2 days ago, a city of 10,000,000 stood against the brutal killing of El-Sherbini , today a father slaughtered 2 daughters by his own hands.
Irrespective of co-relation of these 2 incidents, common is that we all are shocked by rapidly increasing frequency of killings on this globe, this dunia, this planet either in Germany, Saudia, Buffalo, Toronto, Michigan or New York from one continent to another 20,000 K.Ms away.
We have millions and billions displaced, poors, street sleeping shelters shantis spreading. No one here to HELP, when we lost all HOPE, all HELP, then what can we expect is to look to higher n higher skies and as far as our eyes goes beyond the horizon :
Is there anyone to help us? how long we will continue mourning, burying deads?
Are we heading to ultimate disaster? Is Qaymat near? Is Imam Coming?
My Mola My Aqa! My Allah My GOD My Imam cries n cries , tears n tears, khak n khak,gham n gham.
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Heartless man slaughters two minor daughters
By Faraz Khan
KARACHI: Men like Mohammad Shehzad, 35, are not born everyday. He has done nothing glorified and in fact committed a crime so heinous that it would make anyone’s skin crawl.
Shehzad, who runs a small glasswork business, is guilty of slaughtering his own flesh and blood. The sad part is that the victims of this brutal murder were not even aware of the crimes they had committed but in fact, they were punished for the crime that was allegedly committed by their mother, Aaliya.
Aaliya and Shehzad were married about four years ago and that is when this saga began. Shehzad was convinced from the start that Aaliya had illicit relations with a man called Arif, despite the fact that Aaliya had time and time again explained to Shehzad that the relationship was entirely platonic.
It came to a point where Shehzad actually started believing that his two daughters, Khushi Fatima, one-and-a-half year old and Suman Fatima, eight-month old, were not his at all, but in fact Arif’s. He would keep confronting Aaliya and she would keep denying the allegation, the differences grew and the situation became worse. Finally, Aaliya shifted to her parents’ house located at the R area in Korangi.
There was a family function at Aaliya’s parents’ house on Sunday and Shehzad came to join in the celebrations. He ended up staying the night and also as always got into a fight with Aaliya. Early morning the next day Shehzad took his daughters and went home, a small 80 square yard house located in the outskirts of the city on Street no 15, Sector 36-G, within the limits of Landhi police.
The heartless man then took the girls to one of the small rooms in the house and apologised to them, saying that he cannot bear to look at the girls dying a little everyday and cannot bear the thought of them growing up with a mother with such a loose character, after supposedly purging his conscience clean, he proceeded to cut the throats of the little girls who had probably not even grasped their father’s words.
The barbarian then called the children’s grandparents’ house to tell them about what he had done, after which he went to the police station to surrender himself and confess to his ugly crime.
According to the police when Shehzad reached the police station, his clothes were stained with blood. Giving details about the preliminary questioning SHO Ghulam Ahmed Sheikh said that Aaliya and his daughters had left Shehzad’s house two days ago after a dispute. On Sunday night, there was a family function at Aaliya’s parents house, which Shehzad attended, stayed there for the night and fought with Aaliya. In the morning, he took the girls and went home, where he slaughtered the girls using a knife, which too has been discovered, said the SHO.
Aaliya’s family was undoubtedly shocked by the incident and insisted that Shehzad be punished strictly, as he was mentally stable and murdered the girls only because he was angry at Aaliya. They went on to say that Shehzad was brilliant at his job, but he mostly stayed home and forced Aaliya to bring money from her parents. As now he has no better excuse to get out of the situation he is accusing Aaliya of having illicit relations.
The people of his area seconded Aaliya’s family’s opinion and confirmed that Shehzad was not suffering from any mental illness.
The bodies of the girls were taken to Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre from where they were taken to Korangi for burial. The girls were laid to rest in the Korangi graveyard. An FIR No 171/09 under Section 302 has been registered on behalf of Aaliya’s brother, Naeem.
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Cold-blooded murder!
Man slaughters his two daughters in bid to ‘send them to heaven’
Tuesday, July 14, 2009
By Xari Jalil
Karachi
In a shockingly gruesome incident that took place on Monday morning, a man killed both his daughters, including nine-month-old Saman and two-year-old Khurshid Fatima, with a kitchen knife in his small house in Landhi. The accused, Shahzad, later gave himself up to Landhi police, confessing to the double murder.
According to details provided by Shiraz Waheed, Nazim of Union Council (UC)-6 Korangi, Shahzad, son of Fateh Mohammad, had been quarrelling with his wife for some days, and this incident must have been the repercussion of their domestic dispute.
