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Night Of The Beheading
Bridges TV / AP Photo
In a Daily Beast exclusive, Asra Q. Nomani uncovers horrific new details about the evening Muzzammil Hassan allegedly murdered his wife while their young children waited in a nearby car. Plus, new details about the history of their abusive marriage—including a police report from a family trip.
On the night of Feb. 12, 2009, Aasiya Hassan was allegedly murdered and beheaded by her estranged husband, Muzzammil Hassan, inside the building of the American-Muslim TV venture, Bridges Network Inc., they operated together.
While the alleged murder took place, the couple’s two children—four-year-old Rania and six-year-old Danyal—were waiting for their mother in a car outside the building, along with Muzzamil Hassan’s 17-year-old son from an earlier marriage, according to people familiar with the details of the case.
It isn’t clear where the children were when police discovered their mother’s body, but the account is a reminder that domestic violence often has devastating consequences for children when it goes untreated. Police records—including this report from Flower Mound, Texas—show that the Hassan family had been struggling with Muzzammil Hassan’s abuse long before the alleged murder took place.
According to the police report, Muzzammil Hassan “coerced her into a bedroom.” In the bedroom, she said, he “pushed her down onto the bed, sat on her chest and pinned her arms and legs down."
Muzzammil Hassan, a prominent member of Buffalo’s Muslim community, had for years battled a psychiatric illness that led to violent rages when he went off his medication, according to people familiar with his medical history. His two previous marriages were also marred by abuse allegations, according to people familiar with the relationships.
On the night of Assiya Hassan’s alleged murder, Muzzammil Hassan lured his wife to the TV station on a pretense, possibly to sign papers, according to the people familiar with the case. Aasiya Hassan had filed for divorce on Feb. 6, 2009, securing a protective order against her husband, and, according to the people familiar with the situation, she couldn’t be in the building if he was there. He told her that she should look for his vehicle in the parking lot and proceed inside if she didn’t see it, according to the account.
The people familiar with the case said, Aasiya Hassan drove with Muzzammil Hassan’s teenage son, Michael, from his first marriage, and the two young children she had had during her marriage to Muzzammil Hassan. According to community members, Michael and his older sister, Sonia, 18, were very close to their step mother, Aasiya Hassan.
At the studio, the people said, Aasiya went inside. Some time later, Muzzammil emerged from the building, to Michael’s surprise. He walked over to Michael and the young children and handed Michael $4,900 in cash, saying, “You will probably need it.” A person familiar with the case said the police took the money as evidence.
According to the account, Michael, a high school senior, tried to open the locked windowless, steel entrance door to the building, and tried to call his older sister, Sonia, a freshman at the University at Buffalo.
According to police records, Muzzammil Hassan went to the Orchard Park police station at 6:15 p.m. to tell police officers they could find the murdered body of his wife at the Bridges studio. His lawyer in Buffalo, Jim Harrington, has said he didn’t confess to the crime, and he declined to comment on details of the case. The police station is just a few minutes drive from the studio. Ted Gura, assistant police chief in Orchard Park, declined to comment. Erie County District Attorney Frank Sedita declined to comment.
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Asra Q. Nomani is the author of Standing Alone: An American Woman’s Struggle for the Soul of Islam. She is co-director of the Pearl Project, an investigation into the murder of Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl. Her activism for women’s rights at her mosque in West Virginia is the subject of a PBS documentary, The Mosque in Morgantown. She can be found on Facebook, and reached at asra@asranomani.com
Honor Killing on Main Street
Asra Q. Nomani is the author of Standing Alone: An American Woman’s Struggle for the Soul of Islam. She is co-director of the Pearl Project, an investigation into the murder of Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl. Her activism for women’s rights at her mosque in West Virginia is the subject of a PBS documentary, The Mosque in Morgantown. She can be found on Facebook, and reached at asra@asranomani.com
Why Honor Killings Happen
Asra Q. Nomani is the author of Standing Alone: An American Woman’s Struggle for the Soul of Islam. She is co-director of the Pearl Project, an investigation into the murder of Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl. Her activism for women’s rights at her mosque in West Virginia is the subject of a PBS documentary, The Mosque in Morgantown. She can be found on Facebook, and reached at asra@asranomani.com
This comment has been removed by The Daily Beast's editors.
This comment has been removed by The Daily Beast's editors.
This comment has been removed by The Daily Beast's editors.
roomypantleg
Religion is irrelevant to this case--he killed his wife, decapitated her, and he is a wife-killer. His religion is not relevant.
