The Night Before

 

The Night Before

 

The night before the dream, I had worked my usual monotonous closing shift at Pizza Hut with assistant manager Rob Martner.  He’s easy enough to get along with, but lousy at delegating authority. 

I suffer with it because I need the hours.  About a quarter to two, I finally get finished with my work.

Rob is doing his usual spiel about being way overused on labor, and behind on all the paperwork, among other things.

Then he asks if I could hang around for a while and sort the clutter of sales receipts from that day.  He wants it done off the clock, of course, or the labor requirement really ends up in the toilet, like it isn’t already.

More work on my own time until four or five in the morning.  Yeah, right.  The truth is that he is a disorganized knuckle head when it comes to getting things done on time.  The usual routine every Saturday evening.

My 1987 Toyota Celica GTS starts reluctantly.  The car has been running lousy for quite a while now.  Rob is standing outside the door with a cigarette as I drive out.

I catch the light at Bethal and Lund green, hang a right on Lund, and head toward Jackson Ave.  The next light and Jackson Ave., I find always seem to end up waiting forever for the stupid thing to turn green.  Or does it only seem that way after wrapping up another arduous shift delivering pizzas?

A few minutes later, I’m walking into the door to my apartment.   East Hill apartments is a good place to live.  Inside, I kick off my ugly black $9.99 no name work shoes. 

Mowzer, my cat, looks up at me from his latest napping spot on the couch, then goes back to his cat nap.  He will probably be asking to go out shortly.

The next thing is to take the VCR out of timer mode, hit rewind, grab the pot pipe and load up.  Tonight I’m Smoking bud instead of the usual leaf.  I save the bud for the tougher nights, and this was certainly one of them. 

For tonight, I had decided on recording an episode of Xena, The Warrior Princess.  Add a nice bowl to that and there’s one way to wind down after a typical Saturday night.  Nine hours or so of putting up with no-tippers, idiot drivers, stupid customers, Rob, and everything else that goes with Pizza Hut can make you crazy sometimes.

I hit ‘play’ on the remote and grab a toke off the pipe.  That first hit always scratches my throat like sandpaper, but a quick swallow of water takes care of that.  A couple more tokes, and I’m good and buzz.  In a few minutes the bud has kicked in, and the high drowns out all the horseshit from that day.

Ten or so minutes into Xena, I realize I’m not in the mood for it.  I hit stop on the remote.

A little channel surfing reveals nothing but infomercials, a few test patterns, and a whole lot of reruns. I’m more bored than tired.  Maybe I’ll watch some old movie out of my steadily growing pirate collection.  If not that, some taped episode of Beverly Hills 90210, the Simpsons, or something. 

Finally I decide on watching Independance Day.  Well, not the whole thing.  With remote in hand, I fast foward from mostly one special effect to the next.

By three am, once again I have seen Los Angeles, New York, and Washington DC cleaned off the map, Judd Hirsch worrying about looking like a schlemiel in front of the president, Will Smith leading an alien fighter on a high speed chase through the Grand Canyon.  Sydney, Australia saved in the nick of time, yawda yawda yawda. 

Finally, I’m just plain bored with the boob tube.  The intensity of the bud high this time of night os making me drowzy.  Time to kill the idiot box for the night and drag myself to bed.  The last thing I remember is staring at the vaulted bedroom ceiling as I begin to drift off, still stoned as hell.

Just before I wake up the next morning, I dream another one of those prison dreams.  Those are the dreams, sometimes nightmares that invade my sleep every couple of months. 

The first of those dreams, I felt like I had been pulled out of the insignificant life I know and find myself in jail.  And I never know what my crime is.  It’s the panicky feeling an innocent person must fell when he or she has just been sentenced to twenty years to life.  I figure they must be flashbacks of church school during my childhood, after all, that was truly a prison sentence.

The thing is, this time I don’t worry about it at all.  I know this is another one of those ‘prison dreams’.  This one repeating nightmare has become more like a monotonous wait at a stoplight stuck on red. 

I kick back in my prison cell and go over a to-do list for when I wake up.  Or commit jail break.  In a few minutes I’ll be awake and back to reality.  One of those rare times in the nineteen-nineties where reality is the lesser of two evils.

