Faith Central: the Muslim charged with beheading his wife

The founder of a television station which aims to counteract negative stereotypes of Muslims in America has been charged with beheading his wife.

Muzzamil Hassan, 44, walked into a police station last Thursday evening and told detectives that 37-year-old Aasiya Zubair Hassan's body was lying at the Bridges TV station where they both worked.

"He came into the police station at 6.20pm and told us that she was dead," said Andrew Benz, the police chief in Orchard Park, a suburb of Buffalo in New York state.

Officers went to the headquarters of Bridges TV and found Mrs Hassan lying decapitated in a hallway, having apparently died that afternoon. Police are still hunting for a murder weapon, according to reports in The Buffalo News.

Mrs Hassan's lawyer said that she had recently filed for divorce from her husband after eight years of marriage, citing previous incidents of domestic violence.

Police confirmed that an order of protection was in force, barring Mr Hassan from the family home as of Friday February 6.

Mr Hassan appeared before Village Justice Deborah Chimes charged with second degree murder, and was remanded to the Erie County holding centre.

A family court hearing was today due to address the future of the couple's two children, aged four and six. Their grandparents have travelled from Texas and Pakistan to attend the hearing, according to John Tregilio, a lawyer for the children.

Mr Hassan also has two other children, aged 17 and 18, from a previous marriage, according to reports.

Mr Hassan was the chief executive officer of the satellite-distributed news and opinion channel that he and his wife set up in 2004 to portray Muslims in a more positive light.

Naeem Randhawa, a documentary filmmaker in Dallas who worked with the couple, described Mr Hassan as aggressive in a business sense, with fundraising efforts in the Muslim community that were necessary to keep the station going during a period of financial trouble.

On a personal level, “he was not extremely talkative — he would sit back and listen,” Randhawa said. “He came across not as a passionate guy, [but] more reserved.”

In a statement on its website, Bridges TV said it was "deeply shocked and saddened by the murder of Aasiya (Zubair) Hassan and subsequent arrest of Muzzammil Hassan".

"Obviously this is the worst form of domestic violence possible," said Frank A Sedita III, the Erie County district attorney.

Muzzammil Hassan graduated magna cum laude with an MBA from the Simon School of Business at the University of Rochester in 1996. In a 2005 interview with The Buffalo News, he said that the idea for the TV station was sparked two years earlier when the couple heard derogatory remarks about American Muslims on a radio talk show.

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