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NY NOW President Stands by Statement on Killings

Local Organizations Say Feminist Group’s Statement Is Damaging

March 4, 2009

WKBW Television – Buffalo, NY

“Groups including the Network of Religious Communities, Western New York Peace Center and the Erie County Coalition Against Family Violence say a statement by the New York president of the National Organization For Women is damaging to women and to Muslims.”

“Shortly after Orchard Park resident Aasiya Zuair Hassan was beheaded in February, NOW released a statement that criticized the media for its lack of covering the Muslim connection to the murder. Her husband is charged in the crime.”

An excerpt of the statement reads:

“‘This was, apparently, a terroristic version of ‘honor killing,’ a murder rooted in cultural notions about women’s subordination to men. Are we now so respectful of the Muslim’s religion that we soft-peddle atrocities committed in it’s name?'”

“But Elea Mihou from WNY Peace Center says this statement might make women feel that suffering in a violent relationship is partly their fault. ‘To associate something that’s going to happen to 1,300 women this year in this country with one religion not only does a disservice to her faith, but it also does a disservice to women who suffer abuse at the hands of men of many faiths and no faith,’ Mihou says.

“The Network of Religious Communities is calling upon people to focus attention on domestic violence, rather than Islam.”

“‘We must all unite in condemning anyone, of any faith or culture, who harms the innocent and recognize that the causes of domestic violence are not limited to any religion or culture,’ writes the Network of Religious Communities Board of Governors.”

“Still, Marcia Pappas, the president of NOW in New York, says she stands by her statement. She also says Muslim women have sent her messages of appreciation, thanking her for bringing this subject to light.”

Russia: Chechen President defends”honor killings” – says women deserve to die

AP: “Chechen leader imposes strict brand of Islam”
— “The bullnecked president of Chechnya emerged from afternoon prayers at the mosque and with chilling composure explained why seven young women who had been shot in the head deserved to die”
— “Ramzan Kadyrov said the women, whose bodies were found dumped by the roadside, had ‘loose morals’ and were rightfully shot by male relatives in honor killings. ‘If a woman runs around and if a man runs around with her, both of them are killed,’ Kadyrov told journalists in the capital of this Russian republic.”

February 15, 2009 – Muslim women ‘face crisis over violence’
— “Muslim women around the world are facing a ‘growing crisis’ as Islamic governments fail to honour commitments to end inequality and violence against them, a senior UN official has warned
— UN’s Yakin Erturk: “In these countries, those who speak on behalf of Islam still justify things like stoning or killing a woman for this or that reason as being part of their religion. I have heard this at the most official of levels”
— additional report

— March 27, 2009: Russia to end Chechnya anti-terror mission
— President Dmitry Medvedev on Chechnya: “the situation in Chechnya has normalised to a large degree and life is getting back to normal”
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20090327/ts_afp/russiachechnyaunrestpolitics2ndlead_20090327155201
http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5jB_89eEqwKT0lDOkRNezdefMGo0Q

— April 8, 2009: Kadyrov: ‘Chechnya doesn’t need independence’
http://www.thenews.com.pk/daily_detail.asp?id=171297

Against White Supremacism News

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Pakistan Islamic supremacism seeks Islamic world domination, denounces democracy

February 18, 2009 — Pakistan extremist leading Sharia law negotiations in northwest with Taliban Tehreek-e-Nifaz-e-Shariat Muhammadi (TNSM) chief Maulana Sufi Mohammad who attacked democracy stating, “From the very beginning, I have viewed democracy as a system imposed on us by the infidels. Islam does not allow democracy or elections… I believe the Taliban government formed a complete Islamic state, which was an ideal example for other Muslim countries. Had this government remained intact, it could have led to the establishment of similar Islamic governments in many other countries.”   Pakistan Daily Times report “Sufi wants Islamic rule worldwide.” Sufi Mohammad also told news reporters that “democracy is against the teachings of the Holy Quran and Sunnah” and that he “regarded democracy a system of Kufr (unbelief).”