The next thing I know I’m in a booth made up of aluminum framing and clear plexiglass.  I’m holding a phone to my ear.  I barely had a chance to adjust to how the scene had suddenly changed.  That’s when I realized someone from the outside had called me.  A girl who somehow knew I was doing time in this no name jail.  A female who had a big impact on my life many years back.

At this time it has been nine years since I had last heard her voice, but I recognize her instantly.  In a brief conversation she talks about skiing, about a ski date back in high school that almost happened, but then didn’t, and a few other things that must have been small talk.  She did most of the talking.  Then she offered her phone number and told me to call her when I get out.

Call me when you get out“, is the last thing she said.  What could that mean?

So I’m looking for a pad of paper, a pen, but it’s just me, in this damn booth, and nothing to write on.  As she begins with the first numbers of the prefix, the screw monitoring the call, (like in any real jail) sternly cuts in with her autocratic nasal voice:  “No, you may not take phone numbers, that’s not allowed“!

The screw was someone I knew well.  A fat, lazy waste of space once you get to know her.  No, I’ve never dated her.  I was about to tell fatso where she could stick her cussed rules when my eyes snapped open as if on cue.

To be continued

 

 

 

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Old Dream, New Age

Old Dream, New Age

 

     Port Orchard, Washington, USA.  Sunday, January 26, 1997, about 9:27 in the AM.  I had suddenly awakened.  A light drizzle could be heard outside as I lay awake in my bed with a new and strange feeling.

     A seemingly short and trivial dream had just revived deep feelings from the past that I had long since forgotten.

     It seemed so peculiar to me.  It’s as if these feelings had never faded away, but in reality, they had.  That was years ago.

     It’s a little like a pleasant reminisce from my teenage years in one sense.  But a lot more than that, it feels like the most powerful anticipation I have ever felt. 

     All of it connected with a certain Native American girl who is around my age.  Someone who had captured my heart like no one else did.  Or probably ever would.

     I thought of her as I lay awake, staring at the vaulted bedroom ceiling.  I could vividly remember her appearance and character that had drawn me to her. 

     I thought about when she first caught my eye.  Back then, I was very timid around her.  She seemed like a popular girl to me. 

     I figured an attractive girl like her must be.  That impression warned me to keep a distance.  A few nasty experiences the from adventist church schools taught me just how much damage a girl can do if she wants.

     So I admired her from a distance.  I was afraid of her, but uncontrollably drawn to her.  I feared the worst if I even tried to talked to her.

     None of that seemed quite right to me, but one social phobia has always been with me.

     One very ugly incident at auburn adventist academy (an adventist boarding school) made me keep mostly to myself.  Could that same phobia have cost me opportunities with other girls?  Maybe with that certain Native American girl?

     Of course now, here in ’97, I had forgotten about her for the most part until a certain dream came up.

     I felt a powerful sense of change when I woke up on the morning of January 26, 1997.  That was four days after my twenty-seventh birthday. 

    Here is my life a few hours before my world went haywire.

 

 

To be continued on “The Night Before”

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Preface 1997

Preface 1997

 

     Port Orchard, Washington, USA.  About eleven years ago, I met a girl who may seem average to most people.  To me, she was the most beautiful female I had ever seen. 

     That came from times which began when my older sister and I were attending an adventist church school.  My younger brother and younger sister would soon be starting school in that place.

     The adventist taught me a lot of useless garbage in the twelve years or so that I was involved with them. 

     After the first few years there, most of the friends I knew had left.  It was during those times that I started to picture an image.  An image of a girl.  A very beautiful girl.  An image that was never very clear except for an detail or two.

     One dreary day, I found a random picture that seemed to resemble this ‘mystery girl’.  That picture disappeared into my subconscious, not to be seen again for a time.

     Then a year and a half later changes came around.  Those changes led me to the perfect physical match.  She had captured my heart instantly.

     But insecurities kept me at a distance.  I had a great fear of her luring me into a trap.  The kind where I’m just another rung on her social ladder.

     I had fallen for her in a serious way, but I was afraid of her.  My fear of her made me think she was way out of my league anyway.

