Man wants Americans to understand Muslims better; beheads wife

02/14/2009 ~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

Is this a bizarre story or what? The media can’t avoid saying Muzzammil Hassan is a Muslim, since he founded a cable TV station for the express purpose of helping Americans understand Muslims. This report in the Buffalo News is typical:

Orchard Park police are investigating a particularly gruesome killing, the beheading of a woman, after her husband — an influential member of the local Muslim community — reported her death to police Thursday.

Police identified the victim as Aasiya Z. Hassan, 37. Detectives have charged her husband, Muzzammil Hassan, 44, with second-degree murder.

“He came to the police station at 6:20 p.m. [Thursday] and told us that she was dead,” Orchard Park Police Chief Andrew Benz said late this morning.

…Muzzammil Hassan is the founder and chief executive officer of Bridges TV, which he launched in 2004, amid hopes that it would help portray Muslims in a more positive light.

The best comment came from Trina Hoaks of the Examiner:

Whoa! If this man wanted to help Americans better understand Muslims, this was not the way to go about it – or maybe it was.

She reports this additional fact.

Apparently, Aasiya recently filed for a divorce. She must have been worried for her own safety as it was reported that she had a protection order against her husband.

It’s happened before — wife leaves husband, insane husband kills wife. But beheading? I guess we wouldn’t understand; it’s a Muslim thing. Maybe Bridges TV will explain it to us.

I could go on here about the honor/shame culture of Muslims, but I don’t have time now. It’s important, though and I will return to it.

Update: Whoops, Ann and I were posting at the same time. It’s okay; we emphasized different things.

Update Feb. 15: Here’s some good commentary on this story from Mark Steyn on the lack of coverage in the mainstream media — Headless Body in Gutless Press:

http://corner.nationalreview.com/post/?q=YWVlZDFkN2RmOGE1YWMzMmY5YjBiZThkYTIxN2Q5ZDU=

Part II: Refugee Council USA wants to dramatically increase refugee numbers

02/14/2009 ~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

Yesterday, I told you about the Refugee Council USA’s “Recommendations and Actions for the Obama Administration and the 111th Congress.” Today, in Part II, Im reporting on this preposterous proposal: they want to double the number of refugees we take in 2010 and yet we aren’t able to find work for the ones we are bringing now.

Just this week we heard about a fight that broke out in an employment line in Shelbyville, TN where World Relief (among others) had trucked in refugees to compete with local people for jobs at Tyson’s Food. World Relief is one of the organizations that makes up the Refugee Council USA. The disconnect from reality demonstrated in these recommendations to Obama is stunning.

The problem they say, “US refugee admissions targets are far below historical averages.” For “Background” from Page 9 of the report:

The admissions target* has stagnated at around 70,000 in the past eight years, a low number considering a historical average of admissions targets closer to 100,000 per year. Refugee admissions levels are similarly lower than in past years, and the target-to-admitted ratio has experienced an all time low between 2000 and 2007. Refugee admissions levels must be determined based on the global need** for resettlement.

* The Presidential Determination each year is not a target, it is a CEILING! There is a lot of difference and these advocates know it. A ceiling means that it is a number we don’t exceed, but we don’t necessarily have to get to it! They have been wanting to make it a target number and so now they are just telling Obama et al that that is what it is.

** The global need! What about our need!

So what actions do they recommend. Since we can’t employ or take care of the 60,000 we brought this past year, lets just bring more!

Actions:

Propose admitting 125,000 refugees in fiscal year 2010 and commit to gradually increase the number of refugees admitted each consecutive year, with a goal of admitting 200,000 refugees in fiscal year 2013.

And, of course they go on to recommend that they need more money for all of this. Many of the groups that make up the Refugee Council USA survive only through your tax dollars.

You will find other useful information in our category ‘Where to find information’ here.

Moderate Muslim cuts wife’s head off…in NEW YORK!

02/14/2009 ~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

Update Feb. 24th: Feminists dispute honor killing and Judy’s post.

