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. 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:
(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.