     As the years went by, feelings for her gradually faded, or so I thought.

     My life saw many changes.  As time went on, I searched and searched for the right woman.  To this day I have not found her.

     I have been with several women, all of whom turned out to be gold diggers.  My upbringing in the seventh day adventist church and school prevented me from learning a lot of important things.

 

Up Next – Old Dream, New Age

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Angel Vibe

Angel Vibe

 

 

This autobiography is dedicated with love to

Du’a Khalil Aswad, Sarah and Amina Said, Banaz Mahmoud,

and all the victims and would-be victims of honor killings.

May the Lord avenge us all soon.

 

 

Every night……

a fleeting glimpse of candlelight……

chases ‘cross the atmosphere,

but you’re not here

when I see the shape…..

of moonlight on the cityscape……

but now the skyline wears a shroud,

I hear your voice……

in every crowd…..

Listening for your footsteps in every hallway,

watching for your headlights around the bend…..

I can see you standing in every doorway…..

Out in the streets…..

In ev-ery glance…..

I see your reflection and fall in a trance……

Can’t you see…….

What I’ve become……

It’s making me crazy……

I see you in everyone.

                                            – Survivor

 

 

Up next – Preface 1997

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The Distant Thunder, Part One

The Distant Thunder, Part One

 October 23, 2010

 

     How times have changed.  When this story began in February of 1997, I was delivering pizza for a living.  Nothing much else.  What all has happened since then?

     A lot.  Where do I start.  I learned how to drive big rigs.  And have been driving all over the country for eight and a half years.  My favorite place to be was a little fishing village called Gloucester, Massachusetts.  That eighteenth century town is older than the United States.  I love the way it still holds its eighteenth century charm, yet it is completely twenty-first century.  A lot of New England is like that.

     Then there is Texas and the Midwest.  The folks out there are great.  Friendly, talkative, and always ready to lend a hand.  But I grew bored of longhaul.  There’s no life there.  No chance to find my significant other in an occupation like that. 

     Now I have a local job at a place called Pacific Coast Evergreen.  It’s in Port Orchard, Washington. 

     I have been surfing the net for a long time, now.  Found a lot of interesting things on You Tube.  Remember the clumsy baker skits on Sesame Street?  When I was a kid, I got in more trouble imitating the baker.  I would imagine a lot of kids did.  The clumsy baker, played by Alex Stevens, still makes me laugh thirty years later.

     Remember Cookie Monster?  His perfect please and thank you ettiquet, and the worst table manners when ever he ate a cookie?  Word to the wise, never imitate him at the dinner table.

     Some incredible videos of Sydney, Australia.  One of the most beautiful cities in the world.  That’s one city I want to see before I die. 

     And one very disturbing thing – honor killings.

     One of the most horrific atrocities I have ever seen.  There is no honor in honor killings.  Only sorrow and suffering.  I think they are best described as wonton slaughter of Angels. 

     There are three different incidents.  One incident involved to lovely teen-age girls named Sarah and Amina Said (sie – eed) in Dallas – Fort Worth, Texas.  Another involving a Kurdish girl named Banaz Mahmad in London, England.  And the worst I have ever seen involving a Kurdish girl named Du’a Khalil Aswad, in Bashika, Northern Iraq.

 

Sarah and Amina Said

 

 

 

     I’m Sure you have heard about Sarah and Amina Said.  Raised in the United States, murdered by their father for becoming too westernized. 

It went something like this:

     Their father, Yasser Abdel Said, was an Egyptian born Muslim who immigrated to the United States from Egypt in 1983.  Years later, he married Patricia Owens, a native of Texas when she was fifteen years old.  He was a convenience store clerk at the time in Terrant County.  Yasser was strongly into Middle Eastern culture.  He wanted his family to follow his ways. 

 

Yasser Said

      Their three children were born in quick succession.  The son, Islam, and two daughters, Amina and Sarah.

Little Sarah and Amina

      Patricia’s sister, Connie Moggio, said Yasser was quickly becoming a total control freak, and had a violent temper to boot right from the start.  Once he shot out the tires on his wife’s car to keep her home.  

