Gelerah Bagherzadeh
A Muslim man from Houston who killed a 30 year-old Christian woman whom he blamed for converting his daughter to Christianity has been charged with capital murder.
CBSNews.com is reporting that a Jordanian immigrant named Ali Irsan, 57, has been charged with capital murder in the case of the shooting death of 30 year-old graduate student Gelareh Bagherzadeh who was shot in the head on January 15, 2012 as she was driving to her parent’s home in Houston.
Investigators say that Bagherzadeh, who was an Iranian activist who was particularly concerned with promoting women’s rights, was best friends with Irsan’s daughter, Nesreen, who left home and married a Christian man named Coty Beavers, who Irsan has also been charged with killing 10 months after he gunned down Bagherzadeh. Coty Beavers was the twin brother of Bagherzadeh’s boyfriend.
“Nesreen Irsan would not succumb to her father’s complete domination and rule of her. And she left his home without his permission and went into hiding,” said Harris County District Attorney Devon Anderson.
“These two murders are linked by the belief on the defendant’s part that his honor as a father and a Muslim has been violated by his daughter, who defied his rule and married a Christian man,” said Anderson.
Irsan’s wife and son are also charged with murder and another daughter, Nadia, has been charged with stalking her sister to determine where the couple was living.
The conviction, which was handed down last week, prompted the reopening of a 1999 shooting of another one of Irsan’s son-in-laws who was killed by Irsan but who claimed it was self-defense. However, Nesreen confessed to police that her father staged the murder by firing a pistol into the wall and placing a gun near Alidam’s body to make it look as if he had fired first.
Thus far, Irsan has not been charged in the case but the investigation is continuing.
Because Irsan and his wife and daughter have been in custody for more than a year due to a massive fraud investigation, prosecutors has ample time to build their case for the murders of Beavers and Bagherzadeh.
“The family is overjoyed about the latest development in their daughter’s case,” said the family of Bagherzadeh in a written statement. “They appreciate the tireless efforts of the DA’s office and HPD in Gelareh’s case. Today, they are happy but still extremely sad. They have suffered in the past 39 months and nothing will bring their precious daughter back. Emotions are raw as they relive the horrific memories.”
It’s hard to believe that this kind of activity could go on in America, but it does.
“The death penalty for apostasy is part of Islamic law according to all the schools of Islamic jurisprudence,” writes Robert Spencer of Jihad Watch. “This is still the position of all the schools of Islamic jurisprudence, both Sunni and Shi’ite. . . . There is only disagreement over whether the law applies only to men, or to women also – some authorities hold that apostate women should not be killed, but only imprisoned in their houses until death.”
He adds: “Clearly some Muslims believe this death penalty extends to those who facilitate the conversion as well as to the convert.”
Thankfully, in this case, justice has been served.
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