Brutal Irony In New York Woman's Beheading

Police Say Couple Founded TV Network To Fight Muslim Stereotypes; Husband Suspected Of Killing Her At Office

(CBS/AP)  The crime drips with brutal irony: a woman decapitated, allegedly by her estranged husband, in the offices of the television network the couple founded with the hope of countering Muslim stereotypes.

Muzzammil "Mo" Hassan is accused of beheading his wife last week, days after she filed for divorce. Authorities have not discussed the role religion or culture might have played, but the slaying gave rise to speculation that it was the sort of "honor killing" more common in countries half a world away, including the couple's native Pakistan.

Funeral services for Aasiya Hassan, 37, were Tuesday. Her 44-year-old husband is scheduled to appear for a felony hearing Wednesday.

Asma Firfirey, Aasiya's 42-year-old sister who lives in South Africa, has told the News 24 network in that country that she was on the phone with the New York woman during the brutal encounter. (Click here to read the News 24 report.)

Firfirey told News 24 said she and her husband were talking to Aasiya last Thursday when they heard her tell her husband to calm down, asking him if they could talk the following day about the divorce.

Then Firfirey said she heard sounds that made her think her sister was struggling to breathe. They were informed Friday that Aasiya had died.

"I can only imagine how scared and emotional she must have been before she died," she told the network.

The Hassans lived in Orchard Park - a well-off Buffalo suburb that hadn't seen a homicide since 1986 - and started Bridges TV there in 2004 with the message of developing understanding between North America and the Middle East and South Asia. The network, available across the U.S. and Canada, was believed to be the first English-language cable station aimed at the rapidly growing Muslim demographic.

Orchard Park Police Chief Andrew Benz said his officers had responded to domestic incidents involving the couple, most recently Feb. 6, the day Mo Hassan was served with the divorce papers and an order of protection.

"I've never heard him raise his voice," said Paul Moskal, who became friendly with the couple while he was chief counsel for the FBI in Buffalo. Moskal would answer questions in forums aired on Bridges TV that were intended to improve understanding between Muslim-Americans and law enforcement.

"His personal life kind of betrayed what he tried to portray publicly," Moskal said.

On Feb. 12, Hassan went to a police station and told officers his wife was dead at the TV studio.

"We found her laying in the hallway the offices were off of," Benz said. Aasiya Hassan's head was near her body.

"I don't know if (the method of death) does mean anything," said the chief, who would not discuss what weapon may have been used. "We certainly want to investigate anything that has any kind of merit. It's not a normal thing you would see."

Hassan was not represented by an attorney at an initial appearance on a charge of second-degree murder. Neither police nor the Erie County district attorney's office knew if he had hired a lawyer.

The New York president of the National Organization for Women, Marcia Pappas, condemned prosecutors for referring to the death as an apparent case of domestic violence.

"This was, apparently, a terroristic version of 'honor killing,"' a statement from NOW said.

Nadia Shahram, who teaches family law and Islam at the University at Buffalo Law School, explained honor killing as a practice still accepted among fanatical Muslim men who feel betrayed by their wives.

"If a woman breaks the law which the husband or father has placed for the wife or daughter, honor killing has been justified," said Shahram, who was a regular panelist on a law show produced by Bridges TV. "It happens all the time. It's been practiced in countries such as Pakistan and in India."

Acquaintances said Mo Hassan was not overtly religious - co-workers did not see him pray, for instance. But he seemed to adhere to many traditional practices.

Nancy Sanders, the television station's news director for 2 1/2 years, remembers him asking her to move her feet during her job interview so he would not see her legs. She was wearing a skirt and stockings.

He also would not let women enter his office unless his wife was there, and he blocked the station from airing a story about the first Muslim woman to win the title of Miss England in 2005, Sanders said.

Acquaintances said Aasiya Hassan was trained as an architect. Sanders described her as obedient to her husband, and that she wore a traditional hijab for a time but later stopped without explanation.

"She was beautiful, small, delicately built," she said, "while Mo would fill up a door frame. I always thought of him as a gentle giant."

Sanders, who left Bridges TV a year ago, said co-workers traded stories about Hassan's apparent violent streak, including one which had him running his wife's car off the road while the couple's two young children were inside. Aasiya herself never spoke of it, she said.

"I just do not feel it was an honor killing," Sanders added. "I think it was domestic abuse that got out of control."

Erie County District Attorney Frank Sedita did not immediately respond to The Associated Press' request for a copy of the order of protection issued against Mo Hassan. Divorce records are sealed in New York state. Aasiya Hassan's lawyer would not reveal the reasons for the divorce filing.

Hassan graduated with an MBA from the Simon School of Business at the University of Rochester in 1996, according to the TV station's Web site. Bridges broadcasts all over the United States and in Canada on various cable providers and Verizon FiOS. As of 6 p.m. Tuesday, the network was not broadcasting in the Buffalo area.

There was no answer at the network on Tuesday and it's Web site has a message saying Bridges is shocked and saddened and requests privacy.

[yossi_beneliezer]

Here in the U.S. it is an outrage but is Muslim countries it is an accepted pratice that does not raise an eyebrow. Here it was a huband killing his wife, it could be just as well the wife as a mother telling her son to avenge the honor of the faily and kill her daughter. This is the key to understanding the Mulim world. Killing within the family is perfectly acceptable, reasonable and desireable. By beginning to fathom this reality in the Muslim world than the extentions of this like revenge killings, terrorim, beheading of foreigners, suicide bombings are seem in a much clear light.

There is no sense in trying to change these people, or abmonish them because it is acceptable to them and they will not change.

[lokisgodhi]

I love Lisa Bloom, the CBS legal analyst. She says, "Any culture or religion that encourages violence against women is not tolerated in this country...."

