The good news is that Muzzami and Aasiya Hassan of Buffalo, New York will not be getting divorced. The bad news is why: he beheaded her. It only took an hour, this past Monday, for an Erie County jury to find the TV producer – and founder of a Muslim-oriented TV station - guilty of murder. It takes longer for most juries to order lunch than it took this one to deliver a verdict. So,there's no reasonable doubt that Muzzami Hassan killed his wife. The question remains: why did he do it? Specifically, why did he do it this way?
You can't accidentally chop someone's head off. The old “I was only trying to scare her” excuse doesn't fly. It takes an act of will and an axe or, at least, a saw. You’re not deboning a chicken, a woman’s head doesn’t come off easily. (I don’t speak from experience, but it seems, well, common sense.) It also requires a distinct lack of resistance from the victim. You can’t coax someone into a guillotine. No matter how much they love or trust you or how gullible they are, no one will put their head on a block for you – especially when you’re holding a machete. The victim must be bound, unconscious or . . . beyond caring. That Aasiya Hassan was also stabbed forty times with a hunting knife suggests the last possibility.
Ultimately, why Muzzami Hassan severed his wife’s head may be connected (rather more sturdily) to why he killed her in the first place. Speaking in his own defense – and acting as his own attorney - Mr. Hassan claims he was a victim of spousal abuse. He also claimed comparison, as a man of principle, to Nelson Mandela, Ronald Reagan and Mahatma Gandhi. (Three people who would have trouble coming together on a scrabble board.) The jury was not convinced. What they seemed to find more compelling was the fact that his wife served him with divorce papers a week before her demise. The only way to prove a connection, of course, is if Mr. Hassan confesses. Until then, I'll leave the last word to MSNBC.COM: “Immediately after Aasiya Hassan’s death, the manner in which she died prompted speculation her death was an honor killing. The practice is still accepted among some fanatical Muslim men, including in the couple’s native Pakistan, who feel betrayed by their wives.”
