Yaser Said murdered his daughters for having non-Muslim boyfriends. This horrifying case points up the reality that honor murder can happen even in Western countries.
Muslims commit 91 percent of honor killings worldwide. The Palestinian Authority gives pardons or suspended sentences for honor murders. Iraqi women have asked for tougher sentences for Islamic honor murderers, who get off lightly now. Syria in 2009 scrapped a law limiting the length of sentences for honor killings, but “the new law says a man can still benefit from extenuating circumstances in crimes of passion or honour ‘provided he serves a prison term of no less than two years in the case of killing.’” And in 2003 the Jordanian Parliament voted down on Islamic grounds a provision designed to stiffen penalties for honor killings. Al-Jazeera reported that “Islamists and conservatives said the laws violated religious traditions and would destroy families and values.”
Until the encouragement Islamic law gives to honor killing is acknowledged and confronted, more women will suffer.
“Yaser Said, Taxi Driver Accused of Killing His Teen Daughters in 2008, Caught in North Texas,” by Frank Heinz, NBCDFW, August 26, 2020:
…Yaser Abdel Said, a Lewisville cab driver wanted in connection with brutal slayings of his two teenage daughters, is in custody in North Texas after 12 years on the run.
According to the FBI, Said, who was considered armed and dangerous and known to carry a weapon while driving his cab, was apprehended Wednesday in Justin without incident by agents from the FBI’s Dallas Field Office.
The FBI said Said is currently in federal custody and will soon be transferred to Dallas County. According to the FBI, a $100,000 reward was being offered for his capture. It’s not clear how agents knew where to find Said or if someone was eligible to claim the reward.
Said had been on the run since 2008 after police said he took his daughters, 18-year-old Amina and 17-year-old Sarah, to get something to eat on New Year’s Day. He put the girls in his taxicab and left their home in Lewisville for Irving where he allegedly shot them both as they sat in his cab.
The girls, who were both students at Lewisville High School, were reportedly shot multiple times….