Ms. Hassan had filed for divorce and had taken out a restraining order on her husband only six days before her husband told the police she was dead. Friends, family members and even the police were aware of prior domestic abuse issues in the marriage.
“The only good thing that can come from this tragedy is that hopefully Muslim families will treat domestic violence seriously and perhaps women will be able to come out and speak about it,” said Nadia Shahram, a Buffalo divorce lawyer, who teaches at the University at Buffalo Law School.
I really abhor this subject, but it has to be faced. Read it all.
Update: General Convention has rightly addressed this matter:
Resolution Number: 2000-D073
Title: Support Legislation to Reduce Domestic Violence and Protect Victims
Legislative Action Taken: Concurred as Amended
Final Text:Resolved, That the 73rd General Convention of the Episcopal Church call upon state governments to promote and enact statutes addressing the reduction of domestic violence and the protection of victims of domestic violence and child neglect.
Citation: General Convention, Journal of the General Convention of…The Episcopal Church, Denver, 2000 (New York: General Convention, 2001), p. 680.
And:
Resolution Number: 2006-A086
Title: Create and Disseminate Training Materials to Recognize and Respond to Abuse
Legislative Action Taken: Concurred as Substituted
Final Text:Resolved, That the 75th General Convention instruct the Standing Commission on Ministry Development to create and disseminate training materials to assist leaders in ministry to recognize and respond to evidence of abuse; and be it further
Resolved, That the Standing Commission on Ministry Development report on this initiative to the 76th General Convention.
Citation: General Convention, Journal of the General Convention of…The Episcopal Church, Columbus, 2006 (New York: General Convention, 2007), p. 511.
how eager are those who predominate GC willing to dramatize this case? I fear fear, sadly, not very much – after all it’s not the stereotypical white male who is the transgressor. much of the news of this incident thus far has focused on the hand wringing that it “gives Muslims a bad name.”
don’t look for ECUSA, or NOW, or any other like minded groups to say a word about this….:(
Mark Steyn nails it: [url=http://corner.nationalreview.com/post/?q=ODZhMTg4NGJjNjBmMGE1NTYyN2NiNGM2MzZlY2QwYWY=]Headless Body in Legless Story[/url]:
[blockquote](T)hat self-pitying imam is part of a now familiar pattern: Pay no attention to that dead body; the real victim here is Islam.
Beheaded woman in Buffalo? “Shocked friend says murder damages Islam’s image.”
Hindus, Jews and Christians massacred in Bombay? “The recent terrorist attacks in Mumbai, India highlight the dangerously vulnerable situation of India’s Muslims.”
But enough about all these corpses: Let’s talk about me.[/blockquote]
Were these persons American citizens? I can’t seem to get any of this information from the article.
I [i]think[/i] I read that the wife was an American-born Muslim. He was from overseas. His purpose in starting the news station was to ‘put down media stereotypes about Islam’.
Fox news has a story [url=http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,493645,00.html]here[/url] that gives more details, as does [url=http://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2009/02/ny_honor_killers_muslim_sympat.html]The American Thinker[/url].
Why is he being charged with [b]second[/b] degree murder? Doesn’t it take some planning to secure an instrument sharp enough to stab a woman AND cut her head off?
I agree with #2: Stories such as these routinely ignore the human victim and bemoan the injury to Islam. Such is the life of a religion which holds half of its adherents as being insignificant and worthless: women are routinely put down (cut down?) in this religion.
We as Christians should be doing all we can to help Muslim women to see the value of their individual lives and the price Jesus paid for each of them. The HOB/D list serve has been discussing the need–or really the LACK of need–of evangelizing non-Christian religions such as Islam. This story reveals the sad outcome of not bringing Jesus to EVERY person.
Having just returned from Israel, I believe much of the conflict in the Middle East stems more from the fear of western values changing the historically patriarchical position of Islam to one of equal rights for women than that of Israeli occupation of Palestinian West Bank lands. Muslims are persecuting Christians (including Palestinian Christians) and Jews alike in Arab countries around the Middle East way out of proportion to the claims of persecution they feel they face at the hands of Israelis in Israel. From what I have seen in several countries in Africa and the Middle East, Muslims hate or fear the westernization of their civilizations, and when challenged by their women believe they have a right to forced subjugation even onto death.
I spoke to an Israeli women yesterday in Jerusalem, Elana Rozenman who is working with women to find peaceful solutions to the Palestinian – Israeli conflict through her organization TRUST – Emun. She said that many women she encounters, who want to change things for peace on the Palestinian side, are still expected to kneel before their husbands upon greeting or suffer severe beating for failure to do so. Many women simply do not speak out for fear of reprisals. There is no doubt in my mind that Islam has become (or always was) a religion of intolerance and fear particularly with regard to the feminine side. I am amazed that we are surprised at a wife’s beheading at the hands of her Muslim husband in Buffalo, New York, but conveniently forget that women face killings like this all the time in predominantly Muslim countries.
I agree, aldenjr. Here’s Ibrahim Hooper, CAIR spokesman, from the article Kendall linked to:[blockquote]Ibrahim Hooper, spokesman for the Council on American-Islam Relations, said that freedom and equality exist in Islam, but “there is a need of reform for Muslims,†Mr. Hooper said in an interview this week. “If someone mistreats women they should not seek refuge in Islam.â€[/blockquote]This is simply false. I do of course know Muslim men who treat their female relatives well. Muslim males are not all beasts. The religion emphatically does not provide freedom or equality for women, or even, in many cases, full respect. The beheading of a “disobedient” wife is the extreme case, but violence against women is endemic.
[url=http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,498137,00.html]Here[/url] is a report which contains a responsible statement from the Islamic Society of North America about the need of Muslims in the U.S. to face the issue of domestic violence. Perhaps this poor woman’s death will be a catalyst for reform among Western Muslims.