On October 4, 2008, for the first time ever, the FBI described the double homicides of Sarah and Amina Said in Dallas as an "honor killing." This language accompanied the photo of Yaser Abdul Said on the FBI's Most Wanted List. On January 1, 2008, Said took his Egyptian passport,and $9,000.00 and, with his wife Tissy's help, shot and killed both his daughters in his taxi cab. He has not been seen since then.
The Dallas representative of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) was outraged by the description of this crime as an "honor killing." He was quoted as saying: "Until motive is proven in a court of law, this is just a homicide." Great-aunt Gail Gartrell told me that an Imam also took to the airwaves in Dallas to express his outrage
By October 16, 2008, the FBI had deleted the phrase "honor killing" from their description of Yaser Abdul Said on their Most Wanted list.
I do not know why they have done so. Gartrell believes that "the Islamists are winning! I think it matters little who gets into the White House as the Islamists will do what they will and the law will back off due to legal threats! What country is this now....the USA OF Islamistan? They proved to me that the Islamists have much more power than I do! I've told truth! They just deny truth! Even so, they were able to get this recanted...just like Amina and Sarah had to recant about the sexual abuse." (The girls' grandmother witnessed her son-in-law sexually abusing her grandchildren and reported him. The children confirmed that this was true. Their mother, who also lured them to their deaths, persuaded them to recant because otherwise "Daddy will go to jail." )
I have been told that the FBI was deluged by media requests. If true, this might represent a tremendous waste of time. Also, while categorizing an "honor killing" as such might be important in terms of preventing one, I am not sure how it might help in the capture of an honor killer. On the contrary. It might tempt naive Muslim civilians to shelter someone who has been targeted as a Muslim
murderer, and not just as a murderer.
I have no idea if the FBI yielded to any "legal threats." I would be surprised if they had. But I have a suggestion. Let's take a page from the "politically correct" handbook. Why not think about honor killings as "hate crimes" since the victims are almost always girls and women? Or, better yet, why not consider such crimes "Islamophobic" since the victims are most often Muslim? True, Sikhs and Hindus sometimes also perpetrate "honor killings" but not as frequently as Muslims do. Why not view "honor killings" as Muslim-on-Muslim violence--which, after all, constitutes the greatest violence unleashed against Muslims in the world.
Sarah and Amina: Rest in Peace. The forces of American law are pursuing your murderer and your great-aunt is holding their feet to the fire.
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