The murder was brutal and more than a bit cowardly:
The brutal shooting death of a 20-year-old Ottawa woman and the wounding of her fiance early Tuesday morning provided one more shock yesterday: the suspect is the bride-to-be's brother.
Police said yesterday they are on the hunt for 20-year-old Hasibullah Sadiqi of Ottawa in connection with the death of his sister, identified by her fiance's family as Khatera Sadiqi, and the wounding of the fiance, Feroz Mangal, 23.
Just before 1 a.m. Tuesday, at least five shots were fired as Mr. Mangal and Ms. Sadiqi sat in a black Honda in a parking lot at the Elmvale Acres shopping plaza at the corner of St. Laurent Boulevard and Smyth Road.
Ms. Sadiqi, who was at the wheel, died of a single gunshot to the head. Mr. Mangal, beside her in the passenger seat, was hit in his neck, torso, arm and thigh. He remained in the intensive care unit of the Ottawa Hospital's Civic campus yesterday, in critical but stable condition.
Some people are labeling this an honour killing. There are some aspects to support the theory:
Ottawa police Const. Steven Desjourdy said yesterday that a motive for the shooting is not known.
The police suspect the brother but don't know why to focus on him? Dead giveaway that the police are uncomfortable speaking publicly about the cultural aspects of the murder.
I have to say, though, that the means of the killing was odd for an honour killing. They usual involve throat cuttings or strangulation. And they often take place inside, in private, so that the victim can be told how she deserved to die.
The brother has turned himself in:
The main suspect in Ottawa's thirteenth homicide of the year turned himself into police yesterday morning.
Hasibullah Sadiqi, 20, brother of slain Khatera Sadiqi, entered the police station at 474 Elgin St. at approximately 8:50 a.m. and was arrested without incident.
He was charged with first-degree murder, attempt to commit murder, use of a firearm while committing an indictable offence and possession of firearm. He will appear in court today.
Police have got the shooter, but do they have everyone involved?
About 60 people attended a funeral service for Khatera yesterday afternoon. Funeral organizers picked up Sadiqi's body in the morning hours and prepared it for a traditional Muslim funeral at the Jami Omar mosque.
Khatera was buried at the Highland Park cemetery in Carp.
Mangal's family was absent from the funeral because they didn't know about it.
"She was like my sister," Hameed Mangal said, noting his family learned about the funeral later in the afternoon. "I don't know why we were not informed."
"I was quite upset," he said. "Everyone's upset in the family."
Just how deep did the anger go in the rest of the family?
And why did Khatera have to die?
I ask because the Jami Omar mosque is linked to Islamic scholar Mufti Taqi Usmani, a graduate of the Dars e Nizami, one the more conservative Islamic educational systems in Pakistan:
No new books have been introduced into Dars-e-Nizami for the last four hundred years or so. Even though some books in the syllabus such as Hidayah are all-time classics, the stagnant pool of knowledge discourages reinterpretation of tenets and practical application of basic principles. What was once the best system of education in the world has become a source of non-education.
So what are some the fatwas of Mufti Taqi Usmani?
On the topic of celebrating an engagement:
Mangni is a promise by which both the parties agree to enter into a marriage in future. This promise in itself is neither an innovation nor a sinful act.
Nevertheless, no previous celebration or function is necessary for entering into a marriage nor was it a practice in the days of the Holy Prophet to celebrate this occasion. Therefore, if someone celebrates the occasion in the belief that it is a Sunnah or a part of religion then it would become a bid'ah or innovation. Even if it is celebrated without holding it as a part of religion it embodies many evil practices, therefore, celebration of mangni should be avoided.
Did the friends, especially non-Muslim friends, of Khatera Sadiqi and Feroz Mangal have a party to celebrate the engagement?
Maybe because she was out with her fiance? She shouldn't even be allowed to go a mosque, much less be in a car with a man not her husband:
It is not advisable to organize a night-out in Mosque. In fact the Holy Qur'an has ordained for the women to remain in their homes to the maximum possible extent. They are allowed to go out of their homes only for their needs. But it was not deemed advisable for them even in the days of the Holy Prophet to go to the Mosque to offer prayers. After the Holy Prophet has expressly forbidden women from attending the Jamaat in a Masjid. It was a decision fully endorsed by all the companions of the Holy Prophet and by Sayedina Ayesha. When it is not deemed fit to go to a Masjid for a short time to offer prayer, how can it be allowed to spend a full night in the mosque?
Or maybe the brother was making atonement on behalf of the whole family for having left the old country in order to find a better life in Canada:
If a person has enough means of livelihood available to him in his native country for him to be able to live according to the (average) standard of his people, but he emigrates in order to raise his standard of living and live a life of luxury and comfort, then emigration for such a purpose has at least some degree of karahat in it, because such a person is throwing himself into a storm of evil, and endangering his faith and moral character without there being any necessity for it. Experience shows that the people who settle in non-Muslim countries for luxury and comfort find their religious restraint diminishing in the face of many temptations of evil.
Or maybe the fact that Khatera was working, and worse yet, letting men see her body, was the last straw:
While Mr. Mangal took on overnight shifts, which gave him more hours, his fiancee had recently found work at a clothing store in the Carlingwood Shopping Centre.
Ms. Sadiqi had worked for about a week as a cashier at the Melanie Lyne store, said manager Jenette Jeff.
Ms. Jeff, who said she had been trying to reach Ms. Sadiqi after she failed to show up for a shift, described her as "bubbly, personable." The friendly young woman had worked as an informal model for the store last weekend, Ms. Jeff said.
Modeling. I suppose that would part of the storm of evil Mufti Taqi Usmani was warning about.
