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California: Muslim guilty of killing wife whose murder was blamed on “Islamophobia”

Apr 17, 2014 11:32 pm By Robert Spencer

kassim_alhimidi_verdict_1397771628529_4118406_ver1.0_640_480This murder was a very big deal for awhile among Leftists and Islamic supremacists, although now (of course) they have forgotten that it ever happened. At the time, because of the note that was found by the body saying “Go back to your country, you terrorist,” the crime was universally reported as being motivated by “Islamophobia,” and the work of an “Islamophobe” who hated Shaima Alawadi for wearing a hijab. They even staged a campaign, “One Million Hijabs for Shaima Alawadi.” When it turned out to be an Islamic honor killing and Shaima’s husband was arrested for the murder, they went silent — with no retractions or apologies, of course.

Stooping lowest, not surprisingly, was current media darling Reza Aslan, who raged in this sub-literate tweet that Pamela Geller and I were responsible for the murder:

Aslanthreat.jpg

(Can you count the errors in that one brief tweet? Remember that Pamela’s last name is Geller, not Gellar. I count four. What a prodigious scholar Reza Aslan is! He is clearly not all that bright, frequently prone to egregious errors of fact, and ignorant of basic grammar and spelling rules, but he tells the PC crowd what they want to hear, and so is feted everywhere.) Anyway, in another tweet, Aslan of course refused to apologize for smearing me for a murder. Classy guy.

The whole “hate crime” aspect of Shaima Alawadi’s murder was staged. It was apparently an Islamic honor killing for which Shaima Alawadi’s husband is now standing trial. Will the Leftists and Islamic supremacists who made so much of the hate crime now stage “One Million Hijabs Against Honor Killing”? Somehow I doubt it.

“Kassim Alhimidi found guilty in beating death of wife Shaima Alawadi,” by Steve Fiorina for 10News.com, April 17:

EL CAJON, Calif. – An Iraqi immigrant was convicted Thursday of beating his wife to death in their El Cajon home after she asked for a divorce.

Jurors deliberated about a day and a half before finding Kassim Alhimidi, 49, guilty of first-degree murder in the death of 32-year-old Shaima Alawadi, a mother of five.

Investigators initially believed the killing might be a hate crime due to a photocopied note found about eight to 10 feet from the victim that read, “This is my country. Go back to yours, terrorist.”

The couple’s oldest son, Mohammed, stood up in the courtroom and screamed out profanities upon hearing the verdict, which he claimed was unjust.

“My dad is innocent; he was tried unfairly,” he said before being escorted out of the courtroom.

Another of the defendant’s sons, Ali, spoke in support of the verdict, as did the victim’s mother, with whom Alhimidi exchanged words in Arabic.

“He said, ‘God knows, and I attest to God, that I am not the killer. I’m innocent,'” according to a court interpreter.

Outside the courtroom, Rehima Alhussanwi talked to reporters about her son-in-law’s conviction and their courtrom exchange.

“He (Alhimidi) deserves worse,” she said. “What I said in the courtroom is this is the least, this is nothing. In Iraq, normally, if he killed her, he’s supposed to be killed the same way. So that’s the kind of sentence I wanted today.”

A May 15 sentencing date was scheduled for Alhimidi, who faces 26 years to life in prison.

Prosecutor Kurt Mechals said the defendant, upset that his wife wanted a divorce, killed her by hitting her at least six times in the head with a blunt object as she sat in front of a computer.

Alhimidi said he was out for a drive when his wife was killed the morning of March 21, 2012, but surveillance video taken from a nearby school showed his van in the area of the family home on Skyview Drive around the time the victim was attacked, Mechals said. A neighbor testified that he saw a dark-clothed person come from the backyard of the home around the time of the murder carrying a cardboard box.

Alawadi had told relatives she “couldn’t stand” the defendant and had taken out divorce papers, the prosecutor said.

“The relationship was in the tank. It was bad,” Mechals told the jury.

The couple’s then-17-year-old daughter, Fatima, told police she was upstairs when she heard a “squeal,” then later what sounded like a broken plate downstairs around 11 a.m. the day her mother was attacked. A pane from a sliding glass door had been broken from the inside, Mechals said.