Buffalo: Possibility of ‘honor killing’ mulled in Orchard Park slaying

Buffalo News City and Region reports:

Possibility of ‘honor killing’ mulled in Orchard Park slaying
Estranged husband charged with murder
By Fred O. Williams
NEWS STAFF REPORTER
Updated: February 17, 2009, 7:54 AM / 0 comments

* Coalition decries ‘honor killing’ label
* Religious speculation upsets imam in case of beheaded woman
* Prominent Orchard Park man charged with beheading his wife
* Orchard Park businessman charged in beheading of wife
* Prominent Orchard Park man charged with beheading his wife

The gruesome death of Orchard Park resident Aasiya Zubair Hassan— who was found decapitated—and the arrest of her estranged husband are drawing widespread attention, as speculation roils about the role that the couple’s religion may have played.

Muzzammil Hassan, 44, was arrested Thursday and charged with second- degree murder after telling police his wife was dead at the office of their television station in the Village of Orchard Park.

While Muslim leaders have urged against applying cultural stereotypes to the crime, advocates for women linked the killing to attitudes in Muslim societies.

“This was apparently a terroristic version of honor killing, a murder rooted in cultural notions about women’s subordination to men,” said Marcia Pappas, New York State president of the National Organization for Women.

She decried the scant national media attention paid to the story, which broke the same day as the commuter plane crash that killed 50 people in Clarence.

While domestic violence affects all cultures, Muslim women find it harder to break the silence about it because of a stigma, she said.

“Too many Muslim men are using their religious beliefs to justify violence against women,” she said.

After episodes of domestic violence, Aasiya Hassan, 37, filed for divorce Feb. 6 and obtained an order of protection barring her husband from their Orchard Park home, her lawyer, Corey Hogan, said.

She and her husband both worked at Bridges TV, a satellite- distributed news and opinion channel. They launched the station in 2004 in an effort to counter images of Muslim violence and extremism.

Nadia Shahram, a matrimonial lawyer in Williamsville, said that some Muslim men consider divorce a dishonor on their family.

A teacher of family law and Islam at the University at Buffalo Law School, Shahram said that “fanatical” Muslims believe “honor killing” is justified for bringing dishonor on a family.

While it has not been determined whether Aasiya Hassan’s death had anything to do with fanatical beliefs, the community should address the attitudes that make divorce particularly difficult for many Muslim families, Shahram said.

“I have not had one [case] where the husband wanted to settle outside of the court system,” she said.

In some interpretations, the Quran allows husbands to punish “disobedient” women, Shahram said, adding that this is a minority view.

An open community forum on the issue is scheduled from 3 to 6 p. m. Sunday at the UB Law School’s Moot Court on the North Campus in Amherst, she said. Imam Fajri Ansari, the leader of a Buffalo mosque, and other experts on Islam are scheduled to attend, she said.

Orchard Park police Monday continued to investigate last week’s death and remained quiet about its details.

Police believe that Aasiya Hassan died where she was found, in a hallway at the TV station’s offices on Thorn Avenue in the village, Police Chief Andrew Benz said.

The office was released as a crime scene Saturday, he said, but the effort to determine the murder weapon continued.

“We’re looking to make sure we find the weapon,” Benz said, adding that police don’t have a confession.

Muzzammil Hassan is scheduled to appear at a felony hearing in Orchard Park on Wednesday to determine bail.

A Family Court hearing today is expected to address the future of the couple’s two children, a girl age 4 and a boy age 6. Their grandparents, having traveled from Texas and Pakistan, are expected to attend, said John Tregilio, a lawyer for the children.

Muzzammil Hassan also has two older children, ages 17 and 18, who lived with the family on Big Tree Road in Orchard Park. The couple had been married eight years.

Naeem Randhawa, a documentary filmmaker in Dallas who worked with the Hassans, said it was apparent that their television venture was in trouble, but not their marriage.

He characterized Muzzammil Hassan as aggressive in a business sense, with fundraising efforts in the Muslim community that were necessary to keep the station going.

On a personal level, “he was not extremely talkative — he would sit back and listen,” Randhawa said. “He came across not as a passionate guy, [but] more reserved.”

Friends said they remember Aasiya Hassan as a vivacious and intelligent woman. For a time the couple owned a convenience store in Orchard Park where she would work, sometimes with her son.

Muzzammil Hassan graduated magna cum laude with an MBA from the Simon School of Business at the University of Rochester in 1996, according to biographical information on the TV station’s Web site.

In a 2005 interview with The Buffalo News, he said that the idea for the TV station was sparked two years earlier when the couple heard derogatory remarks about American Muslims on a radio talk show.