February 18, 2009

by Arsalan Iftikhar

Editor’s Note: Arsalan Iftikhar is an international human rights lawyer, founder of www.TheMuslimGuy.com and contributing editor for Islamica Magazine in Washington.

Arsalan Iftikhar | BIO
Founder, TheMuslimGuy.com

It is a tragically ironic scenario when a television station dedicated to helping bridge cross-cultural divides becomes the scene of a horrifying murder. But that’s what happened last week.

Aasiya Zubair Hassan, a 37-year-old mother of four was found brutally decapitated inside the television studios of Bridges TV in upstate New York. She had co-founded the cable channel with her husband after September 11th to overcome negative stereotypes associated with Muslims.

Over the years, Bridge TV has succeeded, and transformed itself into a cross-cultural network aimed at fostering, as its website says “a greater understanding among many cultures and diverse populations.” And most employees were non-Muslim.

But now Ms. Zubair’s husband, Muzzammil Hassan, a 44-year-old Pakistani-American businessman, has been charged with murdering his recently estranged wife.

Read the entire CNN Anderson Cooper 360 column at: http://ac360.blogs.cnn.com/2009/02/18/a-brutal-murder-and-what-it-tells-us/