Helping Westerners understand Islam

Here is a story by Editor and Publisher on the Orchard Park, New York wife-beheader, Muzzammil Hassan. Hassan is the creator and CEO of BridgesTV, a cable network dedicated to “connecting people through understanding.” Yeah. Understanding. We understand—“we” meaning the approximately one percent of Americans who understand sufficiently what Islam is. But the other 99 percent of us don’t understand. Will this quintessential “moderate” Muslim’s Islamic-style slaughter of his wife help us understand? More bridges are needed! And cover those bridges with the scores of millions of corpses of the people killed and the tens of millions of people enslaved and the lights of civilization extinguished by 1,400 years of Islam, then maybe we’ll understand.

Buffalo Man Who Launched TV Network to Show Muslims in Positive Light Arrested—for Beheading His Wife
By Greg Mitchell
Published: February 13, 2009 2:20 PM ET

NEW YORK A prominent Buffalo area businessman who founded the BridgesTV network to improve the image of Muslims in the U.S. has been arrested and charged with murdering his estranged wife—by beheading her at his company’s office in Orchard Park, N.Y., on Thursday.

Police have charged the husband, Muzzammil Hassan, 44, with second-degree murder in the death of Aasiya Z. Hassan, 37.

In its logo, BridgesTV boasts of “connecting people through understanding” via its dish network available in several states. Its Web site quotes comments about the company by Jay Leno, Brian Williams and others, plus a screen shot of a CNBC interview with Hassan conducted by Maria Bartiromo.

The site also shows a picture of Hassan with his slain wife, described as playing “an instrumental role in the creation of Bridges TV since she came up with the idea for the network.” The alleged killer is called “Mo S. Hassan” at the web site.

NPR’s “All Things Considered” profiled the Hassans in 2004. The segment opened, “A new cable network for Muslim-Americans is up and running in Detroit. Bridges TV says it wants to inform and entertain Muslims and, at the same time, give viewers who aren’t Muslims a glimpse into their culture …

“Mo Hassan was traveling from Buffalo to Detroit a few weeks after the September 11th terrorist attacks when his wife came up with the idea for the new network. They were in the car listening to the radio when they heard some derogatory remarks about Muslims.”

Programs include kids shows, “American Muslim Teen Talk,” Amy Goodman’s “Democracy Now” and an interview show with James Zogby. Its news program “brings you balanced coverage from around the world. News you can trust.”

He is CEO of the company after stints as a sales rep at Proctor & Gamble and as a banker in Buffalo. He got his MBA at the University of Rochester. The bio concludes: “Mr. Hassan brings to Bridges TV vision, persistence, data-based decision making and financial discipline.”

Police says the wife had an order of protection from the man. A murder weapon has not yet been recovered. _____

Greg Mitchell’s new book is “Why Obama Won.” He is editor of Editor & Publisher.

Posted by Lawrence Auster at February 14, 2009 12:18 PM | Send