THE NEW VILLAGE RADIO  

Show Notes

• Archived Blog Post

  Date / Time: 2/23/2009 9:30 PM UTC

  Bridges TV exec: Beheaded wife of network founder "has given her life to protect the image of Americ
  

  Bridges TV exec: Beheaded wife of network founder "has given her life to protect the image of American Muslims"

  

  Muzzammil Hassan founded Bridges TV in order to improve the image of American Muslims. He ended up beheading his wife in the Bridges TV offices. Now Faizan Haq says, bizarrely: “I think of Aasiya as a martyr. She has given her life to protect the image of American Muslims. And as an American Muslim community, we owe it to her not to let this happen again.”

  The last sentence is true. But the only way Faizan Haq or anyone else can prevent it from happening again would be to confront the Islamic texts and teachings that foster the idea that women are the possessions of their husbands, that they can be beaten if they disobey (cf. Qur'an 4:34), and that honor killings are justified under certain circumstances.

  "A history of abuse preceded Orchard Park beheading," by Sandra Tan, Gene Warner and Fred O. Williams for the Buffalo News, February 22 (thanks to Alan):

  The lives of Muzzammil and Aasiya Hassan were quite different from their public image in the local Muslim and broadcast communities.

  In the public eye, they were a dynamic couple, building their — actually her — dream of a Muslim-lifestyle TV channel in the United States.

  But police reports compiled for much of their marriage tell another story:

  Their home life was a nightmare. Aasiya was repeatedly subjected to controlling and sometimes violent acts by her ambitious but troubled husband.

  To protect herself, she went to the police in two states. Yet for years she stopped short of pressing charges — thus preserving Muzzammil’s reputation and the venture they built together.

  On Feb. 6, she filed for divorce and obtained an order of protection, barring him from their home in Orchard Park. A week later, she lay dead in their television offices — stabbed and decapitated. Muzzammil was charged with her murder.

  “I think of Aasiya as a martyr,” said Faizan Haq, a local professor who helped launch Bridges TV, the station in Orchard Park that the Hassans started in 2004. “She has given her life to protect the image of American Muslims. And as an American Muslim community, we owe it to her not to let this happen again.”

  The Hassans were well-known to local police, both in Orchard Park and Texas, where Muzzammil has family. Police were called to their Orchard Park home more than a dozen times for domestic issues dating back 2z years. And in 2006, Aasiya told police that the abuse had been going on “for about the last six years.”

  The abuse, according to police reports, ranged from restrictive control to outbursts of violence, including a black eye and fat lip.

  At various times, Aasiya accused her husband of physically preventing her from calling the police, abandoning her vehicle in Clarence so she couldn’t flee and pouring water on her to keep her from sleeping.

  A nationwide debate has begun among Muslim leaders and women’s advocates about what role religion and culture may have played in this awful killing.

  That debate continues....

  Really? All I see in the mainstream media are denials that religion had anything to do with this at all. Where is this debate?

  • Tags:
  • SHARIAH LAW IS IN US
  • Permalink