Category: women’s issues

Muslims speak out about beheading

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

Some American Muslims are facing the questions raised by the beheading of Aasiya Hassan by her estranged husband, which we reported on here and here.  The Associated Press reports:

The crime was so brutal, shocking and rife with the worst possible stereotypes about their faith that some U.S. Muslims thought the initial reports were a hoax.

The harsh reality of what happened in an affluent suburb of Buffalo, N.Y. — the beheading of 37-year-old Aasiya Hassan and arrest of her estranged husband in the killing — is another crucible for American Muslims.

It especially shocked people — Muslim and non-Muslim — because the couple was so modern and apparently assimilated. And many have commented on the irony that they founded a TV station to improve the image of Muslims. Here are two statements from Muslims:

“Muslims don’t want to talk about this for good reason,” said Saleemah Abdul-Ghafur, a Muslim author and activist. “There is so much negativity about Muslims, and it sort of perpetuates it. The right wing is going to run with it and misuse it. But we’ve got to shine a light on this issue so we can transform it.”

There is evidence of movement in that direction in the 10 days since the Hassan slaying. In an open letter to American Muslim leaders, Imam Mohamed Hagmagid Ali of Sterling, Va., vice president of the Islamic Society of North America, said “violence against women is real and cannot be ignored.”

He urged that imams and community leaders never second-guess a woman in danger, and said women seeking divorces because of physical abuse should not be viewed as bringing shame to their families.

Ah yes, those vicious right-wingers who notice things like abuse of women among Muslims. Nevertheless, this is progress. Read the whole article for some more reactions.  I’m glad to see some Muslims are talking about it. But the reaction from Muslims seems minimal, given the number of organizations devoted to advancing Islam and protecting Muslims’ rights.  A google search for CAIR and beheading brings only the news that CAIR had given the murderer an award. Will they take it back now? And a search for MSA (Muslim Student Association) and beheading brings up a report on a speech by David Horowitz at Emery University last Wednesday:

He spoke against honor killings among radical Islamists, noting the case of a Muslim television station owner who beheaded his wife in Buffalo, N.Y.

“Why isn’t there condemnation of beheadings? Because it’s in the Qu’ran? Come on!” Horowitz said, raising his hands and his voice.

Horowitz called on the Emory Muslim Students Association to protest the honor killings, adding that if the MSA does so, he will pen a personal letter of praise.

No report on how the MSA responded. But we can guess. They probably consider Horowitz the bad guy for bringing up such an offensive subject, not the Muslim who beheaded his wife.

Update 2/27/09: See my post, Beheader said headless wife can’t reach paradise.

Media failure: so what about that beheading?

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

Update Feb. 20th:   Atlas Shrugs has an incredible update on this NY case and an extensive chronicle of other women who have been victims of honor killings here.

That story about the “moderate” Muslim who beheaded his wife, which we posted on here and here, has gotten less media coverage than you might think it deserves. Mark Steyn has a typically trenchant commentary under the wonderful headline Headless Body in Legless Story. Read the whole thing; it’s not very long.  Here’s the conclusion:

From NBC Nightly News, December 9th 2004:

[REPORTER RON] ALLEN: It [the TV station of the “moderate” Muslims] is the brainchild of Aasiya Zubair, an architect, and her husband, Muzzammil Hassan, a banker, who are disturbed that negative images of Muslims seem to dominate TV, especially since 9/11.

Ms. AASIYA ZUBAIR: I did not want my kids growing up to watch Muslims being portrayed as terrorists.

No, indeed. Instead, it’s their father who turned out to be the terrorist — no different from the London School of Economics-educated British subject behind the beheading of Daniel Pearl.

That’s what makes this a story rather than one family’s tragedy. If you’re not intrigued by the apparent fraud at the heart of this man’s life and work — a fraud in which the U.S. media cheerfully colluded — you lack the elementary curiosity necessary to be a journalist.

Just so.

Addendum: Robert Spencer connects the dots between Islam and the beheading here.

Addendum 2, 2/19: Commenter Mark provides this link to show that the chimp who attacked a woman got more news stories than the beheading of a Muslim woman by her husband.

Honor killings: the fruit of our indiscriminate immigration policy

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

The recently reported beheading of a woman by her “moderate Muslim” husband near Buffalo, N.Y., was an honor killing.  (I posted on it here.)  She had left her husband, and he was bent on restoring his honor. (He was also just bent, period.) As we refuse to discriminate between would-be immigrants based on such notions as belief in basic rights for women, religious tolerance, or tolerance in general, we will be increasingly plagued by the barbaric customs of primitive cultures.