“Both husband and wife had earlier come to me, and I had tried to pacify the situation, but later they were at it again,” Waheed told The News. “From what I know of their family situation, I think the problems arose mainly due to the fact that this man did not work and also lived on his in-laws’ money. She was the only child in her house and that’s what he took great advantage of, by just lazing around.”
Waheed also revealed that the man had been occasionally threatening his wife and in-laws that if they did not listen to him and provide for his needs, he would kill the two girls. In fear and trepidation, the rest of the family grudgingly continued to oblige Shahzad. But little did they know that he would actually do something like this.
A sobbing Salim, the grandfather of the children, told The News that everything had been “perfect” on Monday morning at breakfast and no one had even suspected anything when Shahzad said that he would take the children away to buy them sweets.
“I don’t know why he killed them,” said Salim, finally suppressing his tears. “But he was angry at us because he had been demanding Rs200,000 since some time and I had told him that we could not give the money all at once and he would have to wait till my ‘committee’ came out,” he said referring to his Voluntary Contribution (VC) money. Salim said that at around 11 or 12, they received a phone call from Shahzad himself, who said that he had killed the two children, in their house in Landhi.
The family then tried to contact Shahzad’s brother, who denied anything happening in the house. This account, however, proved to be incorrect, as the family later saw a ticker running on a news channel carrying news of the double murder.
The incident took place at Shahzad’s brother’s house in Sector G, Landhi No 4 within the jurisdiction of Landhi police station. Station House Officer (SHO) of the Landhi Police Station Inspector GA Sheikh said that the couple, along with their children, had gone to Aaliya’s parents’ house to pay them a visit. Conflicting reports from other sources however suggest that Aaliya had left for her parents’ house a few days back because of a quarrel. This house is located in Korangi No 1 1/2, Sector R.
“After the murder, Shahzad came up to me and told me the entire story from his side,” said SHO Sheikh. He said that Shahzad told his daughters that he was about to slit their throats and that they should not be scared because they would go to heaven.
“He told me that his wife had a so-called brother who went by the name of Arif,” said the SHO. “But Shahzad was distrustful of their relationship, and the couple would occasionally quarrelled about it. According to him, his wife was of bad reputation and he did not want his two girls to grow up into their mother. So he decided to “send them to heaven” and then by giving himself up to the police, he presumed he would get the death sentence and follow his two daughters too.”
An FIR (171/09) has been filed at the Landhi Police Station under Section 302. It is expected that the accused will remain on remand in police custody till two weeks approximately.
Meanwhile the deceased girls’ mother and grandparents are in a state of shock. Aaliya is half conscious of what is happening around her, while her grandfather is furious and deeply depressed both at the same time. “My little babies were beautiful, and so fragile like flowers,” Salim said in a voice reflecting his helplessness and desperation. “I want this merciless man to be put to death. He should never come back again.”
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Racist who stabbed pregnant Muslim to death in a German courtroom is jailed for life
By Allan Hall
Last updated at 4:42 PM on 11th November 2009
A racist was today sentenced to life in jail for the brutal courtroom murder of a pregnant Muslim dubbed the headscarf martyr.
Alex Wiens, 28, was sentenced in the same courthouse in Dresden, Germany, where he killed Marwa El-Sherbini and her unborn child in July.
Wiens, a German of Russian origin, plunged a six-inch kitchen knife at least 16 times into Sherbini, 31, who was three-months pregnant at the time.
Her son, three-year-old Mustafa, watched her bleed to death at the scene.
The hooded defendant Alex Wiens has been jailed for life for the frenzied knife attack on pregnant Egyptian Marwa al-Sherbini
The hooded defendant Alex Wiens has been jailed for life for the frenzied knife attack on pregnant Egyptian Marwa al-Sherbini
Sherbini's husband, Egyptian geneticist Elwy Okaz, rushed to her aid but was also stabbed repeatedly and then shot in the leg by a guard who apparently took him for the attacker.
More...
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Wiens, surrounded by four security guards as the verdict was read, was also found guilty of attempted murder and causing bodily harm for his attack on Okaz.
The killer has kept his face masked with dark glasses, a balaclava and a hooded jacket throughout his trial.
He made no comment as the sentence was passed.
Marwa El Sherbini, with her husband Elwi Ali Okaz, was killed while in a park in a racist attack
The killing, as well as a slow reaction from Germany's politicians and media, sparked outrage in Sherbini's home country, as well as in the wider Muslim world.
