I always knew that a portion of Muslims in the world endorse honor killings, but I never realized until today just how big that number is. A new survey in Turkey shows just how chilling the response is, and how incompatible this cultural attitude is to modern societal values. 26 percent of adults and teenagers are in full support of honor killings. That’s a full quarter of their population.

I find it surprising there was almost no difference between the opinions of the older generation compared to the younger one. It’s a testament to the power religion has in this country, where something as frightening and deplorable as murdering your own daughter is considered a necessity.

According to the population, it’s the media that is mostly responsible for making this practice acceptable. I don’t speak Turkish, so I can’t accurately judge what kind of media coverage they have, but I get the feeling the blame isn’t being put on the right institution. At the end of the day, it’s the mosques and mullahs who have the real power, and I have serious doubts any of them publicly speak out against honor killings. It is, after all, a tradition to murder disobedient female children in this religion. Reformed this barbaric practice, it has not.