They knew
They knew, and apparently kept silent. “Muslim community knew of Hassan’s abuse,” by Mylous Hairston for WIVB, February 19 (thanks to Axel):
ORCHARD PARK, N.Y. (WIVB) – A grand jury will now decide whether the founder of Bridges TV will go to trial for the decapitation murder of his wife, Aasiya Zubair Hassan.
“Everyone in the Muslim community was aware that she was indeed going through abuse,” said Attorney Nadia Shahram.” [sic]
Did anyone in the Muslim community report Muzzammil Hassan to authorities?
Although not evident in family pictures, investigators say the 37-year-old mother endured abuse at the hands of her husband, Muzzammil Hassan.
Hassan is accused of beheading his wife last Thursday at Bridges TV in Orchard Park.
He walked into Orchard police headquarters and told them that his wife is dead. “Well, obviously that statement is part of the case and will be part of the proof the prosecution has,” said James Harrington, Hassan’s Defense Attorney.
Hassan founded Bridges TV following the 9/11 attacks against America. He wanted to dispel stereotypes about Muslims and to bridge cultures.
“We have to make sure act of one Muslim does not create any doubt on the religion of Islam,” said Shahram.
Shahram added, “This act has no roots in the religion of Islam. It’s just unfortunate that we have a bad practioner [sic] of Islam.”
Yeah, there are so many of those — Muslims who believe that violence against women is justified. The Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences has determined that over ninety percent of Pakistani wives have been struck, beaten, or abused sexually “” for offenses on the order of cooking an unsatisfactory meal. Others were punished for failing to give birth to a male child. Dominating their women by violence is a prerogative Muslim men cling to tenaciously. In Spring 2005, when the East African nation of Chad tried to institute a new family law that would outlaw wife beating, Muslim clerics led resistance to the measure as un-Islamic.
The Qur’an says: “Men shall take full care of women with the bounties which God has bestowed more abundantly on the former than on the latter, and with what they may spend out of their possessions. And the righteous women are the truly devout ones, who guard the intimacy which God has guarded. And as for those women whose ill-will you have reason to fear, admonish them; then leave them alone in bed; then beat them”¦” (4:34)
The Islamic prophet Muhammad was once told that “women have become emboldened towards their husbands,” whereupon he “gave permission to beat them” (Sunan Abu Dawud, book 11, no. 2141). He was unhappy with the women who complained, not with their husbands who beat them.
Muhammad even struck his favorite wife, Aisha. One night, thinking she was asleep, he went out. Aisha surreptitiously followed him. When he found out what she had done, he hit her: “He struck me on the chest which caused me pain, and then said: Did you think that Allah and His Apostle would deal unjustly with you?” (Sahih Muslim, book 4, no. 2127).
Nothing in there about killing one’s wife, of course. But when it comes to honor killing, there is the fact that some majority Muslim countries, even modern, moderate Jordan, have lesser penalties for honor murders — it is understood that such crimes are justified in the right circumstances. This is the kind of thing that has to be confronted, or there are going to be more Aasiyah Hassans in the United States.
Aasiyah had recently filed for divorce and got a court order of protection.
“Divorce means shame for Muslim woman,” said Shahram.
And shame, of course, leads others to try to restore their honor.