Honor Killings In Dallas?

The story of the murders of Amina and Sarah Said in the greater Dallas-Texas area is still developing. Are the murders of these girls "honor killings"? Early reports seem to indicate so. From the Chesler Chronicles, on January 3, 2007:

Just yesterday, an Egyptian Arab Muslim father in Dallas, Texas allegedly shot his two beautiful teenage daughters to death because he disapproved of their American-style ways. Their names were Amina and Sarah Said and their father’s name was Abdul Said. The girls looked sassy and full of life; they looked like Dallas teenagers. They were 17 and 18 years old and their friends considered them “geniuses.” Abdul was a taxi driver. (In parts of Europe, taxi drivers are known to aid and abet honor murders).

Perhaps how Amina and Sarah dressed, and how they thought, shamed their father Abdul. He was no longer in control of his women—a mark of shame which provoked his need to kill them. Perhaps their flowering sexuality enraged him because it made him desire them—and from this he concluded that other men might desire them too and if he could not have them, no man could.

The blogs and the local Texas media (the Dallas Morning News) were all over this. Hot Air, Atlas Shrugs, Jihad Watch, were too. The only national coverage of this story was contained in the Washington Times. SEE HERE Why did the national and international media so far shy clear of this story? Perhaps they chose to dig deeper first or maybe they were waiting for an arrest to be made. But one also wonders: Were they afraid of being accused of “Islamophobia” if they reported the truth? Did they not want to use the word “Arab” or “Muslim” lest they be attacked as “racists”?

But these beautiful and now murdered sisters feared for their lives. They told people that their father was threatening them. Their own mother has now led police to the father as the probable murderer.

They could have been saved if a school or police official had been trained to pre-emptively recognize and rescue all such girls and women in danger of being killed by their families in honor killings....

More information, from this story in the Dallas Morning News:

Police provided no clues about the motive for the killings. "There are several things we're looking into," said Irving police Officer David Tull, noting that the suspect faces capital murder charges.

Officer Tull said there have been some "domestic issues" with the family, but he did not elaborate.

Police did say they are looking into the possibility that the father was upset with his daughters' dating activities.

"It's something well worth looking into," Officer Tull told WFAA-TV (Channel 8).

Officer Tull said at a news conference that the mother of the victims is cooperating with police and that she and her 19-year-old son are in a safe place. He believes the couple is married, but he didn't know whether they had been living together.

[...]

Mr. Said, who is from Egypt, has lived in the Dallas area since at least the mid-1980s, records indicate.

[...]

The victims' mother provided information that pointed to the victims' father as the suspect," the Irving police report stated.

Friends describe Amina and Sarah as quiet but well-liked students at Lewisville High School. They played tennis and soccer and were enrolled in many Advanced Placement classes.

"They were extremely smart – like geniuses," said Allison Villarreal, a senior at Lewisville High, where Amina was a senior and Sarah was a junior.

Liz Marines, secretary of the Lewisville High School Student Council, had classes with both of the sisters and also remembers their scholastic abilities.

"Amina was very nice with everybody. She helped me in [Advanced Placement English] class," she said. Sarah was a sophomore when she took an Algebra II class with Liz, who was a junior at the time.

She said the sisters, who wore typical American clothes, didn't talk much about their family. "I didn't know they were Muslims until she told me they were Egyptian and Muslim," Liz said.

She said the Student Council is organizing a prayer vigil at 6 tonight at Lewisville High. Students are being asked to wear pink to school today to honor their friends.
"It's because pink was their favorite color," Liz said.

From the comments section over at Jihad Watch, here is what appears to be the MySpace page of Amina Said. I found the page, with lots of pink, in the comments section over at Jihad Watch.

Additional information: Video, from cbstv11.com

As I said at the beginning of this post, the story is still developing. Perhaps the case isn't what it appears. Perhaps there are no similarities to last month's murder of Aqsa Parvez. But, so far, the resemblances are eerie.

Watch the blogs. Set up Google alerts, comprehensive ones. Forget the cowardly mainstream media.