Fatima — who had stayed home from school — thought her mother had fallen, but paramedics first on the scene said blood and other evidence was inconsistent with a fall.

Fatima had been at odds with her Muslim parents for dating a Chaldean, but she had no motive to kill her mother, according to Mechals, who told jurors it was “unreasonable to think she (Fatima) had anything to do with it.”

After his wife was taken to the hospital, Alhimidi asked relatives “what do you think will happen if she wakes up and says I hit her?” Mechals said.

Defense attorney Richard Berkon Jr. told the jury that Alhimidi did not kill his wife and loved her “with every fiber of his being.”

Berkon said his client had no motive to kill his spouse and in fact wanted to meet with her family to talk about the possible divorce.

The couple’s children said they never saw their father act violently toward their mother, Berkon said.

Alhimidi and his wife had separated once before, in 2004-2005, but got back together, the attorney said.

After the murder, the Alhimidi family traveled to Iraq for the burial.

When word leaked out that authorities were looking at the victim’s husband as a possible suspect, Iraqi officials told him he could stay in their country for safe haven, but he insisted on coming back to the United States to answer questions, Berkon said.

“If you murdered your wife, why come home?” he asked.

When his wife was taken off life support three days after she was attacked, Alhimidi was devastated and asked her for forgiveness, which is the custom in the Muslim religion, according to Berkon.

Police questioned the defendant for more than seven months before getting an unsolicited call in November 2012 from Fatima saying “My dad did it.” Alhimidi was arrested the next day.

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Filed Under: "Islamophobia", claiming victim status, hate crimes, honor killing Tagged With: featured


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Comments

  1. No Fear says

    Apr 17, 2014 at 11:44 pm

    We all eagerly await a follow up tweet from Reza Aslan on this.

    • mortimer says

      Apr 18, 2014 at 4:26 am

      He will be silent. His credibility is gone.

  2. Salah says

    Apr 17, 2014 at 11:49 pm

    How do the Muslim Brotherhood of Egypt use al-Jazeera TV to claim victim status:

    http://crossmuslims.blogspot.ca/2014/04/al-jazeera-busted-strong-bias-of-al.html

  3. laura r says

    Apr 17, 2014 at 11:53 pm

    why dont we all tweet him? lets contront him, it should be fun. his page will be hopping. ok pam, you’re first.

  4. Jay Boo says

    Apr 17, 2014 at 11:56 pm

    Apparently California is not yet a sharia compliant state.
    Imagine if little six year old Aisha had asked Muhammad for a divorce, her beatings might have been fatal as well.

    Someone said that someone said
    Rather than blame Islamophobes, Muhammad would have hearsay-quoted ‘Allah’

    • mortimer says

      Apr 18, 2014 at 4:28 am

      Everything in Islam is based on hearsay. Independent research and critical thought are discouraged by severe punishment or death.

      • Jay Boo says

        Apr 19, 2014 at 1:22 pm

        When caught in an ‘Allah said’ lie — Muhammad would simply reply “Hey guys don’t blame me that is what the three jinn spirits implied.”

  5. Bradamante says

    Apr 17, 2014 at 11:59 pm

    I’m sorry for this family, but glad that this egregious act of kafir-phobia — attempting to pin blame on innocent kafirs — didn’t succeed.

  6. Tradewinds says

    Apr 18, 2014 at 12:03 am

    “The couple’s oldest son, Mohammed, stood up in the courtroom and screamed out profanities upon hearing the verdict…”

    Sounds like a member of the religion of peace.

  7. Buraq says

    Apr 18, 2014 at 2:26 am

    This murder has Islam’s bloody fingerprints all over it; misogyny, violence, intolerance and lying – and the desire to be free of all of these, shown by the victim’s attempts to get away from her violent, devout Muslim husband.

    Clown!