So I guess that means that any culture or religion that encourages violence against men is tolerated and/or encouraged by her and CBS news.

[gorgeousm]

THEY CERTAINLY KNOW HOW TO HANDLE THEIR WOMEN!

But, she had wild and crazy ideas in that head of hers! I simply had to lop it off before she did harm to herself and to others around her.
So you see? I HAD TO take immediate action for her own benefit and for the benefit of others.

In any case, I heard they have very advanced methods to reattach her 'nothing-but-trouble-for-me' head. It is patently wrong for the very instigating and intrusive media and government, to blow out of proportion what should have remained a minor family affair.
[correction: I meant family MATTER]

Very truly,
Muzzammil "Mo" Hassan

[crescentgirl]

I think this killing is truly tragic. If the man is found guilty, then he should be punished to the fullest extent of the law. However, for all of you people out there that keep blaming these types of killings on Islam, i say to you...pls educate yourselves. This case is clearly a case of domestic violence. Unfortunately, domestic violence is a plague that is rampant across all cultures, backgrounds and socieo-economic conditions. It is not something specific to Muslim cultures. The only reason Islam is being dragged into the comments on this message board is because the individual charged with the crime happens to come from a Muslim background. Please educate yourselves on Islam and see what it actually teaches about women's rights. The prophet of Islam, Muhammed (pbuh) was a champion of women's rights during his time.

[rrozsa-2009]

I'm no genius, but if I were a Muslim woman, I would NOT come back to the office after filing for divorce!

[vcofreason]

Islam is a religions of hatred, intolerance, abuse, perceived omnipotence and the potential to destroy everyone around it. They should ALL be watched, profiled and presumed to be full of hatred for anyone who differs from them. As in this case, even under the guise of their "tolerant" station, they are terroists just waiting to happen and it's proven over and over and over again. What about the father who killed his daughter a while back? Lunatics, all of them.

[boarderdiver]

syahj04 what are you one of those trying to ban the constitution also, here is what the first amendment says. "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances." Anyone who does not support this document needs to leave this country. If you don't like the tolerance and ideals this country was formed on, there are plenty of other country's where they will be more than happy to kill you for your opinion. Go try one of those on for size.

[syahj04]

If you want to practice your religous believes, go back to where you came from,(your country) then you wont have to worry about going to jail. But remember our God says that thou shall not KILL. All religion should be banned, remember religion is part of the reason that God flooded the earth and wiped it clean the first time, Can you guess what God is going to doing this time? Satan is danceing now, but not for ever.

[boarderdiver]

Why don''t we just keep whining about the muslims. That way we don''t have to realise that our own western beliefs are being pushed on other countries at the cost of death for non converts. We won''t have to realise that simple farm people are being killed in the name of more room for American business interests in other countries. We won''t have to look at all the people being killed and doing the killing in the streets of our own country that are not muslim. Satan bless the USA because you are mostly a bunch of hypocrites.

[incog-nito]

Shoot them if they gather. Islams doctrine is to take the world by force if need be, which it would if and when it is capable.

Posted by Jamster31 at 04:21 PM : Feb 18, 2009

OK. That''s not going to happen. Let me ask another question:

How do you ban a belief system?

[hamiltongrad]

The "Irony" is NEEDING a TV station like that.

What other religion needs such a TV station to convince the world that what they see , is not really what is ?

I feel very sorry for this poor woman and her family. Will her parents speak out against such violence ? Where are they ? Will the media interview them too ???

[kuching88]

What religion is speaks so loudly; we cannot hear what religion says it is.

RELIGION POISONS EVERYTHING!

[godofredo29]

I blame myself.

[andrew_693]

MAYAN, AZTEC, EGYPTIAN, CHRISTIAN, MUSLIM AND JEW,..AND YES EVERYONE ELSE,. THEY ARE ALL WRONG.

Posted by benice6


life would be much more tolerable without religion.

[mysteriousjz]

This case is no worse than "sANTA Killing". If only, the Santa killing was carried out in holy outfit and on holy night. It was brutal, burning injured victims alive is cruel and inhumane. I wouldn''t hold that against any faith or belief. Crime is a crime-It may happen anywhere

[otiswestfall]

Despite my grave fears of Muslim threats to western civilization, I can''''t help wondering if this man snapped because he was about to lose his children and property in an "enlightened" western divorce.
------------------------------------------------------
Posted by fredhayward
***************************
Nah. I think he snapped because he concluded his wife was a head case.

[judatr2]

There should be an uproaring over this type of plain out murder and more voting on this kind of thing in the media, seems there''s more hoopla about the Oscars then a man beheading his wife on US soil. Before you know it we''ll have husbands all over the US beheading their wive''s in the name of "honor".it''s out right murder and should not be tolerated in this country.

[lili5044]

We will be hearing more and more of this type of horrific murders here in the U.S. Now that we are allowing more and more of these 3rd world people to come here. Oh what a wicked web we weave..........

[jamster31]

You can say all the nice things that you want about how all Islamists aren''t extremists but the moderates do nothing to stop this march to overtake other countries and impose Sharia law. Look at what''s happened in Pakistan already. The governments given in to the Taliban and let them take over parts of Pakistan without a fight. Are the modeates protesting? I haven''t seen it. I think they''re scared for their lives. It will happen slow to the rest of the country and any other country they get a foot hold on. They prey on the young and impressionable.
Don''t let them get a foothold here. They may have already with a previous muslim being president. Do we really know? I belive we should stop this in its tracks now.

[jamster31]

jamster: how do you ban a belief system?


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Posted by HonestAbe8 at 01:19 PM : Feb 18, 2009

Shoot them if they gather. Islams doctrine is to take the world by force if need be, which it would if and when it is capable.