In Other News of Islam

New York Judge Allows Beheading Suspect to Be Own Attorney

Muzzammil Hassan, "alleged" beheader

A former New York TV executive accused in the gruesome beheading his estranged wife has been granted permission to act as his own defense lawyer for the rest of his murder trial.

In a reversal Monday, a judge allowed Muzzammil Hassan to take over as lead counsel from attorney Jeremy Schwartz. The two have been at odds over Hassan's defense since the trial began in Buffalo last week. Schwartz will stay on to help.

In the United States, we just don't get that many beheadings; shootings, stabbings, beatings and the rare, but occasional drowning or poisoning are generally the most popular items on the American "murder menu". Beheadings, or "decapitation", if you will is definitely exotic fare.

Hassan is accused of killing his 37-year-old wife Aasiya Hassan inside the offices of Bridges TV, the Muslim-oriented television station the couple founded to counter negative images of Muslims after the Sept. 11 attacks.

I can only speak for myself, but I get all warm and fuzzy thinking about this couple working to counter these awful negative images of bloodthirsty, violent Muslims. Of course the (alleged) beheading of the man's wife kinda puts a damper on the warm fuzzies.

"She was very much aware of the potential ramification her filing for divorce might have," said attorney Elizabeth DiPirro, whose law firm, Hogan Willig, represented Aasiya Hassan in divorce proceedings. "But she wanted to proceed despite the potential for it to erupt."

DiPirro said the couple had "physical confrontations off and on" for their entire eight-year marriage that had escalated to death threats. The grounds for divorce were "cruel and inhuman treatment," DiPirro said, referring to multiple prior incidents of abuse.

"We were worried about the situation becoming volatile," DiPirro said.

Here is a seemingly "westernized" couple, who start a TV station to "counter negative images of Muslims". There's trouble in the marriage, including (allegedly) physical abuse on the part of the husband, violence, "cruel and inhuman treatment" which results in the wife filing for divorce. The abused wife is then beheaded. The sad truth is that the story is not shocking in the least, daughters killed or beaten, wives beheaded, we've heard this all before; they're little "rituals" by which they resolve their day-to-day interpersonal problems. What may be shocking and horrific to us is "not so much" to many Muslims.

Just another day in the "Religion of Peace".