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| Kassim Alhimidi wept over the body of his wife, Shaima Alawadi, at a prayer ceremony |
EL CAJON, Calif. (AP) -- Police on Friday announced the arrest of the husband of an
Iraqi-American woman whose beating death last March initially raised
fears of a hate crime.
Kassim al-Himidi was
booked on suspicion of murder in the death of 32-year-old Shaima Alawadi
in her home, El Cajon police Chief Jim Redman told a news conference.
The
killing drew international attention after the victim's daughter told
reporters she found a note by her mother's body that said, "Go back to
your country, you terrorist."
Redman said there are no other suspects.
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Initial news reports promoted CAIR's "Islamophobic hate crime" slant:
Iraqi Immigrants in California Town Fear a Hate Crime in a Woman’s Killing
EL CAJON, Calif. (NY Times) — Shaima Alawadi’s family says they found the first
note taped to the front door of their house on a quiet suburban street
here. It said: “This is my country. Go back to yours, terrorist,”
according to her 15-year-old son, Mohammed.
Ms. Alawadi’s husband, Kassim Alhimidi, says he wanted to call the
police. But his wife said no, insisting the note was only a child’s
prank. Like many others in the neighborhood, the couple were immigrants
from Iraq. In 17 years in the United States, they had been called
terrorists before, he said.
But last Wednesday, Ms. Alawadi was found in the family’s dining room by
her 17-year-daughter, lying unconscious in a puddle of blood with a
severe head wound. Nearby lay another threatening note, similar to the
one the family found a week earlier.
Ms. Alawadi, 32, died three days later. The police caution against
jumping to conclusions, saying they are still trying to determine
whether she was targeted because of her religion or ethnicity, calling
that just one possibility.
“At this point, we are not calling it a hate crime,” said Lt. Mark Coit
of the El Cajon police. “We haven’t made that determination. We are
calling it an isolated incident, because we don’t have any evidence of
anything similar going on at this point.”
Whatever the police eventually determine, the crime has shattered the
sense of security for Iraqi immigrants in El Cajon, exposing cultural
tensions and distrust that have often simmered just below the surface
since the Sept. 11 attacks in 2001.
Hanif Mohebi, director of the San Diego chapter of the Council on
American-Islamic Relations, said that many Muslim women in the area were
worried that Ms. Alawadi had been targeted because she wore a headscarf
in public, as many observant Muslim women do.
“The majority of the community that wears scarves are concerned,” Mr.
Mohebi said. He cautioned against a rush to judgment before the police
had finished investigating. Still, he added, “the community has gone
through some hate crimes before, and the assumption the people have is
that they’re going through one now.”