For instance, soon after we started this blog, Ann posted on blood feuds among Albanians in their native country, and wondered if they would bring their feuds here.   And they have, at least in one instance.

Honor killings seem to be pervasive in the Muslim world, and this quaint custom has definitely been  brought to the United States in a big way.  (See our previous posts on honor killing here.) I want to point out a report by Phyllis Chesler in the Spring issue of the Middle East Quarterly titled “Are Honor Killings Simply Domestic Violence?”

The answer, of course, is that these two things are not the same, and Chesler reports on her study of more than 50 honor killings in North America. It’s worth reading the whole thing, but she provides this handy chart which summarizes the differences.

Table 1: Differing Characteristics of Honor Killings and Domestic Violence

Honor Killings Domestic Violence
Committed mainly by Muslims against Muslim girls/young adult women. Committed by men of all faiths usually against adult women.
Committed mainly by fathers against their teenage daughters and daughters in their early twenties. Wives and older-age daughters may also be victims, but to a lesser extent. Committed by an adult male spouse against an adult female spouse or intimate partner.
Carefully planned. Death threats are often used as a means of control. The murder is often unplanned and spontaneous.
The planning and execution involve multiple family members and can include mothers, sisters, brothers, male cousins, uncles, grandfathers, etc. If the girl escapes, the extended family will continue to search for her to kill her. The murder is carried out by one man with no family complicity.
The reason given for the honor killing is that the girl or young woman has “dishonored” the family. The batterer-murderer does not claim any family concept of “honor.” The reasons may range from a poorly cooked meal to suspected infidelity to the woman’s trying to protect the children from his abuse or turning to the authorities for help.
At least half the time, the killings are carried out with barbaric ferocity. The female victim is often raped, burned alive, stoned or beaten to death, cut at the throat, decapitated, stabbed numerous times, suffocated slowly, etc. While some men do beat a spouse to death, they often simply shoot or stab them.
The extended family and community valorize the honor killing. They do not condemn the perpetrators in the name of Islam. Mainly, honor killings are seen as normative. The batterer-murderer is seen as a criminal; no one defends him as a hero. Such men are often viewed as sociopaths, mentally ill, or evil.
The murderer(s) do not show remorse. Instead, they experience themselves as “victims,” defending themselves from the girl’s actions and trying to restore their lost family honor. Sometimes, remorse or regret is exhibited.

Chesler also provides charts with the names and particulars of some of the victims of honor killings here and in Europe. She points out:

The problem the West faces is complex. Muslims, Sikhs, and Hindus view honor and morality as a collective family matter. Rights are collective, not individual. Family, clan, and tribal rights supplant individual human rights.

The overwhelming number of honor killings are among Muslims. She also reports that

…accusations of Islamophobia stymie discussion and policy formulation when policymakers seek to address problems occurring among Muslim immigrants. Still, there are legal interventions underway in Europe, home to between twenty and thirty million Muslim immigrants and their descendents, as opposed to perhaps four million in the United States and Canada.  Honor-related violence is, therefore, more visible in Europe than in North America. In 2004, Sweden held an international conference on honor killing, calling for “international cooperation” on the issue.

And there have been conferences and efforts in France, Britain and Germany. Here,

U.S. law enforcement has made tremendous progress over the last forty years on issues related to violence against women. However, there are not yet any shelters for battered Muslim, Hindu, or Sikh girls or women who fear that they will be murdered for honor. A regular shelter for battered women does not specialize in honor killings, nor are there any provisions for foster families—Muslim or otherwise—who can protect girls targeted for murder by their biological families. Critics would oppose any such intervention, however, as a form of cultural oppression, for many victims may have to forfeit their identities in order to remain alive.

There’s much more of interest.  One more thing: She warns that in enlisting the help of Muslim groups, authorities have to be very careful not to use radical groups who will encourage law enforcement to ignore honor killings as a cultural practice that should be respected.

Update 2/24/09: See my later post on the feminist denial of honor killings.

Update 2/25/09: Phyllis Chesler has a great article at FrontPage Magazine summarizing reactions from Muslims and feminists about the beheading and the controversy over whether it was an honor killing or not. It is so packed with information that I can’t summarize it; read the whole thing.

Update 2/27/09: My post, Beheader said headless wife can’t reach paradise, gives additional evidence to link the beheading to Islam and honor killing.

Man wants Americans to understand Muslims better; beheads wife

~ 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=

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

~ 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.