this post was submitted on 04 Jul 2025
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A Syrian refugee who fled to the Netherlands has reportedly confessed to murdering his 18-year-old daughter and dumping her body in a canal before fleeing the country in an apparent admission note sent to a Dutch newspaper.

Father-of-nine Khaled al-Najjar, 52, wrote in an email sent to De Telegraaf that he had killed his 18-year-old daughter Ryan al-Najjar, urging the publication to report 'I am the one who killed'.

The confession did not specify exactly why he had decided to murder his daughter, with al-Najjar writing only that he was 'very angry with her', adding: 'The reason is between me and the judge. I will read that in court'.

But neighbours and friends suspect Ryan's death came as the result of an honour killing, with one claiming they had previously sheltered her when she had fled the family home in fear of retribution from her father.

Requesting anonymity to prevent any backlash, they told De Telegraaf that Ryan had a Dutch boyfriend, wanted to stop wearing a headscarf and had been beaten by her father who disagreed with her adoption of a Western lifestyle.

Source:

  1. https://nltimes.nl/2025/06/30/brothers-still-deny-involvement-18-year-old-sisters-honor-killing

  2. https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-13501735/Syrian-refugee-murders-Westernised-daughter-18-honour-killing-dumps-canal-started-dating-local-Dutch-boy-wanted-stop-wearing-headscarf.html

  3. https://www.atheistrepublic.com/news/fatal-traditions-shocking-honor-killing-netherlands

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[–] fum@lemmy.world 6 points 27 minutes ago

What a disgusting thing for a human being to do.

[–] Velypso@sh.itjust.works 5 points 24 minutes ago (1 children)

Islam is a plague.

I dont understand why leftists try and platform this terrible religion.

[–] Reddfugee42@lemmy.world 1 points 3 minutes ago

And of course, there it is.

Ryan’s murder is horrifying. She deserved safety, freedom, and support—but instead, she was failed by the people closest to her and by institutions meant to protect her. What happened to her wasn’t about Islam—it was about patriarchal control and deadly misogyny cloaked in the language of religion.

And that’s not unique to Islam. In ultra-Orthodox Jewish communities, women have been attacked for dressing “immodestly” or denied divorces for years. In some conservative Christian circles, honor, shame, and purity culture have been used to justify abuse, disownment, or worse. This kind of violence is rooted in power, not faith.

It is fundamentalist religion in general that puts women at risk. No single one is devoid of such attacks.

It’s wrong to exploit Ryan’s death to stoke Islamophobia. Doing so ignores the broader pattern of gender-based violence that exists across cultures and religions. If we really care about preventing tragedies like this, we should be talking about how to hold abusers accountable, how to recognize warning signs, and how to protect women and girls from systems that excuse control as “tradition.”

Blaming one single faith just distracts from real solutions.

[–] perestroika@slrpnk.net 23 points 2 hours ago* (last edited 2 hours ago)

Going by this article...

https://nltimes.nl/2025/06/30/brothers-still-deny-involvement-18-year-old-sisters-honor-killing

...I would speculate that by sending the letter, Khaled al-Najjar attempts to free his sons of complicity in the crime. Whether they are or aren't complicit, is for the court to determine. Getting the man back from Syria would be a priority for the court, but given the situation in Syria, this might be difficult to arrange.

The court seems to consider the brothers either plausibly complicit or a flight risk and decided not to free them on bail.

The brothers’ lawyers requested that they be released from pre-trial custody. They have been detained for almost 13 months. Both insist that they “had nothing to do” with their sister’s murder. But the court ruled that they’ll stay in custody until the next hearing in September.

...and...

But the OM [prosecution] believes that the father enlisted his sons to pick Ryan up, drive her to a remote location, and throw her weighted body into the water. According to the OM, the three men killed Ryan because she behaved too Western and “shamed” her family.

[–] DreamAccountant@lemmy.world 28 points 2 hours ago (1 children)

Only religions give permission for people to kill their children.

Don't think that this is the only religion that does this. They all do. They all do this shit. "My fictional god is more important than my child". "No matter what I do, my fictional god will forgive me!"

It's fucking disgusting, and you are too if you support religions.

[–] JackbyDev@programming.dev 7 points 1 hour ago

But abortion? Can't do that, you're killing a child!

[–] fluxion@lemmy.world 25 points 3 hours ago (2 children)
[–] CoffeeJunkie@lemmy.cafe 15 points 2 hours ago (1 children)

Why go back to Syria when you can forever box?

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[–] perestroika@slrpnk.net 1 points 1 hour ago* (last edited 1 hour ago)

Not "back to Syria" but "how to get him back from Syria, where he has presumably fled", if you read the article.

[–] zanyllama52@infosec.pub 5 points 2 hours ago (1 children)

The religion of peace. Damn.

[–] hark@lemmy.world 10 points 1 hour ago (3 children)

The religion prescribes death for being too westernized?

[–] MisterOwl@lemmy.world 4 points 17 minutes ago

The religion demands all who don't follow the rules be put to death. Especially if you're a woman.

