But no one is facing up to the reality of Islamic honor killing in the U.S. My latest in FrontPage:
In Fort Worth, Texas on Tuesday, a 32-year-old Muslim named Islam Said was sentenced to ten years in prison for spending the last thirteen years helping his father, Yaser Said, one of the FBI’s Most Wanted criminals, evade capture. Yaser Said was wanted for murdering his two daughters, Islam Said’s sisters, Amina and Sarah Said. What kind of man would know that his father had murdered his two sisters and then help his father avoid justice, rather than turning him in? The answer to that question is far too uncomfortable and inconvenient for law enforcement officials to face honestly.
Islam Said was arrested along with Yaser last August. Apparently he was in hiding with his father, although he doesn’t seem to have had anything to do with the killings. And according to the Dallas Morning News, Islam Said denies that the killings were honor murders or had anything to do with Islam. “It’s something else. Religion has nothing to do with it.”
Yet that raises the question of why Islam Said was with his father at all. If these weren’t honor killings, why would Islam Said go on the run with Yaser and help him hide for all these years? Why wouldn’t he have the normal human reaction of thinking that what his father had done in murdering his sisters was abhorrent, and turn his father in to authorities? Did Islam Said’s commitment to the religion of Islam override that natural human reaction and make him think that what his father had done was good and praiseworthy?
For despite media denial and obfuscation of the fact, honor killing is something that many Muslims believe to be good and in accord with their faith. According to Islamic law, “retaliation is obligatory against anyone who kills a human being purely intentionally and without right.” However, “not subject to retaliation” is “a father or mother (or their fathers or mothers) for killing their offspring, or offspring’s offspring.” (Reliance of the Traveller o1.1-2). In other words, someone who kills his child incurs no legal penalty under Islamic law. In this case the victim was the murderer’s daughter, a victim to the culture of violence and intimidation that such laws help create.
That is why Muslims commit 91 percent of honor killings worldwide. The Palestinian Authority gives pardons or suspended sentences for honor murders. Iraqi women have asked for tougher sentences for Islamic honor murderers, who get off lightly now. Syria in 2009 scrapped a law limiting the length of sentences for honor killings, but “the new law says a man can still benefit from extenuating circumstances in crimes of passion or honour ‘provided he serves a prison term of no less than two years in the case of killing.’” And in 2003 the Jordanian Parliament voted down on Islamic grounds a provision designed to stiffen penalties for honor killings. Al-Jazeera reported that “Islamists and conservatives said the laws violated religious traditions and would destroy families and values.”
Also connected to the Islamic aspect of the story, and evidence that these were honor killings, is the fact that Yaser Said was enraged that Amina and Sarah had non-Muslim boyfriends. The Dallas Morning News reported at the time of the arrests last August that “Sarah said her father had threatened her older sister when he learned that she had a boyfriend, saying he’d put a bullet through Amina’s head.”
Thirteen years ago, however, the Dallas Morning News was more courageous and honest. Back in January 2008, it reported that the girls’ mother Patricia had said (regarding Amina) that “since they are Muslim that the daughter was only allowed to date other Muslims. Yaser had found out she went on a date with a non-Muslim and became very angry and threatened her with bodily harm.”
Yet now Patricia is now playing dumb: “She had no idea where Said was, and, despite public speculation about a motive, she doesn’t know why the sisters were killed.” We can only hope that police will not take her claim at face value, and thoroughly investigate whether Patricia had any role in Yaser being able to evade capture for twelve years. For note this: Patricia “divorced Said in 2009 and had converted to Islam after her daughters’ deaths, said in 2011 that she didn’t know why Said had killed Amina and Sarah but that he thought they were overly Westernized.”
This is a woman who admitted in 2008 — after her husband had killed their two daughters — that her husband had threatened to kill one of her daughters for dating a non-Muslim. Then, after that, she converted to Islam. What kind of a mindset could Patricia Owens Said possibly have had that would have induced her to join the religion that seems to have played a role in leading her husband to murder their daughters? Could it have been because she was in touch with Yaser and was signaling her acquiescence to and approval of his act? Will investigators look into this possibility, or would that be “Islamophobic”?
Probably the latter. Irving police Chief Jeff Spivey says “This man brutally murdered — shot to death — his two daughters in his taxi cab. What led him to do that, I think at this point to us, is irrelevant.”
No, sir. It isn’t irrelevant at all. It could shed important light on the behavior of Islam Said, and on the question of whether or not Patricia Owens Said were involved in his twelve years as a fugitive. Also, knowing exactly what happened in this case could help authorities prevent such honor killings in the future. Yet Chief Spivey seemed cheerfully willing to allow political correctness and fear of the leftist mob to curtail and deform his investigation. And so it is virtually certain that this isn’t the last such case we will see in the United States.
Keith O says
I hope he shares his cell with “Bubba” for the next ten years.
Somehow, unless he is put in segregation, he probably won’t see out the full sentence.
John says
Sisters not sister.
John says
Oops. I just saw you already corrected the mistake.
Todd McDermott says
Naming a child “Islam” to me is equivalent to naming him “Nazi” or Death”.
John says
Or Lucifer.
mortimer says
I wonder how many Muslim men living in the US secretly believe that Islam Said and Yaser Said behaved correctly according to Islamic law?
Sharia allows a parent to murder his children if they are not turning out ‘Islamic’ enough or (what Muslims sometimes say) if girls are becoming ‘too westernized’.
John says
I hate to be cruel, but Patricia must be another one of those uneducated brainless bimbo women who was never brought up in a religion and never learned history who marries a Muslim because he probably had a big d**k.
Eleanor says
Yes, and I believe she knew what was going to happen, and was involved somehow. Glad the evil brother and father are put away for this horrific crime against two innocent girls. Nothing good ever comes from european women marrying muslims. Young women should be warned to stay well clear, but unfortunately, it will keep on happening. It’s a surefire way to ruin your life, and that of any offspring.
Michael Copeland says
It is by no means clear that she was not involved. She reassured the girls that it would be all right for them to return home (after they had fled in fear of their lives). In other cases the wife has been found to have been involved.
gravenimage says
Yes–deeply disturbing stuff.
sidney penny says
“The answer to that question is far too uncomfortable and inconvenient for law enforcement officials to face honestly.”
Robert Spencer keeps hitting the nail on the head!
sidney penny says
“Probably the latter. Irving police Chief Jeff Spivey says “This man brutally murdered — shot to death — his two daughters in his taxi cab. What led him to do that, I think at this point to us, is irrelevant.””
Are the Police everywhere in their investigations looking for motive?
Where there is a motive there is a suspect?
roger Woodhouse says
Everything that needs to be said has been said.If the ‘authorities’still cant see the ‘truth’ by now ,they never will..
Beneath the Veil of Consciousness says
The belief and support of honor killings should be justification enough to keep the followers of this ruthless ideology out of our country and any other civilized country.
Kagman says
Send that message loud and clear. Such filth will get no quarter anywhere in this country. In my view, this ‘man’ is an accomplice after the fact He deserves the exact same sentence as his vermin progenitor (I will not use the word ‘father’ for such life forms).
OLD GUY says
The sad reality of islam, boys starting at a vary young age are taught that girls and women are worthless and only on earth for islamic men to use for their pleasure. Islam also teaches these young boy that killing and raping of women and non-islamic people is blessed by Allah and will result in them going to paradise and guess what getting 72 virgins. Easy to see why Islam is so popular in the uneducated and backward male muslim world.
gravenimage says
Grimly true.
gravenimage says
Texas: Muslim Who Helped His Father Evade Capture After Murdering His Sisters Gets Ten Years
……………..
Not much of a sentence.