  8. Jay says

    Apr 18, 2014 at 3:02 am

    So let me get this straight – this happened a two years ago when the murdered wife was 32 – he is now 49, so 47 when he killed his wife – and it says the “then 17 year old daughter” who is 19 now. Lets do the math: 32 -17 – nine months – she was a girl barely past 14 when she became pregnant – he was 30 – probably married her at 13 – he is a pedophile. I would bet money she had nothing to say about this so called marriage.

    • gravenimage says

      Apr 18, 2014 at 3:36 pm

      Quite right, Jay—the victim was a child bride. She was smuggled into the United States under false pretences, as the “niece” of another family member.

  9. Elliott says

    Apr 18, 2014 at 3:57 am

    The comment by ‘Jay’ – “So let me get this straight …” is of great importance.
    This is what can (and should) be used to challenge the moron Rezal Aslan. Incidentally, as I have asked before, if Aslan were to have a problem with drugs and then turn to Ahmed Rehab for assistance, would he “BE IN REHAB”?

  10. Jeff says

    Apr 18, 2014 at 4:42 am

    People I work with have lambasted me in the past for my views on Islam. Especially for my predictions concerning the outcomes of this crime and that of the Boston bombers. They have never apologized, but now they aren’t so quick to dismiss my views. They also don’t use the pejorative term “Islamophobe” anymore. At least it’s a start.

  11. Seth says

    Apr 18, 2014 at 5:04 am

    ‘Can you count the errors in that one brief tweet?’

    32 year old <- 32-year-old

    than <- then

    Gellar <- Geller

    Gellar Spencer <- Geller, Spencer

    et. al. <- et al.

    • Defcon 4 says

      Apr 18, 2014 at 12:38 pm

      The best this islam0nazi apologist/symp/collaborator can do? Trivial, grammatical objections. Is that you R. Aslan?

  12. Larry S. says

    Apr 18, 2014 at 6:29 am

    If a 32 year old veiled mother is a terrorist,then so am I …

    So when do we get to send you to the Big House for a few decades, Reza?

    One wonders why the enemedia gives such credibility to a jackass like Reza Aslan.

  13. Larry S says

    Apr 18, 2014 at 6:32 am

    If a 32 year old veiled mother is a terrorist,then so am I …

    So when do we get to send you to the Big House for a few decades, Reza?

    One wonders why the enemedia gives such credibility to such a jackass as Reza Aslan.

  14. duh_swami says

    Apr 18, 2014 at 6:56 am

    She’s dead, he’s as good as dead…Islam loses again. The measure of the evil of Islam is not in a book alone, but more properly, the body count.

  15. CJ Mccoy says

    Apr 18, 2014 at 8:42 am

    I wonder how many times does this sort of thing happen??? And how much more evil that as she lay dead or dying he is making it look like someone did it because she was a muslim. That someone hated her because of what she believed or who she was….or even what she wore. I hope they hang this guy high!!!! He is evil with evil intent in his heart, he didn’t have heat of the moment, he plotted and planned evil for this woman and for the innocent people around her.

  16. Hogrider says

    Apr 18, 2014 at 10:16 am

    CAIR was also one fast to judgement, calling it a hate crime. Will they ever speak up that they were wrong and condemn honor killings? Yea, and Islam means peace. Here is a short video taken in the courtroom during the verdict.
    http://www.cbs8.com/story/25276375/live-stream-130pm-verdict-in-hate-crime-murder-case

  17. Defcon 4 says

    Apr 18, 2014 at 12:33 pm

    Fatima had been at odds with her Muslim parents for dating a Chaldean, but she had no motive to kill her mother, according to Mechals, who told jurors it was “unreasonable to think she (Fatima) had anything to do with it.”

    Sounds like she better begin looking over her shoulder, not so much for her father anymore, but her two muslime brothers, who might be looking out for the family honor now that their dear father is going to be put into prison by the najjis kaffir.

    • gravenimage says

      Apr 19, 2014 at 1:14 pm

      Defcon 4 wrote:

      Sounds like she better begin looking over her shoulder, not so much for her father anymore, but her two muslime brothers, who might be looking out for the family honor now that their dear father is going to be put into prison by the najjis kaffir.
      ……………………………….

