But Islamophobia?!?!?!?!
I actually agree with your position and think calling these events "honor killings" is just ridiculous. But that said, I think there's a not insignificant portion of the population - in the US at least - that likes to serve as the PC police and would respond to a change like this with claims of Islamophobia and cultural insensitivity. I think that's why, for example, you don't see this more in the mainstream media. I think it's important to remember that not all Muslims are terrorists, obviously, but Islam has a huge PR problem and fails to address the elephant in the room (namely, that a not-insignificant number of its adherents worldwide believe some pretty crazy things). In the US, this is parried with "but we don't believe that!" by many American Muslims, which I don't necessarily doubt. But it's hard to reconcile that with the many fundamental problems Islam presents to the traditional idea of a liberal (liberal in the classical sense), Western democracy. Rather than poke at the beehive, we in the US seem to prefer a more "leave it alone and maybe it'll go away" approach - or at least that's my interpretation of the situation.