     When Sarah and Amina were eight and Nine years old, they accused their father of sexual abuse.  They told a detective at Hill County Sheriff’s Office that their father had been touching them inappropriately.  Amina claimed she have been penetrated at least once. 

     Later, they recanted on their accusation.  Something about how they wanted to live with their grandmother, and not attend rural Covington Schools.  The charges were later dropped.  What was the real truth there?

     Another time Yasser barricaded the driveway to keep his wife from leaving because he thought she was trying to take the girls and escape.

     As Sarah and Amina grew older, they were much more taken in with the American way of life.  Just like myself and many others in the adventist church.  We all just wanted to have what everyone else was allowed to have.  Just like Sarah and Amina.  Yasser did not like that one bit. 

     Years later, when Amina was attending Euless Trinity High School, she showed up with red welts across her arms and back. 

     Another time Yasser found out she had a boyfriend.  He found notes in her back pack that seemed enough proof as far as he was concerned.  He flew into a rage and kicked her in the face, embedding her braces into her upper and lower lips.  But they didn’t take her to a doctor, as Yasser was afraid he would end up in jail.  The threats and abuse intensified.

     Yasser, more than once, threatened to take Amina back to Egypt and kill her.  He told her straight up, that it’s legal to do that over there if you dishonor your family.

     Eventually, Yasser moved his family from Euless to Lewisville to keep Amina away from her boyfriend permanently.

     Some Muslims believe that it is never appropriate for a Muslim woman to marry outside the faith.

     Friends said the sisters suffered quietly through a life controlled by their father.  A life in which social interaction with anyone else was forbidden.  Yasser installed spy-ware on the computer and plotted with a relative to tap the phone lines.  Sarah and Amina never shared their address with even their closest friends for fear their father would find out.  If he did, he was sure to lose his temper if any of those friends came by the house.  He had already threatened to kill them both many times.

     Sarah’s closest friend, Zohair Zaidi, a devout Muslim, who Sarah turned to in her quest to learn more about Islam.  Even then, Sarah knew her father would disapprove of the relationship, mainly because Mr. Zaidi was male.

       “Sarah always said he would kill me.  I would be dead.” said Zohair.  Sarah kept his phone number under a female name on her phone.

      Justin Finn, a senior at Lewisville High School, said Amina told him her father once walked into bedroom and put a loaded gun, first in Amina’s face, then Sarah’s.  He said that they will follow his rules or he will kill them and bury them in the crawl space under the house.

     Through the years they had managed to keep much of their lives away from their father.  Amina had been awarded a twenty-thousand dollar scholarship for college.  Her and Sarah both dreamed of careers in the medical profession.  More specifically, their dreams were to become doctors.  School was everything to them, it was their way out.  The proverbial light at the end of the tunnel.  A real future they could both look forward to.

     Massoud Nasseri, the owner of the King Cab Company, knew Yasser Said for a number of years.  He describes Mr. Said as a decent man.  Massoud said that Muslim children born here in the United States, or spend of their lives here, are between a rock and a hard place.  They want to do what their parents want, but they also want to follow their friends. 

     “They always battle withing themselves about what they need to do.”  He said.  “I call it the clash of the cultures, and that’s what it comes down to.  The kids were born here, and part of their blood is Muslim, part of their blood is Christian, and they are caught in between.” 

     By December of 2007, both girls were dating, and tempers were boiling.

     “Me, Amina, and my mother are running away,” Sarah told Zohair in a text message.  “My dad found out about Amina’s boyfriend and is going to kill us both.

     Zohair didn’t know where Amina, Sarah, and their mother were going.  Sarah was too afraid to tell him. 

     On Christmas Day, 2007, Mrs. Said, her two daughters, and the boyfriends fled the state.  They stopped at a relative’s house in Kansas, then rented an apartment under an assumed name in Tulsa, Oklahoma.

     Yasser filed a missing person report with the Louisville Police on December 26, 2007.  The next day Patricia Said called the Louisville Police to tell them that she and her daughters were safe. 

     The report read:  Patricia Said stated she was not going to call back again as she was in great fear for her life.  Patricia is very fearful that her husband might harm her of her daughters, which is the reason she left him.  She advised that she and the girls were fine.  And thier going to continue to hide from Yasser

     The next day the officer filed a report recommending the case be closed, regarding an interveiw with one of Mrs. Said’s relatives.

