Disgusting Buffalo News story portrays moderate Muslim who beheaded his wife as victim

The poor thing is "almost in shock." Almost! Here is an appalling farrago attempting to portray a man who beheaded his wife as a victim -- and in the process, of course, to exonerate Islamic teaching for any responsibility for this horrific murder. Moderate Beheading Update: "Suspect ‘almost in shock’ over wife’s beheading," by Fred O. Williams for the Buffalo News, February 19 (thanks to Soren):

Under arrest in his wife’s brutal death, Muzzammil Hassan is “almost in shock,” his attorney said Wednesday following a court appearance in Orchard Park.

“He’s having difficulty coping with this,” attorney James Harrington said.

Poor fellow. He beheaded his wife, and now he is having trouble coping. What suffering he has been through!

Hassan, 44, appeared briefly in the Orchard Park courtroom Wednesday for the first official proceeding since he was arrested last week and charged with seconddegree murder. His wife, Aasiya, was found beheaded at the office of their business in the Village of Orchard Park.

Tall and stout in a tan suit, he was led into the courtroom in handcuffs, blinking through his glasses at the approximately two dozen people gathered....

“If and when he’s indicted, he’ll plead not guilty,” said Harrington, adding, “It’s too early to know what approach we’ll take, but we’re exploring everything.”

He must have been crazy! Maybe...Islamophobia drove him to it!

Assistant District Attorney Colleen Curtin Gable said her office would seek an indictment against Hassan within 45 days on a charge of seconddegree murder. The first-degree charge is reserved for special circumstances, including torture or the death of police.

Conviction on second-degree murder carries penalties ranging from 15 years to life in prison, to 25 years to life, she said....

Why not first degree murder? A beheading is likely to have been premeditated.

Harrington said that a history of domestic violence will be part of the case.

“They had their problems,” he said.

Orchard Park police said they had been called to the couple’s home on Big Tree Road because of domestic disputes previously. The most recent occasion was Feb. 6, the day Aasiya Hassan filed for divorce and obtained an order of protection barring Muzzammil Hassan from the house.

Although Hassan told police where to find his wife’s body, he has not confessed, Harrington said. Hassan went to Police Headquarters last Thursday evening and said his wife was dead at their business office, a Muslim-oriented television channel on Thorn Avenue.

Obligatory exoneration of Islam:

Harrington rejected a connection between the beheading of Aasiya Hassan and the couple’s Muslim religion and culture.

“No, it does not [have any bearing],” he said, adding, “I think the media is doing a very great disservice to the Muslim community.”

How? Who? What media? What mainstream media story has said the first thing about Islam or the culture of honor killing in connection with this case?

The brutal nature of the crime has raised questions about whether it was a so-called “honor killing,” a possibility that the district attorney’s office is investigating. Harrington called questions about the extreme violence of the act inappropriate.

Advocates for women — some of them Muslims — have called for the community to acknowledge religious and cultural traditions that stigmatize divorce and heighten the danger of violence in divorce cases.

That at least is good. Calling the Islamic community to account for the cultural and religious traditions that justify honor killing is the only way to prevent more honor killings in the future. But what the mainstream media gives with one hand, it takes away with the other:

Meanwhile, the Imams Council of Greater Western New York on Tuesday issued a statement calling it “unfair to vilify the Islamic faith or Muslims” in the homicide.

“To generalize the issue is misleading and masks the real problem that women globally are being abused and domestic violence is on the rise. 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.”

No. False. Wrong. It is not "vilify[ing] the Islamic faith or Muslims" to note that honor killing is widely accepted in Islamic culture, and that honor crimes frequently get lighter penalties than other forms of murder in Muslim countries. This manifests cultural attitudes that must be confronted, or more women will get murdered. It's that simple. These disavowals of responsibility by Muslim imams are only ensuring that more women will be victimized as was Aasiya Hassan.