She became known in Arab lands as 'the headscarf martyr'.
During his trial the court heard how Wien's racist attack on El-Sherbini in a Dresden city park the previous year was the catalyst for the terrible murder.
She was in a public park in the city when she asked Wiens to vacate a swing he was sitting on so her child could use it.
Elwi Ali Okaz attended the trial of his wife's murder
Elwi Ali Okaz attended the trial of his wife's murder
He called her a ‘Muslim whore,’ ‘terrorist’ and other insults.
Police eventually arrived and arrested him.
He was fined but appealed the punishment of £750 - leading to the July court hearing in which he took her life shortly after she had stepped out of the witness box to speak against him.
Prosecutors said he was driven by 'an unbridled hatred of foreigners'.
In a statement read by his lawyer, Wiens admitted being hostile to foreigners but denied this was the motive for the attack.
In a dramatic last-minute twist, a document suddenly arrived from Russia showing that Wiens had been declared unfit for military service in 2001 because of an 'undifferentiated schizophrenia'.
Defence lawyers said that the stabbing had not been premeditated, that Wiens always carried a knife in his backpack, and that his psychiatric condition mitigated the crime.
The courthouse, so lightly guarded when the murder took place, resembled a maximum security prison during his trial. Sharpshooters were in place and some 200 police officers guarded proceedings each day.
Egypt’s ambassador to Germany welcome the verdict, saying that 'justice had been done'.
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/worldnews/article-1226936/Racist-Russian-jailed-life-Germany-brutal-courtroom-murder-pregnant-Egyptian.html?ITO=1490#ixzz0WZz4v2Lq
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France's burqa ban: A brave step that we Muslims should welcome
By Qanta A. Ahmed Qanta A. Ahmed – Wed Apr 20, 1:45 pm ET
New York – France’s recent “burqa ban” unveils the ignorance surrounding Islam, an ignorance shared by Muslims and non-Muslims alike. President Nicolas Sarkozy’s push to ban the face-veil, the niqab – put into effect last week – shocks Western elites. Legislating self-expression is surely more the provenance of draconian states like Iran and Saudi Arabia, than secular La France. To many, Mr. Sarkozy’s France smacks of uncivilized intolerance. But is Sarkozy really so wrong?
I first saw a veiled woman when I was six, possibly seven. Fascinated, and – never having seen anything like this – frightened, I looked up at my father, who explained she was from Arabia. Like us, he told me, she too was a Muslim.
Thirty-five years later, veiled women no longer catch the eye of pluralistic Muslim families like mine. Instead, in an extraordinary distortion of social mores, I find they now symbolize all of us, even assimilated, heterodox Muslim women like me.
IN PICTURES: Behind the veil
France’s ban of the niqab in the public space is logical and one that many Muslims, myself included, welcome. Why?
Intensely secular societies, which not only tolerate, but actively celebrate multicultural pluralistic diversity, have been exploited by insular, Islamist neo-orthodoxy. They do so at my expense – the expense of the moderate Muslim. Be clear, neo-orthodox Muslims place no priority on the status of their women, whether living in Bamian or Brittany.
It would be decades before I could relate to the veiled woman – not until I lived and practiced medicine in Saudi Arabia where veiling was legislated. At thirty-one, arriving in Riyadh, I first wore the hijab (which covered all of my hair and neck) with an abbaya, which covered my entire body, to the ankles. This would be my only vehicle into the public sphere for the next two years.
French legislation is the first country to criminalize wearing the niqab in all public places, sparking wolverine cries of Islamophobia. Naïve liberals, predictably outraged, bemoan the infringement of personal and religious freedom in this mandating boundaries of clothing. Certainly, orthodox, state-sponsored secularism repudiating the niqab has triggered accusations of misogyny and marginalization by the powerful French state of an already beleaguered minority – the misunderstood Muslim woman.
The true origin of the 'veil' in Islam. But the dilemma is more complicated than state intrusion on personal expression or religious freedom. Instead we need to examine the precise self-expression in question – the veil itself – and search for its roots in Islam.
In the early Islamic period, the word khimar, “veil,” did not necessarily connote face covering. In the Quran, Sura 24:31, the reference to “khimar” reminds Muslim women of the need to “draw...[it] over their bosoms” as integral to female modesty.
Similarly, the verse of the veil commanded only the prophet Muhammad’s wives, as a mark of high distinction, to speak from behind a “hijab,” meaning a curtain (Quran Sura 33:53).