      The interview went something like this:

     Patricia told her that since they are Muslims, the daughters were only to date other Muslims.  Yasser found out that Amina went out on a date with a non-Muslim, and became very angry and threatened her with bodily harm.  This got Patricia very worried because Yasser had become violent in the past and Patricia was worried that Yasser would try to harm her daughter.  It at that time Patricia decided it was best to leave her husband, take Sarah and Amina and go into hiding.

          But on new years eve, Mrs. Said and her daughters returned to Louisville.  Amina told her aunt that her mother lied to her, saying the trip was to put flowers on her grandmother’s grave.  The truth is that Mrs. Said was feeling guilty about leaving her husband. 

         Yasser greeted them warmly when they returned home.  He embraced his two daughters and announced he was going to change his ways.  He said he would make a New Year’s resolution dedicated to them at a special dinner on the night of New Years Day. 

     Amina and Sarah left with their dad on New Years Day, 2008 in his taxicab to go to dinner.

     That same night an Irving 911 dispatcher received the call from Sarah:  “Help me, oh my god, I’m dying, I’m dying.  My dad shot me!!”  Her frantic voice fading as she slowly bled to death. 

     Next, there was the sound of a car door opening, and Sarah crying out “NO NO, STOP IT!!”, Then the line went silent. 

     It was Yasser returning suddenly when he realized Sarah was on the phone to 911.  He took Sarah’s phone and smashed it on the asphalt parking lot.  He then shot her several more times before running off.  Amina was already dead in the back seat from two guns that severed her spine.  Sarah bled to death a few moments later.  She had been shot nine times.  

     Police frantically searched the area for them, but sadly, it was already too late.  Sarah and Amina died in their father’s taxi in the parking lot of the Mandolay Omni Hotel near the entrance to the parking lot.    Yasser, needless to say, was long gone. 

          On January eighth, 2008, at the Rhama Funeral Home, a Baptist Service, conducted by Catholic Priest Robert Crisp, was held for the two girls.  The small chapel was packed.  Mourners filling the lobby and spilling out onto the sidewalk.  Strains of the Christian song “I Can Only Imagine” by Mercy Me, could be heard.

    Sarah and Amina looked luminescent in their pink dressed, a pink flower in each girl’s hair.  One might have thought they were sleeping were it not for matching satin lined caskets that held them.

      “It’s certainly okay to hurt and to question, and to question even God.  Sometimes you can’t help being sad, angry, and confused.” Father Crisp said. 

     He also said that Sarah and Amina had brought hope and should remembered how they lived, not how they died.  He also mentioned that Amina blogged that she did not want to be only a memory.  He called upon the crowd to use the girl’s lives as an example:  “To teach us to love, to hope, and to look for the future.”

     Friends also offered heartfelt recollections of the girls:  Well likes students who excelled at athletics and academics.

     Kathleen Wong, Sarah’s best friend, tearfully told about how she and Sarah planned to go to college together.  “Sarah wanted to be a doctor because she wanted to save lives.  She was more than a friend, she was an amazing sister.”

      Later that day, a short Muslim service was held at the gold domed Mosque in the town of Richardson, with prayers piped over the loud speakers.  The closed caskets were at the far side of the gym, end to end.

     Dozens of Muslim men lined up in front of the girls caskets.  About twenty feet behind them were women in Hajibs.  An Imam then led a Muslim prayer.

     Doctor Yusuf Kavacki, head of the Richardson mosque, alternating between English and Arabic, told mourners that all living things are destined to die.  Another Imam talked about families being the most important thing in Islam and the need for parents to work to keep their families strong.

 

 

 

Banaz Mahmad

         

     In Mitcham, England, a little ways south of London, nineteen year old Banaz Mahmoud fell victim to an honor killing.  Her crime?  Leaving an abusive arranged marriage and falling in love with another man. 

     Banaz was only ten years old when her family moved to Britain.  They used to love in the mountainous rural Mirawald area, close to the Iranian border. 

     Her move to a western country changed nothing about the life she was about to lead.