[–] catty@lemmy.world 2 points 47 minutes ago* (last edited 41 minutes ago)

I once heard a boy about 15-17 talk openly and loudly on the bus whilst on the phone about how he's going to kill his sister because of who she's dating and he didn't like it (in England). He said that he previously hit her to hit some sense in to her. He was Pakistani and boasting about this on the phone. I saw another boy about the same age shouting at a girl also about the same age, "hurry up you fat slut" and "f*cking get up these steps whore" forcing her to walk up and down steps in a library because she was honestly, slightly chubby by today's standards, in an attempt to make her slim. I touched her arm to get her attention as she passed and said she didn't have to put up with this and she needs to report it, whilst another girl overheard it and was like wtf and we both reported it. She kept apologising for him about how he didn't mean it and so on. He came up to me and was like 'bro, bro, what you think you doin' touchin' my girl? touch her again and i'll knock you out'. I had to stop myself from laughing because this kid was like a 1.6m skinny shit!

Still, this is normal in their culture. You either understand, or you really can't imagine how normalised it is.

[–] kadup@lemmy.world 4 points 1 hour ago

Maybe not directly for "being too Western" but certainly it's the one providing the moral framework for allowing murder for ideological and behavioural differences.

[–] cRazi_man@europe.pub 117 points 6 hours ago* (last edited 6 hours ago) (8 children)

I'm not in a position to deep-dive into whether this specific story is true or not, but here is some information that I think is important for readers to know:

If you're not from the UK then you might not know about Daily Mail news. This is a far right "news source" that has very poor journalistic integrity and often makes shit up. They have a very strong "anti-foreigner" agenda and heavily embellish or make up stuff to stoke up sentiment about "backward savages foreigners". They are not a reliable news source at all. Wikipedia does not accept Daily Mail as a source.

Personally: if I see a Daily Mail source, I wouldn't bother reading the story at all as the "news" will be of less value than used toilet paper. These turds thrive on writing rage-bait which then circulates on social media (this story currently has a higher upvote score than any BBC, Guardian, etc sourced news recently posted to this community).

[–] huppakee@feddit.nl 30 points 2 hours ago

Dutchie here, her disappearance, the investigation and the trial all have been widely covered by national news. Completely agreeing with you on the Daily Mail being a legitimate source and they might well have their own agenda for publishing this but what's in the post (havent opened the daily mail article) is all true.

I'm not sure who's behind nltimes (they translate news from the Netherlands so for me there is no reason to check them ever), but I've seen it linked in many occasions before and have never seen a headline that striked me as false.

[–] Nanook@lemmy.zip 5 points 2 hours ago* (last edited 1 hour ago) (1 children)

It’s true, happened a year ago. It’s a shit show. Fucking asshole admitted but too much of a coward to do time. Fled back to his “unsafe” country to be safe.

[–] Alcoholicorn@mander.xyz 3 points 1 hour ago

Hell with the former Al Nusra in power, he can put that on his CV and get a job with the police, handling domestic abuse.

[–] AnonomousWolf@lemmy.world 27 points 5 hours ago* (last edited 5 hours ago) (1 children)
[–] otter@lemmy.ca 4 points 1 hour ago* (last edited 1 hour ago) (2 children)

I'm not sure if those sources are any better since I can't find anything about them. According to the other comment, there should be other articles about this case since it was on their national news for some time.

Also, some of those articles are dated from 1 year ago. Is there a reason you're posting this now, such as new updates? Else it would be against the community rules

Edit: The articles I found suggest that the father admitted to it, while the brothers deny involvement and there is another hearing coming up. What I found weird though was the screenshot states the brothers involvement as a fact.

I looked around for the logo on the screenshot, and it seems to be this organization

https://catalyticministries.com/

This other source (which I'm also unfamiliar with) points out that this organization is controversial

https://ministrywatch.com/global-catalytic-ministries-hides-behind-veil-of-secrecy/

It also summarizes the purpose of the org above:

GCM offers varying descriptions of its work, many of them characterized by grandiose but unverified claims, such as “transforming Muslims worldwide,” “750 churches planted throughout the Middle East and Central Asia,” and “bringing disciple-making methods to the West to build a decentralized network of discipleship communities that will prepare America for the end time harvest.”

Which makes the source seem, less credible...

[–] otter@lemmy.ca 1 points 1 hour ago

@AnonomousWolf@lemmy.world I've added some more context around the screenshot. Would you be able to replace it with your recent article link?

[–] AnonomousWolf@lemmy.world 1 points 1 hour ago (1 children)
[–] otter@lemmy.ca 3 points 1 hour ago* (last edited 1 hour ago) (1 children)

Ah ok, you might want to update the post title and URL fields with this article's link and the article's title. Else the mods will likely remove it, see the community rules

The article you linked doesn't confirm the current title you have up

[–] AnonomousWolf@lemmy.world 1 points 1 hour ago

Thanks will do

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