      I think you’re quite right, Defcon 4—especially given the reaction of the eldest son, the ubiquitously-named Mohammed. He seems well poised to take over dear-old-dad’s position in the family….

  18. Defcon 4 says

    Apr 18, 2014 at 12:42 pm

    But if the prosecutor had been muslime, or the judge, would this murder have been tried at all? Or would the muslime judge have dismissed the charges out-of-hand for lack of evidence?

  19. gravenimage says

    Apr 18, 2014 at 3:11 pm

    California: Muslim guilty of killing wife whose murder was blamed on “Islamophobia”

    This murder was a very big deal for awhile among Leftists and Islamic supremacists, although now (of course) they have forgotten that it ever happened.
    …………………………………….

    And who among those useful idiots donning a Hijab in protest of this fake “Islamophobia” now cares about Ahaima Alawadi, now that it turns out that she was just another victim of islamic Honor Killing?

    More:

    At the time, because of the note that was found by the body saying “Go back to your country, you terrorist,” the crime was universally reported as being motivated by “Islamophobia”…
    …………………………………….

    This just shows what a cynical bastard her murdering husband was—the same creep who “married” her when she was just a child, then smuggled her into the US as a “relative” to hide his crimes.

    More:

    Stooping lowest, not surprisingly, was current media darling Reza Aslan, who raged in this sub-literate tweet that Pamela Geller and I were responsible for the murder
    …………………………………….

    Yes—especially repulsive given Pamela Geller’s special focus on the horror of Honor Killings. Not only were Spencer and Geller not responsible for Shaima’s death, they warn about just this threat under Islam.

    More:

    The couple’s oldest son, Mohammed, stood up in the courtroom and screamed out profanities upon hearing the verdict, which he claimed was unjust.
    …………………………………….

    Of course he did. Under Shari’ah, there is no real penalty for a Muslim murdering his wife.

    More:

    “My dad is innocent; he was tried unfairly,” he said before being escorted out of the courtroom.
    …………………………………….

    Note that “innocent” here may not mean that junior believes his father did not murder his mother, but just that there should be no punishment for it. And every pious Muslim is considered “innocent”—it’s a meme. Only Infidels and “hypocrites” and “apostates” can be deemed guilty of anything.

    More:

    Outside the courtroom, Rehima Alhussanwi talked to reporters about her son-in-law’s conviction and their courtrom exchange.

    “He (Alhimidi) deserves worse,” she said. “What I said in the courtroom is this is the least, this is nothing. In Iraq, normally, if he killed her, he’s supposed to be killed the same way. So that’s the kind of sentence I wanted today.”
    …………………………………….

    A lot here. Firstly, the “eye for an eye” thing is *rarely* carried out for Honor Killings, because women are simply not valued under Islam. The only exception might be if the dead wife had belonged to a higher social class than her murdering husband. Generally, the wife is not allowed to annoy her husband, and may be beaten or killed if she does. Asking for a divorce is prime grounds for Honor Killing.

    Has there *ever* been a case where the perpetrator of an Honor Killing was executed, and executed using “eye for an eye”? Not that I’ve ever heard of.

    Here’s the reality:

    “‘Honor killings’ require tougher laws, say Iraqi women”

    http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/03/06/us-iraq-women-idUSTRE82510920120306

    Secondly, while I am glad that the Shaima’s mother is upset over her death, it must be kept in mind that she—or the victim’s father, at least—sold the girl to the man who would kill her when she was just a child. They may not have known that he would eventually kill her, but they were selling her into suffering nonetheless.

    More:

    After his wife was taken to the hospital, Alhimidi asked relatives “what do you think will happen if she wakes up and says I hit her?” Mechals said.
    …………………………………….

    Nothing incriminating there…sarc/off

    More:

    When word leaked out that authorities were looking at the victim’s husband as a possible suspect, Iraqi officials told him he could stay in their country for safe haven…
    …………………………………….

    Iraq would give an Honor Killing suspect *safe haven*. Shows how seriously they take that crime…

  20. Champ ✿ says

    Apr 18, 2014 at 3:29 pm

    Reza Aslan: another lost cause serving an evil cause: islam

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