This comment has been removed by The Daily Beast's editors.
siegeljja
Please spare me all the politically correct nonsense - there are legitimate issues to be raised concerning the Muslim religion and its teachings and practices regarding women and it is naive and foolish to pretend otherwise or to seek to silence this discussion, which is basically what room and justmy seek to do. The prevalency - and silence - about "honor killings" both abroad and at home, for example, are serious issues which merit serious discussion and preventive action and burying your heads in the PC sand is a shameful response to such efforts and discussions. The refusal of some acting in the name of Islam to allow women to attend schools (e.g. Afghanistan) or to drive a car (e.g. Saudi Arabia) are issues which merit open and honest discussion, including outright critical comments and outright condemnation, and to pretend otherwise is to facilitate, excuse and perpetuate these practices and attitudes. The fact that there are legitimate questions to be raised about the practices of other religions does not excuse or justify silencing such debate or failing to raise those questions about Muslims in this case - it involved not only a Muslim couple but an individual, albeit one apparently suffering from mental illness, whose job it was to counter widely-held perceptions of Muslims as being violent. Under the circumstances, the discussion is entirely appropriate and those who seek to silence such comments are virtually complicit in the misconduct and mistreatment involved and practiced in many places around the world.
evae1960
I agree. Core values are a relevant discussion here. Using religion to justify or rationalize control via violence is a hallmark of numerous cultures, not just countries where Islam is the majority religion.
In this country, there have been several high profile and grizzly murders of women at the hands of their husbands, lately. But, this is the only one that I know of that involve a couple from the Muslim world.
thewoodman
Being a Muslim is a relevant fact. Just like it's relevant when they blow up buildings or themselves. Just like when they bomb abortion clinics or anything else.
AndreainNY
"Honor killings" are domestic violence sanctioned by culture. There is no denying the cultural predisposition to this type of violence.
Spasticula
I'm a lefty, but I'm not a moron lefty who believes that all ideologies are equal, tra-la-la. A non-thinker (who only imagines he's using his brain) above wrote "...stop talking about religion. This was a murder, Why because he is Muslim does it change things? Men kill their wives all the time." another Einstein wrote "As if no Jew ever did anything like that to anyone" As a rule, no Jews and non-muslims rarely cut their wives heads off. But it's very common among uptight, chauvinist Muslim cultures, where the slightest infraction topples a hair-trigger, tiny-dicked mans self-esteem.
ArielAZ
The crime is horrifying. However, the details in this story, while fascinating, are not horrifying. Another misleading headline from the Beast, and, thus, another disappointment when you read the story. Getting to be a habit on this site.
The Muslim identity of the murderer is relevant, as he founded a TV enterprise for the purpose of doing PR work for the Muslim community and presenting it as benign. Will that community sweep this crime under the rug like past Muslim atrocities? Or will they honestly face the issue of violence inherent in their religious tomes, legal codes and accepted Sharia law, as well as domestic violence in male-dominated homes, violence of every degree towards women, the hysterical quasi-violent emotional reactions to daily life by a sexually and socially repressed people.
We're dealing here with a pre-Freudian, authoritarian culture. Repression begets violence, on every level.
troutcor
Sure Islam has a problem vis-a-vis treatment of women generally and violence specifically. But let's not pretend this is some sort of thing reserved for Middle Eastern cultures. According to the U.S. Dept. of Justice, about 1,100 women are killed by their husbands or boyfriends every year on average in THIS country. A beheading is grisly. But the end result of a fatal shooting or beating is the same. Is it only the methodology we are worried about here?
southred8
Violence in any form is never acceptable!Religion has nothing to do with it.No man owns a woman.
Banjo1
What we have here is yet another collision between commonsense and political correctness. PC wins these encounters about 95% of the time.
funkychicken
Very well said, siegeljja. Nothing changes without open and honest dialogue. On a more personal note: I desperately hope these children will eventually be able to come to terms with this tragedy and lead healthy, productive lives.
rustywheeler
"Would you like the klan and jim crow and slavery to be connected to Christianity?"
News flash: the Klan and slavery ARE connected to Christianity, just as beheadings are connected to Islam.
evae1960
Your comments are factual in every respect except that as a country, we are gratefully further down the road in terms of time. Our collective introspection has lead us to condemn these horrible practices.
The pendulum will eventually swing the other way in these regions, I hope.
This discussion is part of the process.
I must say that Pakistani culture reinforces some bad tendencies instead of deterring them. This deranged man needed serious medical and legal intervention. He was hell-bent on her demise.
Thank you.
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