Later, theological scholarship indicates traditions asserting use of the khimar specifically to mean niqab may have been fabricated. Records show Aisha – one of the most eminent of the prophet Muhammed’s wives, a great scholar of Islam and one of the foremost teachers of early Muslims – provided great detail on the color and fabric of the khimars in her day. Nonetheless, no record exists as to how exactly they were worn.
This convenient vacuum allowed others to insert their own interpretation of veiling, for their own motives, including enforcing gender segregation and even gender apartheid – extraordinary, given Islam’s central emphasis on equality of both men and women and profound regard for justice above all other values.
Today’s adherence to literal interpretations of the veil, largely by Muslims ignorant of the true dictates of their own religion, are thus actually derived from cultural misogyny, which claims, falsely, to have a basis in the divine. Thus, with its ban, France is not impinging on religious freedom so as much as on cultural mores – mores that repress women.
pagebreak
Modern veil symbolizes division, ignorance
Beyond symbolizing the precepts of religion in this unique post 9-11 era, veils also graphically articulate the widening chasm between West and East. In some minds, the veil demarcates profound and irreconcilable ideological divides. As throughout history, the veil continues to be a stark visual trope that brutally bifurcates. Veils have long divided society by gender in the past, and today, even more so, by politic.
Today, the veil is undeniably the international symbol of Islam. Such a symbol ironically obscures the faith’s complexity and pluralism into a single faceless monolith. Every day, Muslim women are veiled, unveiled, de-veiled, or re-veiled, and their positions in relation to fabric are often overtly political and frequently shifting. As the veil has become a political statement in the migrant Muslim Diaspora, it is frequently mistaken for a symbol of devotion, most often by ritualistic Muslims themselves.
Because of the niqab, Muslim women generate attention, rather than deflect it – the exact opposite of the principle of veiling. They obscure the long-forgotten ideal of Islamic veiling (a dedication to chaste modesty and dignified purity) that extends well beyond either clothing or gender, foolishly relegating a rich philosophy into mere cloth. Islam mandates modesty of the male Muslim as much as of the Muslim woman, through conduct, not necessarily specific garment – a principle smothered(suffocate/deprived) in today’s revival of rote ritualism.
Rote: A memorizing process using routine or repetition,
These Islamist Muslims push the limits of societal tolerance beyond the pale, provoking latent intolerance. The Netherlands is perhaps the most inflamed example of this today. Their actions, and not the state’s, ultimately limit the progress and acceptance of all Muslims, whatever the extent of our external symbols of Islam.
Worse, through their own innate ignorance of Islam, these Islamists contribute to profound fragmentation of their adopted society, espousing insurrection that threatens the state from within. This destruction of the host society is anathema to the believing Muslim and deeply against Islamic ideals, which demand cohesion and collaboration at the broadest societal level, irrespective of the nature of that society’s leadership.
Will Muslims protest false Islam?France’s ban is not to be demonized but lauded. In the short term, it will be painful and ugly and certainly likely to deepen the poles around the extraordinary trope of the veiled Muslim woman. However, this ban is a necessary evil in order to curtail the advancement of rigid expressions of a false Islam into greater positions of influence.
Trope:A figure of speech using words in nonliteral ways, such as a metaphor.
Yet within this civil turmoil, there may be some gain. Limiting face-veils to a private practice within the home can yield a more cohesive society, if only Western authorities are courageous enough to carry this through. Authorities will succeed only if they are supported by educated Muslims intimate with the nuances of veiling beyond a literal construction.
Sarkozy, in his absolute refusal of France’s intimidation to encroaching Islamism, has gifted an unparalleled opportunity for Muslims everywhere. Rather than explain veiling to the non-Muslim, it is the Muslim populations in the diaspora whom we must teach. Muslim women in particular have a central role to play in this dialogue.
As Muslim women, we must always remember that we are more than our womanhood. We are Muslims first, women second. We are more than our modesty, whether it is swathed in fabric or faith. We are more than these practices, whether mandated by men at home, or men of state. In this regard, Sarkozy’s ban is, in fact, not a test of France’s tolerance, but rather a test of our own.
Can Muslims overcome the rigid myopia of Islamism that emerges from within our midst? Or will we, too, be smothered in a veil of our own making – the asphyxiating veil of ignorance that threatens to strangle us all?
Qanta A. Ahmed is the author of “In the Land of Invisible Women,” detailing her experience practicing medicine in Saudi Arabia. She is associate professor of medicine at the State University of New York (SUNY) at Stony Brook; honorary professor at Glasgow Caledonian University in Scotland; and a 2010 Templeton-Cambridge Journalism Fellow in Science and Religion. Follow Dr. Ahmed on Facebook, Twitter @MissDiagnosis, and her Huffington Post blog.
