A brutal murder and what it tells us

It is a tragically ironic scenario when a television station dedicated to helping bridge cross-cultural divides becomes the scene of a horrifying murder.

But that’s what happened in February. Aasiya Zubair Hassan, a 37-year-old mother of four was found brutally decapitated inside the television studios of Bridges TV in upstate New York. She had co-founded the cable channel with her husband after September 11 to overcome negative stereotypes associated with Muslims.

Over the years, Bridge TV has succeeded, and transformed itself into a cross-cultural network aimed at fostering, as its website says “a greater understanding among many cultures and diverse populations.” And most of its employees were non-Muslim.

But now Zubair’s husband, Muzzammil Hassan, a 44-year-old Pakistani-American businessman, has been charged with murdering his recently estranged wife. The couple have two children, aged four and six. It’s not clear who will raise them now.

CNN reported that Zubair had recently filed for divorce, and obtained an order of protection mandating that her husband leave their suburban Buffalo home as of February 6. A police officer told CNN “there’s a history” of domestic disturbance calls at their home.

Asma Firfirey, Zubair’s sister who lives in South Africa, told the Afrikaans newspaper Die Burger that she was on the phone with her sister when she heard Zubair tell her husband to calm down. She said she heard her sister say the two could talk about their impending divorce the following day. Then she heard something that sounded like her sister struggling to breathe, she said.

“I can only imagine how scared and emotional she must have been before she died,” Zubair’s sister said in an interview reported in English by South Africa’s News 24.

Domestic violence and the battering of women is one of the most under-reported crimes in the United States. Among thousands of other reported and unreported cases around America, the murder of Aasiya Zubair represents a vile and barbaric example of spousal violence.

“This is a wake-up call to all of us, that violence against women is real and cannot be ignored,” the Islamic Society of North America (ISNA) wrote of Zubair’s murder in an open letter. “It must be addressed collectively by every member of our community. Several times each day in America, a woman is abused or assaulted. Domestic violence is a behaviour that knows no boundaries of religion, race, ethnicity, or social status. Domestic violence occurs in every community.

“The Muslim community is not exempt from this issue,” ISNA continued. “We, the Muslim community, need to take a strong stand against domestic violence. Unfortunately, some of us ignore such problems in our community, wanting to think that it does not occur among Muslims or we downgrade its seriousness.”

Some quick facts on domestic violence in America show disturbing trends:

• Domestic violence is the leading cause of injury to women between the ages of fifteen and 44 in the United States; that is more than car accidents, muggings, and rapes combined, according to a staff report for the Senate Judiciary Committee.

• Every 21 days, a woman is killed by domestic violence in America.

• More than a third of US adults have witnessed a man beating his wife or girlfriend, and fourteen percent of women report that they have experienced violence from a husband or boyfriend, the federal Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) found in a survey.

• Over 2.5 million American women experience some form of physical violence each year. Almost two out of every three of these females is attacked by a relative or person they know.

Since Zubair’s murder, several groups and events have been created on Facebook by American Muslims to honour the life of Zubair and call for increased dialogues on domestic violence and spousal abuse issues within American mosques and other houses of worship across the country.

As ISNA noted, this sort of wicked domestic violence is not limited to any religious or ethnic group.

Last Christmas Eve, Bruce Pardo of Montrose, California shocked our collective consciousness when he dressed up as Santa Claus and killed nine people at his in-laws’ house, shooting an eight-year-old girl in the face before taking his own life. Police said Pardo had no criminal record or history of violence, and neighbours knew him as “a friendly man” who regularly attended his local Catholic church and always volunteered as an usher at the 5.30pm Sunday service.

The Buffalo beheading case is no more about Islam than the Santa killer case is about Christianity. It’s about domestic violence. And it should be repudiated by people of all colours and traditions.

After tragedies like these, it becomes a moral imperative for any person of conscience, of all races and religions, to ensure that we as a society begin to collectively speak up for the countless wives, mothers and daughters who suffer silently from the evil demons of domestic violence.

Arsalan Iftikhar is an international human rights lawyer and founder of www.TheMuslimGuy.com and contributing editor for Islamica Magazine based in Washington.

Print | Email | Discuss this article

| Share |

READERS' COMMENTS

Click here to post a comment

Add your Comment All posts are sent to the administrator for review and are published only after approval. ArabianBusiness.com reserves the right to remove any comment at any time for any reason. Please keep your responses appropriate and on topic. Arabian Business would like to point out that only comments relevant to the story will be published. Any containing personal insults or inappropriate language will not be approved.
Name *
Remember me on this computer
Email *	(Your email address will not be published)
City
Country
Subject *
Comment *
Notify me of further comments
Enter the words above *
Please click post only once - your comment will not be published immediately.

MORE FROM ARABIANBUSINESS.COM