     As one of five daughters in a strictly Kurdish family, Banaz Mahmoud’s life was ordained whether she liked it or not.  She was forced to marry a member of her clan and was expected to fulfill the role subservient wife and mother.

     Banaz met her husband to be only three times before her wedding.  He was uneducated and old fashioned, but her father described ‘David Breckman’ of husbands.  The teenage bride who was beaten by her husband, in one attack, she said he nearly knocked out her front teeth for calling him by his first name in public.

     To leave the arranged marriage would have brought dishonor the Mahmaud family and Banaz’s father, Mahmaud, preferred that his child suffered abuse and degradation at the hands of her husband than to be shamed by her leaving.  After two agonizing years in an abusive marrage, which involved rape and beatings on a daily basis, she insisted on returning home to seek sanctuary. 

     It was at a family party that she met Rahmat Sulemani.  For the first time in her tragic existance, she fell in love.  She was head over heels with Rahmat, age twenty-eight, calling him “My Prince” and sending him endless love text messages.

     Mahmoud and his brother, Banaz’s Uncle Ari, were furious as she had not formally divorced her husband.  Another thing that had their blood boiling was that Rahmat was niether from their clan, nor religious.  Mostly, he had not been chosen by her family. 

     Mahmoud became engaged when she refused to give up her boyfriend and talked about being in love.  That only added to the shame her father was already dealing with.

     Sometime before, Banaz’s oldest sister, Bekhal, ran away at the age of fifteen to escape her father’s abuse.  That had already lost Mahmoud a lot of status in the community, as he was seen as a father who could not control his woman.  His younger brother, Ari, was a wealthy entrepreneur who ran a money transfer business.  He decided to take over the family.  He told Banaz on December first, 2005, to end the relationship with Rahmat, or face the consequenses.

     The next day Ari called a council of war to plan her murder and dispose of her body.  Banaz was secretly warned by her mother that she and her boyfriend’s lives were in danger.  Banaz reported the death threat to Mitcham Police.  But she was worried about the reaction of her family, so she asked the police to take no action and refused to move to a refuge. 

     Banaz believed her mother would protect her, but she also wisely chose to go back to the police and make a full statement, naming the men who would kill her.

     On New Year’s Eve, she was lured to her grandmother’s house in nearby Whimbolton for a meeting with her uncle and her father to sort out details of her divorce. 

     Upon her arrival, they grabbed her and held her down, then succeeded in forcing her to drink half a fifth of one-hundred proof brandy.  

     Banaz had never drank alcohol before that.  Then she was told to sit on the floor, facing away from her father.  Her father then left the room for a moment.

     A moment later, he returned wearing a pair of surgical gloves.  Banaz, by now, was feeling the drunken effects of the brandy.  She was feeling dizzy and sick.  Not to mention frightened. 

     She tried to get up and leave, but her father savagely grabbed her and threw her down, then said she must be getting tired.  Then he left the room again. 
     That was her one chance to escape, and escape she did.  She ran out the back door, nearly stumbling several times in her drunken state.

     She ran to a neighboring house for help, smashing in two windows with her bare fists in an attempt to get someone’s attention.  Nobody was home.  By now her father had come out the back door, still wearing the surgical gloves and demanding she allow him to catch her and take her back inside to face her punishment.  She did no such thing.

     By now she was having trouble staying on her feet as the effect of the alcohol had her vision doubling.  She was close to passing out.  But in spite of that, her determination to live still held firm as she managed to vault over a five foot wooden fence.

     Her father was not in the best of physical shape to go over the fence as well.  He went around as fast as he could, murder in his eyes.  When he came around to the back alley, Banaz was long gone.

     Barefoot and bleeding from cuts on both her wrists, she made it to a southwestern London Cafe.  She collapsed just inside the door, crying for help, saying her father was trying to kill her.  The police were immediately called.

        Police Constable Angela Cornes and her partner, arrived a few minutes later.  PC Cornes decided that Banaz was putting on an intoxicated drama queen act.  The two officers acted as if she were on drugs.  Customers inside the cafe were baffled by the officer’s attitude. 