IN PICTURES: Behind the veil
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Bomb hits French embassy convoy in Baghdad
20 Jun 2011 10:27
Source: reuters // Reuters
* Second attack in a month to hit French convoy
* France on high alert after ban on Islamic veils
(Adds details, background)
BAGHDAD, June 20 (Reuters) - Seven people were wounded on Monday when a French embassy convoy was hit by a make-shift bomb in Baghdad in the second attack on the mission's vehicles in a month, an embassy official and local police said.
The attack in Baghdad's al-Mesbah neighbourhood underscored the still shaky security situation in the capital as the last U.S. troops prepare to withdraw by a planned year-end deadline.
Iraqi security sources said seven people were wounded in the attack, but an embassy spokesman said no French diplomatic or security personnel were hurt though one of the convoy's vehicles was badly damaged.
"We had an attack with an IED (improvised explosive device)," Issa Maraut, the French embassy first consul, said.
A French embassy convoy also was hit by an improvised explosive a month ago, but Maraut said there was no indication the embassy was being specifically targeted.
A Reuters witness said one of the convoy's vehicles and two other civilian cars were damaged in the blast.
Violence has eased in Iraq since the heights of the sectarian slaughter in 2006-2007, but an al Qaeda-linked Sunni insurgency and rival Shi'ite militia continue daily roadside bombings, mortar attacks and killings.
Iraqi security officials last year arrested 12 suspected members of al Qaeda who they said had planned to set off a car bomb at the French embassy in Baghdad.
France has been on high alert for attacks due to tensions over presence of its troops in Afghanistan and the country's ban on allowing full-length Islamic veils, which was widely criticised by Muslims abroad as harming their religious freedom.
In April last year, suicide bombers launched coordinated car bomb attacks on the Iranian, Egyptian and German embassies in the Iraqi capital, killing up to 40 people. Eight years after the U.S. invasion, the last American troops are scheduled to leave Iraq at the end of this year. U.S. and Iraqi forces say they expect an increase in attacks as militias try to show they are pressuring Washington to leave.
(Reporting by Suadad al-Salhy; writing by Patrick Markey; Editing by Michael Roddy)
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Anti-hijab teacher killed in Russia's Muslim south
11 Jul 2011 13:41
Source: reuters // Reuters
MAKHACHKALA, Russia, July 11 (Reuters) - A headmaster who was opposed to his female students wearing headscarves was killed in Russia's Muslim North Caucasus by militants, local officials and Islamist rebels have said.
Akhmed Sidikullakh was shot dead by two assailants on Saturday in the courtyard of his home in a village in Dagestan, a region wedged between Chechnya and the Caspian Sea, the local Interior Ministry said in a statement on Sunday.
An insurgency is raging in Russia's mainly Muslim south, where rebels are fighting to carve out a separate Islamic state in the North Caucasus, including in Chechnya, the site of two separatist wars since 1994.
"Two of our brothers shot this godless criminal ... Recall that he is an enemy of God, who forbade students to attend mosque and girls from wearing a hijab," the rebels said in a statement on vdagestan.info, site of the Islamist insurgency's Dagestani section.
The Dagestani government condemned the attack, which took place in the village of Sovyetskoye near the Azeri border in the region's south, and said it was an attempt to spread fear through society, the state-run RIA news agency said.
It added that Sidikullakh, who was born in 1952, had received threats from militants.
Despite the Kremlin pouring billions of dollars into the impoverished region, violence has not abated and analysts say the insurgency is swelling in numbers and scope.
An imam was shot dead on Sunday in another village in Dagestan, the Islamist-friendly site kavkazcenter.com reported, adding it was the second such attack in a month.
Recent attacks in the Russian heartland, such as a suicide bomb in Moscow's largest airport that killed 37 people in January, have raised concerns that the government has failed to quell violence ahead of March 2012 presidential elections.
Rebels in the North Caucasus have increasingly targeted activities they deem un-Islamic, including establishments selling alcohol, although attacks on non-conservative teachers have been rare.
The firebrand leader of Chechnya, Ramzan Kadyrov, issued an edict in 2007 that banned bareheaded women from entering state buildings including schools, sparking outrage from rights workers who said it was in direct violation of Russian law. The rule is strictly followed today.
