When One News Now broke the story that the Arizona Muslim father charged in the “honor killing” of his daughter had been convicted of second-degree murder, it was because no one else was following the story. Given the nature of the heinous crime, it would seem that the major news media would give it some coverage — but as of this writing, not a single mention of the conviction could be found.
Faleh Hassan Almaleki, father of Noor, whom he killed using his Jeep Grand Cherokee as a weapon, was convicted not only of second-degree murder, but also aggravated assault and leaving the scene of a crime. And he is lucky indeed not to have been charged with first degree murder which in the United States is defined as “an intentional killing by means of poison, or by lying in wait, or by any other kind of willful, deliberate and premeditated action.”
His defense attorneys raised just enough doubt about his intention to murder his daughter because she was behaving too much like a Westerner, calling it an accident, that he really didn’t intend to kill her after all. In a recent article here, the horror of the crime was detailed, compounded by the lack of attention from the national liberal media. One of those in the liberal media, however, was willing to look past her prejudices and see the crime for what it was: the cold-blooded murder of an innocent based on religious convictions that transcended the law of the land.
When Amaleki moved his family to Phoenix 16 years ago, he expected his daughter to be a good Muslim and to follow all the rules. But as Noor grew and matured, she became too “westernized” to suit him. She opened a Facebook page, hung out with friends from school, wore jeans and earrings, and generally adopted the normal behavior of an American teenager. When the pressure to conform grew too intense at home, she moved in with another Muslim family, which was the final insult. Her father, waiting in ambush for his opportunity, caught her and her friend in the parking lot in the evening of October 20, 2009, ran them down with his SUV, surveyed the damage (ignoring his daughter’s pleas for help, according to testimony given during the four weeks of his trial), and ran over her again, killing her.
Her family, fully in agreement with the killing, assisted Almaleki in escaping to Mexico and then on to London, where he was detained and returned to Phoenix to face charges.
All of this should, even during days of international disturbances, crises, and political maneuvering in Washington, make its way into the headlines. As Abigail Esman (the exasperated liberal quoted in the New American article earlier) observed:
A good part of why those killings take place is simply that most of my fellow liberals don’t even know that they have occurred before and so cannot take action to prevent them in the future. How could they, if the media sources on which they rely for information refuse, repeatedly, to tell them?
Photo: Faleh Hassan Almaleki sits with a attorney during his trail on Feb. 22, 2011 in Phoenix: AP Images
