Husband Arrested In Bogus "Anti-Muslim Hate Crime" Murder of Wife

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.”