Dagestan has no rules concerning headscarves. (Writing and additional reporting by Amie Ferris-Rotman; Editing by Roger Atwood)
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Canada bans Burqa for new Canadians taking oath of citizenship
New Canadian citizens must remove any face coverings while they take the oath of citizenship, the country’s immigration minister said Monday.
Jason Kenney said most Canadians find the practice of reciting the oath behind a veil disturbing and said new Canadians should take it in view of their fellow citizens. He said he has received complaints from lawmakers and citizenship judges who say it’s difficult to ensure that individuals whose faces are covered are actually reciting the oath.
The Conservative minister called the issue a matter of deep principle that goes to the heart of Canada’s identity and the country’s values of openness and equality. He said women who feel obliged to have their faces covered in public often come from a cultural milieu that treats women as property rather than equal human beings
“I do think that most Canadians find that disquieting to say the least,” Kenney said in a telephone interview with The Associated Press.
“Most Muslim Canadian women I know find the practice of face covering in our society disturbing, indicative of an approach to women that is not consistent with our democratic values,” Kenney added.
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Where Are The Protests Against the Killing of Shaima Al Awadi?
A muslim mother of four gets beaten to death in her California home and left with the message "Go back to your country, you terrorist." But there won't be a million hijab march for her.
By Nina Burleigh | @ninaburleigh | March 28, 2012 | 22
inShare2
An undated photo of Shaima Alawadi
Burleigh's latest book is The Fatal Gift of Beauty: The Trials of Amanda Knox.
Forty thousand Iraqis live in El Cajon, California, where this week, Shaima Al Awadi, a devout Muslim mother of five, died after being beaten inside her home with a tire iron and left next to note reading “Go back to your country, you terrorist.” Coming on the heels of the Trayvon Martin killing in Florida, there would seem to be many parallels between the two crimes—the hate speech, the prejudice, the innocence of the victims. A One Million Hijabs for Shaima Al Awadi page has even been launched on Facebook, but it’s doubtful that the movement will really catch on because Iraqis still considered dangerous infiltrators in the eyes of Americans.
(MORE: Video: Trayvon Martin’s Parents Speak Out)
The U.S.-led invasion of Iraq has led to a massive displacement of Iraqis—some five million fled their country between 2003 and 2007, filtering into Syria and Jordan, many reduced to tatters, living on the streets of Amman and Damascus. Our country was one of the least receptive to the plight of Iraqi refugees during the war, allowing in just a few thousand every year. After 2007, the US eased its restrictions and between 2007 and 2011, out of 166,084 Iraqis referred to the U.S. Refugee Admissions Program, 58, 811 have been resettled in the U.S., many of them living in pocket communities like El Cajon.
It is true that Iraqis, and especially Muslim Iraqis (many of the new arrivals are Christians seeking asylum), have not been assimilating easily into America. They have a hard time finding jobs in the down economy, they actively resist having their daughters fall into western teen lifestyles, and unfortunately, covered women are the very public face of a religion that many Americans still associate with terrorism. But Iraqis are not “terrorists.” They were among the most educated and secular people in the Middle East for decades before being mercilessly abused by a vicious dictator, then economically sanctioned by the West, followed by Shock and Awe bombing, and ten years of invasion and civil war.
(MORE: Iraqi Woman’s Killing in California Sparks Hate Crime Debates)
Moreover, Iraqis living in the United States are by no means a homogenous group. A few years ago, I wrote a story about the Iraqi community in Lincoln, Nebraska, a corn-and-beef plains city where it is now common to encounter women in head scarves and long dresses. After only a few days there, it became clear that even small Iraqi expat communities are a mosaic of very different religions and ethnicities, including Shi’a, Sunni (the minority that ran the hated Saddam Hussein’s political regime,) Chaldean, Assyrian, Yazidi.
The police in El Cajon are still looking for Al Awadi’s killer, whose family reported that they had found a similarly menacing note tacked to their door a week before the attack, which they had dismissed as a joke. The hijab is not the hoodie—yet. Police do not profile muslim women as they most certainly do black men. But only when we see people for their humanity and not their clothes or religious beliefs are we living up to the principles on which this country was founded and should now be evoking.
Burleigh, the author of The Fatal Gift of Beauty, is working on a book about women after the Arab Spring. The views expressed are solely her own.
