and hers was wealthy.

I also noted that the male to female ration in that area is 54% male to 46% female; which would make a marriageable female particularly valuable.

You might be slightly wrong on that..

 You are absolutely right there.................. the supposed Heathrow Bombers today, they did not once mention what religion they were, the Ipswich murderer, they did not mention what religion he was, the man and woman who killed their child, they did not mention their religion, the man who killed his family in USA lately, did not mention his religion, etc etc I could go on.............. the only place religion is mentioned as a cause or justification is here...................

Was religion what motivated them to commit those crimes? If not, why would they mention it?

There are murderers, robbers, rapists, mentally sick people, psychopaths, sociopaths, etc. among members of every religions, race, nationality, etc. Not all of them are motivated by their religious beliefs. There´s a difference between a guy who kills a doctor because the doctor presribed him medicine that made him impotent (true case) and a guy who kills a doctor because that doctor performs abortions. In the first case religion would not be an issue, in the second it very much would.

Religion wasn´t directly mentioned in the article.  It only said that the family of the groom was poor and the brides family was wealthy.   

 You´re so comical  at times.

Some figures for you: Religion in India is represented as follows: Hindu 80.5%, Muslim 13.4%, Christian 2.3%, Sikh 1.9%, other 1.8%, unspecified 0.1% (2001 census) taken from

http://www.nationmaster.com/country/in-india/rel-religion

I guess this indicates India isn´t a Muslim country.

If you read the original article you would note that no religious group was mentioned.  If I were to make an assumption though it would be that the families were not Muslim, because of the region and the names of the families.  Of course I cannot prove this. 

In any event, I always thought that many practices in India, regarding family were more culturally influenced  than religiously influenced.  Many see a marriage between a man and a woman as a marriage of two families.  Maybe this is where the ´honour´ reference comes from, I´m not sure. 

Whatever the motivation and whoever the perpetrators, such killings are terrible.  I don´t think anyone here would argue with that. 

I trust I´ve managed to stick to the topic of the thread.

btw In my opinion the thread was seriously off topic and you can think whatever you wish too.

 I have Indian heritage Muslim friends and we have discussed this in the past.  Some Muslim communities in India do have a caste system, even some Christian communities.  Usually in the smaller villages.  It is probably more of a cultural system/tradition that has existed for an extremely long time.  If it´s a predominantly Hindu system and Hindus have been converted to other faiths over the years, it´s easy to see how it may have crept into other faith communities.  I would think it´s also hard to live alongside an approx 80% Hindu community and not be influenced culturally in some ways.

By your earlier reference to ´you´ in your quote, I presume you didn´t mean me personally, because I haven´t said anything like the words you quoted.

If you want to keep commenting, then of course, go ahead.  I´m already used to it and if I feel naffed off by it once in a while, I´ll say so.  

From the myriad of articles that have been posted about honor killings, it doesn´t seem to be something that is isolated to certain culltures/religions or parts of the world.  What is alarming is that the overwhelming majority of victims are women who are treated like second class citizens in many societies including the west.  I personally don´t see this is a religious issue....although, some perpetrators may claim it is part of their religion or culture or whatever.  It is sick and twisted thinking that if you are insulted, you have the right to kill someone.  I feel strongly that this happens all over the world, but is called many different things other than honor killings.  How many jealous spouses have killed because they only "suspected" infidelity?  This is not so much a problem of religion and culture but of sick, twisted human behavior that makes some people feel they have a right to judge the actions or suspected actions of another human.

Indian boy marries dog to ward off tiger attacks

Dad: ´It will overcome any curse that might fall on the child as well on us´

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/29259293/