From the February 13, 2009 Buffalo News:
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 told police that his wife was at his business, Bridges TV, on Thorn Avenue in the village. Officers went to that location and discovered her body.
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. [emphasis added]
I can understand why in the passion and anger of divorce (she had filed for divorce recently) a man with a short temper might escalate an argument to hitting. I would not approve, but I can understand passion getting carried away.
I can even understand why the sense of loss and betrayal might escalate to murder. When police officers investigate a murder, and they find multiple knife wounds, for example, they start out by assuming an intimate relationship between victim and killer--because this shows that someone cared very deeply, and felt very betrayed.
But beheading her? Wow. There are cultural differences between Islam and the West, and they show up in some pretty amazing ways.
No comments:
Post a Comment