A Muslim woman shunned by her devout Muslim family for her “shameful” divorce dies a sudden death after “throwing herself on the floor” in front of her family, and it’s classified an accident. That’s what Florida law enforcement determined. No one was charged in the death of 48-year-old Fatima Abdallah in Florida. But there is evidence that she may have been a victim of Islamic honor killing, and that Tampa authorities are complicit in a cover-up.
Honor killing is the all too common Islamic practice in which a woman who has brought “shame” to the family is murdered to preserve family “purity.” It should be exposed, investigated and stopped in the U.S. – not covered up. This is Shariah in America. The idea that a woman would die after she “threw herself to the floor” is institutionalized devaluation of women and tacit sanctioning of honor killing – in accord with Islamic law.
Medical examiner Laura Hair ruled Fatima Abdallah’s death accidental. Deputy Police Chief Marc Hamlin said, “The bottom line is, no matter how long you investigate and no matter how much you investigate, it’s not going to overrule the competent medical evidence that it was an accident.” How do they know that? How is it more likely that she threw herself to the floor than she was fatally thrown to the floor?
Even worse, the Tampa Police report claims that Abdallah committed suicide by repeatedly striking her head against a coffee table. The idea defies logic, belies reality. There is a great deal of evidence that the Tampa Police investigation was drastically flawed and that the Police Department and medical examiner ignored numerous indications that Fatima Abdallah did not commit suicide or die in an accident, but was brutally assaulted.
I asked John Jay, a former prosecutor in Washington state, to examine the substantial evidence presented in the initial investigation of the death of Fatima Abdallah. In 25 years of law practice, the majority involved in prosecuting and defending major felonies, Jay said that he never heard or read of a person killing herself by flinging herself upon the floor or a table. “Quite frankly,” he said, “I seriously doubt it can be done.”
Jay found that Fatima Abdallah’s “mouth was bloodied by a blow, and at the left corner of her mouth is an angular cut/incision/indentation, which only could have been made by a blow.” Also, “her left eye orbit was broken, and her left eye socket was blackened, suffering a blow causing hemorrhaging of blood about the eye.” And “her right arm had contusions at the front inside of the elbow, and at the shoulder near the front armpit, consistent with being grasped forcibly by human hands.”
Jay noted that “all the blows to her face appear concentrated upon the left side of the face, entirely consistent with having been struck very forcibly by a right handed person striking her, and wielding a closed fist, from her front.” He concluded that “the pathologist should have suspected, and should have investigated this more thoroughly, that the trauma to Fatima Abdallah was intentionally inflicted to her by another human being, or human beings working in concert to restrain and beat her.”
It is also important to note that at the exact same time of Fatima Abdallah’s alleged honor killing, Rifqa Bary was not 85 miles away, fighting for her life under the same system of misogyny and Islamic domination Fatima had lived under. Rifqa had escaped to Florida after her father had threatened to kill her when he found out that she had left Islam and converted to Christianity. Yet Ohio and Florida law enforcement refused to address the religious motivation behind the death threat made to Rifqa’s life. A brutal honor killing of a Muslim woman less than 100 miles away would certainly have swayed public opinion. Rifqa Bary made the stunning admission of a threat to her life while living in a devout Muslim household on Aug. 10, 2009. Fatima Abdallah may have been brutally honor killed on Aug. 17, 2009.
Tampa Police Homicide Detective Sonja Wise reclassified Fatima’s case from “Unexplained Death” to “Accidental Death” on Oct. 13, 2009, based upon Dr. Hair’s autopsy report, on the very same day a Florida court ruled that Rifqa would be sent back to Ohio (albeit to foster care, not to her devout Muslim family home).
Were the authorities aware of the Rifqa Bary controversy (who wasn’t?) and deliberately covered up Fatima’s honor killing for fear of igniting more exposure of gender apartheid in Islam?
Fatima’s death must not be swept under the rug. On Friday, June 10, my group Stop Islamization of America held a Rally for Justice for Fatima Abdallah outside the Tampa police headquarters. Speakers included SIOA’s associate director, the best-selling author and internationally renowned Islamic expert Robert Spencer; Nonie Darwish, the ex-Muslim human-rights activist and author; David Caton of the Florida Family Association, who conducted a thorough independent investigation exposing the numerous errors and falsehoods in the Tampa Police Department report; and SIOA-Florida leader Larissa Scott.
We called upon State Attorney Mark Ober, Tampa Mayor Bob Buckhorn and Tampa City Council members to recognize the numerous anomalies in the Tampa Police Department report that ruled Fatima Abdallah’s death a suicide, and to open a genuine investigation into the possibility that she was murdered in an Islamic honor killing.
Does being a Muslim mean you can get away with murder?
Freedom fighters must demand the case be re-opened. Are we to sanction honor killing in this country on our watch? This is Shariah – fight it. Click here to send your email urging State Attorney Mark Ober and Tampa Mayor Bob Buckhorn to conduct a thorough and proper investigation. This cannot and must not stand.