     Nurari Merry, a business woman who was holding Banaz in her arms, and doing what she could to comfort her, later said the officers acted as if they didn’t care.  Banaz was trying to get the officers to take her seriously, but they didn’t.

     She was taken by ambulance to Saint George’s Hospital in Tooting. 

     PC Cornes refused to come along in spite of Banaz’s pleas for the officer’s protection.  That was a clear violation of guidelines on PC Cornes’s part.  Upon arrival at the hospital, Banaz was so terrified of leaving the ambulance that a security guard was summoned to protect her.

     “My father and Uncle are trying to kill me,” a sobering Banaz told a nurse in the emergency room, but no one would take her seriously.

     Banaz’s boyfriend, arrived at the hospital shortly after.  He listened Banaz give her account of what happened to her.  He also recorded all of what she said on his cell phone.

     PC Cornes contacted Banaz’s father at the grandmother’s house.  That inept PC insult to the British taxpayers then broke a few more rules by telling him of his daughter’s allegations. 

     PC Cornball was mostly concerned about Banaz breaking the windows next door.  PC Cornball later filed a report accusing Banaz of committing vandalism.  There was no report by PC Cornball about the father’s attempt on Banaz’s life.

     A few days later Banaz was back at home at Mitcham.  She and Rahmat tried to make it look as if they had ended the relationship.  Her father, Mahmoud, and Uncle Ari, had secretly gotten three thugs to spy on Banaz with the promise that they could ’assist’ in carrying out her punishment. 

     Banaz and Rahmat were spotted together Brixton, South London.  Mahmoud and the three thugs tried to forcibly abduct Rahmad.  His friends promptly intervened and thwarted the kidnapping attempt.  Mahmaoud threatened to kill Rahmat after they got finished with Banaz as they sped out of there.  Thankfully, Banaz kept herself hidden in a nearby Boutique when the kidnapping attempt went down.

     Rahmat quickly found where Banaz was hiding and warned her of the impending danger.  She immediately went to the police.  This time she intended to bring charges against her father, uncle Ari, and a few other members of the Kurdish Community. 

     The police woman who was with Banaz this time, urged her to go to a safe house, but Banaz thought she would be safe at home.  She believed her mother could and would protect her.

     On January 24th, 2006, Banaz left on her own at the family home.  She must have told her mother that she would be alright, and didn’t mind being alone for a while.  Her mother left and would be gone for several hours.

     Mahmoud, Uncle Ari, and the three hired Kurdish thugs had been waiting at a hidden location just down the street.  The right moment had come.  Mahmoud had a key to the back door, where they quietly suck in.  They caught Banaz by Surprise.

     She was quickly grabbed, laid on the floor, and stripped to her under garments.  Two of the three thugs held her down while the third raped her.  Her father and uncle ‘supervised’.  

     For two and a half hours the three hoodlums took turns gang raping her.  Then she was strangled to death with a boot lace.  As they were strangling her, they also stomped on her chest, her neck, and her head.  It five agonizing minutes for her to die.

     Three months later her naked body was found crammed into a suitcase and buried under a pile of trash at an abandoned house in Birmingham.  A leaky water pipe nearby gave away the location of her partually decomposed body, the shoe lace still around her neck.

     Authorities caught all but two of the culprits responsible for this horrific act.  Two of the rapists fled to Iraq.  The father, uncle Ari, and one of the rapists were tried at Central Criminal Court of England, located in Central London.  Commonly known as old Bailey, from the street on which it is located.

     Mahmoud Mahmoud, Banaz’s father, was found guilty of murder and sentenced to a minimum of twenty years to life.  Uncle Ari was also found guilty of murder and got Twenty-three years to life.  The other two rapists were apprehended in Iraq with the help of U.S. and Allied forces and extradited back to London to face charges.  All three got life sentances.

     One of the rapists, thirty-year-old Mohamad Hama was secretly recorded talking about the several different brutal and degrading methods of rape he used on Banaz when it was his ‘turn’.  He was laughing as he described every gory in detail that he committed against Banaz.  Like she was some kind of trophy kill. 

     I’d like to see just how cocky he will be when he is answering to Jesus on Judgement day for what he and his thug friends did to ninteen-year-old Banaz.