Read other related stories about this:
Body of Slain Iraqi Woman to be Flown Home for Burial CNN.com
Trayvon Martin and Shaima Al Awadi: Why The Hesitation to Call Them Hate Crimes The
Read more: http://ideas.time.com/2012/03/28/where-are-the-protests-against-the-killing-of-shaima-al-awadi/?xid=rss-topstories#ixzz1qRIwrNcJ
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FBI steps in after Calif. beating death of Iraqi woman
By Niraj Warikoo, Detroit Free Press
Updated 1h 18m ago
Comments
DETROIT – The FBI is helping to investigate the killing of an Iraqi American near San Diego, and the U.S. State Department has condemned the attack, saying, "the United States has no tolerance for wanton acts of violence like this."
A woman bows her head during a memorial for Shaima Alawadi at a mosque Tuesday in Lakeside, Calif.
By Gregory Bull, AP
A woman bows her head during a memorial for Shaima Alawadi at a mosque Tuesday in Lakeside, Calif.
Enlarge
By Gregory Bull, AP
A woman bows her head during a memorial for Shaima Alawadi at a mosque Tuesday in Lakeside, Calif.
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The involvement of two federal agencies after the death of Shaima Alawadi, 32, comes as concern about her killing grows. It has drawn condemnation from the U.S. to Iraq, where some officials also have voiced outrage. Across the U.S., some are holding "Hoodies and Hijabs" rallies this week, linking Alawadi's case with that of Trayvon Martin, the 17-year-old African American slain in Florida by a neighborhood watch captain while wearing a hoodie.
Alawadi, who wore the Islamic headscarf known as a hijab, died Saturday after being found beaten March 21 in her home in El Cajon, a city near San Diego with a sizable Iraqi-American community.
STORY: Iraqi woman fatally beaten in Calif. had fled Saddam's Iraq
The FBI approached police, "offering any assistance we may need, and (the department) will be utilizing their resources as appropriate," El Cajon Police Chief James Redman said in a statement. Redman said Alawadi was "discovered unconscious in the dining area of her residence, by her 17-year-old daughter." The former Dearborn, Mich., resident suffered severe head injuries.
A note saying Alawadi was a terrorist and should go back to her country was found next to her body, family members and friends said.
"Based on the contents of the note, we are not ruling out the possibility that this may be a hate crime," Redman said. "It was threatening in nature." At the same time, Redman said, "a hate crime is just one aspect of what we are examining. We … have not drawn any conclusions at this point."
State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland talked about the case Monday. "Our heartfelt condolences go out to the family and the friends," Nuland said. "U.S. law enforcement authorities are investigating all aspects of this horrific crime and taking all possible steps to bring the perpetrators to justice."
The body of Alawadi, a U.S. citizen, is to be flown to Iraq for her funeral, said Imam Husham Al-Husainy of the Karbalaa Islamic Education Center in Dearborn, Mich. Her father is a Shia cleric in Iraq, he said.
Alawadi was born in Iraq and moved to the U.S. in 1993 with her family, part of a wave of Shia refugees who fled to metro Detroit.
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Husband of Iraqi mother beaten to death in her home makes emotional plea to 'racist' killer
Shaima Alawadi, 32, was attacked in her home in El Cajon, California
The mother-of-five's husband Kassim Alhimidi speaks at memorial service
By Graham Smith
PUBLISHED: 08:47 GMT, 28 March 2012 | UPDATED: 10:03 GMT, 28 March 2012
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The husband of an Iraqi-American woman who was found bludgeoned to death with a threatening note lying beside her yesterday made an emotional appeal for justice.
Shaima Alawadi, 32, was taken off life support on Saturday, three days after she was attacked with a tyre iron at her home in El Cajon, California.
Kassim Alhimidi, the mother-of-five's husband, last night made a plea direct to her killer.
Appeal: Kassim Alhimidi (right) speaks during a memorial service for his murdered wife Shaima Alawadi at the Imam Ali Ibn Abi Talib Center in Lakeside, California, yesterday. He is flanked by his son Mohammed Alhimidi
Shaima Alawadi
Fatima Al Himidi
Attack: Mrs Alawadi (left) was found close to death by her 17-year-old daughter Fatima Al Himidi (right) at the family home in El Cajon, California, last Wednesday
Speaking in Arabic as his 15-year-old son Mohammed translated, Mr Alhimidi said: 'The main question we would like to ask is what are you getting out of this and why did you do it?'
He urged anyone with information to contact police and thanked the Iraqi government for flying his wife's body to Iraq.
He was addressing reporters at a mosque east of San Diego after a memorial service for Mrs Alawadi.
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She was found unconscious by her teenage daughter in the dining room of the family home in El Cajon, one of the nation's largest enclaves of Iraqi immigrants.
