Heads will roll

Let's see. We have a Muslim couple founding and operating a Muslim TV network out of New York with the ostensible purpose of promoting understanding between Muslim and Western cultures.

The two were originally from Pakistan. The husband, in this country for 30 years, had a successful business career before beginning the TV venture. The couple met on the Internet, was married 8 years and had two children, 4 and 6. It was his third marriage.

On Feb. 12, Muzzammil "Mo" Hassan, 44, walked into the police station in Orchard Park, N.Y., and told officials his wife, 37-year-old Aasiya Hassan, was dead.

And so she was.

Police found her body lying in a hallway of the TV station. She was stone-cold dead. But it wasn't your usual dead body – not beaten to death, knifed, hung, shot or even poisoned.

No, the woman had been decapitated. Murdered. It was no accident. Heads don't just fall off.

News reports meticulously ignored details of the murder scene. All we've been told is that the murder weapon hadn't yet been found or identified and that her head was found near her body.

But, was there evidence of a struggle? Was the body dragged? Was there much blood? Indications are that the husband wasn't distraught when he reported the death, but was he bloody? Injured? Had he changed clothes?

Only "Mo" and the police know, and they're not talking. All officials say is that it was "domestic violence."

Sure it was. Just a plain, ordinary, Western civilization domestic violence case, like all the others that cross police blotters.

But finding bodies with separated heads is not a common event for Orchard Park police. Indeed, it's not common for American police in any jurisdiction – not so much because cutting someone's head off isn't a known way of killing, but because that method of killing is not part of Western culture.

Even the French stopped using the guillotine for executions. It's so primitive and messy.

Primitive? Where did that come from? Well, decapitation is a part of Islamic culture going back centuries, and it exists today, ranging from a prescribed method of execution for civil law violations to violations of precepts of the Quran.

It's clearly part of what are called "honor killings" – the intentional murder of a person of any age for any act deemed to bring shame to the family. The victim most often is a woman or girl, and her transgression usually involves some form of disobedience to parents or spouse. It can range from clothing choice, to becoming "Westernized," to refusing an arranged marriage or wanting a divorce.

Unfortunately, Aasiya Hassan did want a divorce and filed papers just days before her death. She also obtained a restraining order against her husband. He clearly didn't want her to divorce and apparently did what, in his culture and religion, is traditionally appropriate and accepted.

And now, she's dead.

The big problem is this isn't the Middle East. This isn't an Islamic nation, and we do not practice Shariah law. But despite that, multicultural political correctness has entered the picture. News media avoid calling it an "honor killing." It's just "domestic violence."

Mentions of their Islamic faith and culture are virtually nil. This whole situation is treated with kid gloves, with officials and media bending over backward to avoid mentioning the obvious.

Adding insult to injury, "Mo" Hassan has only been charged with second-degree murder.

Just what is first degree murder in New York?

"Mo" has an on-the-ball lawyer in his corner. Attorney James Harrington quickly went on the defense over any suggestions of an honor killing, saying flatly: "Culture, religion doesn't play a role. … It's not an issue in this case."

What rots the brains of criminal defense lawyers so they have no compunction about raising defense claims that boggle the mind of any reasoned person? Truth and justice are flexible; common sense is not a consideration.

It's unavoidable that Islamic culture and religion is part of who Hassan is as a man and businessman. He had a good reputation among Muslim activists and was given an award by CAIR, the Council on American-Islamic Relations.

The focus of his television venture was to stress positive aspects of Islamic culture and religion. Employees report that he wasn't overtly religious but did favor Islamic tradition in terms of women's dress and insisted his wife be present if a woman was in his office.

Until recently, the only way Americans knew about decapitation was from movies or reading history.

But militant Islam and terrorism changed that with a vengeance by taking Western prisoners and decapitating them on camera. Their "20th and 21st century" war against the West involves 7th century tactics.

Recording decapitations on video is a cruel touch they relish. Remember Daniel Pearl and Nicholas Berg and Jack Hensley and Paul Johnson and Eugene Armstrong? They were all decapitated by terrorists. Just two weeks ago, Polish geologist Piotr Stanczak was beheaded, and American U.N. worker John Solecki faces the threat now. See them on tape.

But honor killings are the other side of the decapitation coin, and we tend to ignore it because it's not acceptable to say or think anything untoward of Muslims or Islam. We've been intimidated.

The result will be a gradual acceptance of such practices in this country under the guise of religious freedom. It will become virtually untouchable under our law because it's OK with Islam.

The gruesome death of Mrs. Hassan isn't the first honor killing in this country, and it won't be the last. But media coverage is always low key and virtually non-existent.

Octuplets and a rampaging chimpanzee get headlines; a beheading gets a media pass.

Poor Aasiya.