Thanks to Arizona for sending this strong message to Muslim immigrants—we have values and laws that we plan to uphold in America. We are not shariah compliant yet! Here is one of several previous posts we wrote (this one from Judy) on this case from back in 2009.
From CNN (Hat tip: Ed):
An Arizona judge sentenced an Iraqi immigrant* on Friday to more than 34 years in prison, about two months after his conviction for running over his 20-year-old daughter because he claimed she’d become “too Westernized.”
A Maricopa County, Arizona, jury in February convicted Faleh Hassan Almaleki, 50, of one count of second-degree murder in the death of Noor Faleh Almaleki. He was also found guilty of aggravated assault for causing serious injuries to Amal Edan Khalaf, the mother of Noor’s fiance, as well as two counts of leaving the scene.
In America we believe that parents have an awesome responsibility to nurture and protect our children.
Maricopa County Attorney Bill Montgomery applauded the judge’s decision, saying “Mr. Almaleki will have an appropriately long time in prison to ponder this truth.”
“The killing of one’s own child is more than just a violation of the law,” Montgomery said in a press release. “It is an offense against parenthood itself and the awesome responsibility parents have for nurturing and protecting their children.”
Then here is something I don’t remember from our earlier reporting on the case. The murderer tried to escape to that multi-cultural mecca—the UK, but they didn’t let him in!
After the incident, Almaleki drove to Mexico, abandoning his vehicle in Nogales, police said. He then made his way to Mexico City and boarded a plane to Britain, where authorities denied him entry into the country and put him on a plane back to the United States.
* It is not clear which legal immigration program the murderer used to get into the US in the first place.
Addendum: Phyllis Chesler, a scholar who tracks the issue of honor killings, has a good piece at FrontPage Magazine today. — Judy