Fatima Al Himidi, 17, told a television station that the note said: 'Go back to your country, you terrorist.'
It is believed the attack took place after the father took the family's younger children to school.
El Cajon police have declined to confirm the contents of the note but said it has led investigators to regard the killing as a possible hate crime.
Final journey: Family and friends escort Mrs Alawadi's body to a waiting hearse following the memorial service
Media interest: Surrounded by reporters, a hearse carrying Mrs Alawadi leaves for San Diego airport where her body will be flown to Iraq
Chief James Redman said there was other evidence and called the killing an isolated incident.
Police said the family had found a similar note earlier this month but did not report it to authorities.
But Salam Al-Marayati, president of the Muslim Public Affairs Council, said it would be irresponsible to jump to conclusions.
He spoke with reporters at the mosque after meeting with the police chief and getting assurances from the FBI and the Department of Homeland Security that they were committed to solving the crime.
Mr Al-Marayati said: 'We don't know the facts of this case. We don't know if it's a hate crime. We don't know if it's not a hate crime.'
He urged the public to grieve for a family that fled persecution in Iraq and found tragedy in the U.S.
Crime scene: The fatal attack took place at the family's house in El Cajon
The victim and her family left Iraq in the early 1990s after a failed Shiite uprising, living in Saudi Arabian refugee camps before coming to the U.S. Saddam Hussain's troops hanged Mrs Alawadi's uncle.
The family arrived in the Detroit, Michigan, area in 1993 and moved to San Diego only recently.
Mrs Alawadi was a religious Shiite Muslim who wore a hijab; her father Sayed Nabeel Alawadi is a cleric in Iraq.
The victim's body was taken to San Diego airport yesterday and is now headed for Najaf in Iraq.
The FBI, which is assisting El Cajon police in the investigation, defines a hate crime as an offence motivated by a bias against race, religion, ethnicity, disability or sexual orientation.
There were 1,409 hate crimes nationwide based on religion during 2010, including 186 targeting Muslims.
There were 1,040 based on ethnicity or national origin, including 359 targeting groups other than Hispanics.
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2121449/Husband-Iraqi-mother-beaten-death-home-makes-emotional-plea-racist-killer.html#ixzz1qRMbraqk
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Slain Iraqi-American woman buried in Iraq
31 Mar 2012 16:59
Source: reuters // Reuters
BAGHDAD, March 31 (Reuters) - An Iraqi-American woman who was beaten to death in her U.S. home in a possible case of hate crime was buried in her native Iraq on Saturday.
Relatives wept as the casket of Shaima Alawadi, a 32-year-old mother of five, was taken to the Valley of Peace cemetery in the holy Shi'ite city of Najaf, 160 km (100 miles) south of Iraq's capital Baghdad.
Alawadi was found unconscious in the dining room of her rented home in California last Wednesday by her 17-year-old daughter. She was taken to a trauma centre with a severe head injury and died last Saturday after being taken off life support.
The killing is being investigated as a possible hate crime because of a threatening note that was found near her, police say.
"The martyr (Alawadi) used to love all, she made no distinction between religions," Alawadi's father, Nabil, told Reuters.
"Her husband told me that someone threw a note saying 'go back to your own country, you're a terrorist'... Who is the real terrorist, Shaima, or them," he said.
Alawadi's casket, draped in an Iraqi flag, was flown into Iraq on Saturday. A police convoy transported the coffin to the shrine of Imam Ali, a central figure of Shi'ite Islam, where prayers were held for Alawadi before she was buried.
Mourners carrying a banner calling for legal action.
"The motives behind the crime are racial ... We call on concerned Iraqi institutions such as the Human Rights Ministry, parliamentary committees and the Foreign Ministry to follow up on the crime and find the criminals," Alawadi's nephew, Haider Kadhim, said.
Alawadi lived in the San Diego suburb of El Cajon, which, along with nearby areas, is home to some 50,000-60,000 immigrants and refugees of Middle Eastern descent.
If hate is confirmed as a motive in the killing, it would be the worst bias crime committed against Arabs or Muslims in years in the area, according to Sadaf Hane, civil rights director of the San Diego chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations.
Police say the region has not experienced violent hate crimes in the past.
The FBI is assisting the El Cajon Police Department in the investigation, and has provided agents from a squad that is specifically trained to conduct hate crime investigations, FBI spokesman Darrell Foxworth said. (Reporting by Baghdad newsroom; Writing by Serena Chaudhry; Editing by Alison Williams)
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