Update Feb. 22nd: See Judy’s good post about Muslim’s speaking out (sort of) on this horrible crime.

Update Feb. 18th: Judy has just posted on Mark Steyn’s column about media malfeasance in covering the story.

Update Feb. 17th: Jihad Watch reports that authorities are now relating the beheading to the couple’s religion. No you don’t say!

That’s right, not in Pakistan where he came from, but right here, near Buffalo, NY. Muzzammil Hassan, the founder of a TV station whose purpose was to educate Americans that Muslims are just like you and me, murdered his wife presumably for seeking a divorce.

I won’t repeat the story here because both Jihad Watch and Gates of Vienna have it covered.

P.S. Be sure to see Judy’s good post on honor killing vs. garden variety domestic abuse here.

Gay Iranian refugees arrive in Canada

02/13/2009 ~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

In addition to the stepped up number of Iraqi refugees arriving in Canada (see my previous post), gay Iranians are arriving in welcoming Canada. From the Toronto Sun today:

Two Iranian lovers who claim they face death in their homeland because they’re homosexuals touched down at Pearson airport last night after being granted refugee status in Canada.

Ali, 32, and Mohammad, 25, a student, arrived in Montreal after a long trip from India and then boarded another flight to Toronto, where they will be staying with friends.

[….]

“It took them three years to get here,” said Arsham Parsi, of Iranian Queer Railroad, who helped bring the men here. “Canada is a gay-friendly country and they will be successful here.”

Note to all the leftwingers who invited Ahmahdinijad to Columbia University and defend the form of Islam practiced in Iran, Shariah law prohibits homosexuality. It gets my blood boiling when I see these reports in which the reporter is too chicken to say that these men are persecuted because Islam itself calls for their persecution.

Parsi said it’s against the law to practise homosexuality in Iran and the couple could be arrested and sentenced to death.

The UNHCR facilitates the resettlement of homosexuals to the West.

He (Parsi) said his organization has helped more than 60 gay Iranian refugees resettle in Canada, the U.S. and Australia.

Canada is going to double the number of Iraqis it resettles

02/13/2009 ~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

The numbers are miniscule compared to the refugees the US takes, so what really interested me in this story is that Canada has a government refugee program and a private sponsorship program. Note in this MSNBC article that a much larger number of refugees come through the PRIVATE program.

OTTAWA, ONTARIO – Canada will more than double the number of privately sponsored Iraqi refugees it accepts from the Middle East, Citizenship, Immigration and Multiculturalism Minister Jason Kenney has announced.

“Taken together with government-assisted refugees, this means that the number of Iraqi refugees coming to Canada will have more than quadrupled since 2005,” Minister Kenney said while speaking before the House of Commons Standing Committee on Citizenship and Immigration.

“Last year our government, at the behest of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, committed to increasing by more than 50 percent the number of resettled refugees from the Middle East in response to the Iraqi refugee crisis,” he said. “I am happy to announce further increases. Canada had planned to raise its private sponsorship program levels for Damascus to 1,200 people in 2009. I have instructed my officials to increase that number by an additional 1,300 people. The number of government-assisted refugees will also increase by 230 people.”

Who are these private sponsors and why aren’t we doing that? It has been our view all along that refugees would fare much better if privately sponsored with private charity. These numbers indicate that the Canadian government can’t afford too many.

Canada will resettle approximately 2,500 refugees under its private sponsorship program, and 1,400 refugees under the government-assisted refugees program, through its Damascus mission. This represents a fourfold increase over 2005, when approximately 800 refugees were accepted from Iraq.

For a little perspective on the numbers, consider that the US resettled around 60,000 refugees in the last fiscal year, 13,000 were Iraqis.

Each year, 19 countries from around the world resettle about 100,000 refugees. From that number, Canada resettles 10,000 to 12,000 each year from 70 different nationalities, or one out of every ten refugees resettled globally.

Guess that puts the US at six for every ten refugees resettled worldwide.