  

Up Next, The Distant Thunder, Part Two

Du’a Khalil Aswad

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The Distant Thunder Part Two

    The Distant Thunder Part Two

 

Du’a Khalil Aswad

 

     There is one particularly disturbing account relating to a seventeen year old named Du’aKhalil Aswad, a Kurdish girl from the yezidi sect who was beaten and stoned to death in Bashika, in the Nineveh province of Northern Iraq.  This is near Mosul.  Her crime?  Dating a guy who was Sunni Muslim, allegedly fornicating with him, and converting to Islam.

     She was ostracized by some members of her family.  But not her Mother, Father, or two brothers.

     Cross religious relationships are forbidden by ancient yezidi tradition.  A tradition that goes back over five millenia.  The penalty for such a transgression – death by stoning.

The account goes something like this:

    

     It was sometime after dinner on April fifth, 2007 when Du’a said she was taking out the trash, then she disappeared.  The next morning an angry anonymous caller told her parents that she was seen with a Sunni Muslim boy.  The caller then threatened to kill her himself to ‘wash away her shame’.

     Du’a's father, Khalil Aswad, a forty-nine year old civil defense official, and his brother Nebrass, went to the police.  Her father hoped to get Du’a into the safety of police custody, knowing she was in danger.  It was several hours later that Du’a and her Sunni Muslim boyfriend were seen together again, this time in an olive grove.  That’s when the police caught up with the two.  Her boyfriend was put in jail, and Du’a was taken to the home of Sheika Sulaiman, a senior yezidi figure in Bashika.  By now everyone knew about Du’a being seen with the Sunni Muslim boy.  Many of her relatives were fiercely divided on whether she should live or die.

     Du’a's sixty-five-year-old uncle Salim, a science teacher, backed the head of their tribe, seventy-three-year-old Omar Hamco, who demanded she be killed to ‘cleanse the family honor’.    

     Du’a's father, Khalil, would not accept it.  This was his daughter, for heaven’s sake!  He proposed she be married to a cousin and relocated with said cousin to Syria.  He knew he risked being ostracised by going against yezidi customs.

     “She committed a wrong for which she will be punished, but not death“!  Khalil Aswad declared.  “I refuse to have my own daughter killed!”

     When uncle Salim insisted that is was he who would decide Du’a's fate, as he was the oldest sibling and head of the local community, Khalil threw him out of the house.

     Meanwhile, Du’a's mother, Badii’aa Aswad, had gone to the home of Sheika Sulaiman to see Du’a for what would prove to be a heartfelt last meeting.

     “I promise you that I am still a virgin“, Du’a tearfully told her mother.  “And I did nothing wrong, momma”.

     Badii’aa believed her.  After all, Du’a had never been a troublemaker.  She had always been a good daughter.  She excelled in school.  She was always kind hearted with everyone.  She had a kind and gentle nature and so much love to give.

     By now Du’a was trembling as she began to cry softly.  “I am hungry, momma,  I am so scared.  I-I don’t know what to do“, she sobbed as her mother held her in her arms.

     “Please, daughter of mine, come home, let me cook, let me feed you”  Her mother sobbed.

    I just want to live my life.  Why is that so wrong?!  W-Why does it have to be like this?!”  Du’a wailed as her mother tried her best to comfort her as best she could.

     Du’a managed to get herself under some control as she continued:  It’s my life and my future, I only want to follow my heart.  I just want to live in peace with the man I know I truly love, and I know he loves me!

     Du’a's last words trailed off into a torrent of heartbreaking sobs.  Tears streamed down her youthful cheeks.

     Her mother wept softly as well as she held her distraught child tightly in her arms.  She knew the tribal customs, but this time she believed they were wrong, centuries out of date.  She also knew with silent anger that she could do nothing about it.

     “Oh my baby, my little angel Du’a“, Badii’aa wept as she held her daughter.  “It’s going to be all right, one way or another.  Mamma loves you!”

     “I -I L…L..love you too, mm-mama,”  Du’a tried to say between sobs.

     It was then that Du’a's mother decided the only thing left to do was to smuggle her daughter out of Bashika to where she would be safe.  And allowed to live her life as she chose.  Badii’aa knew full well that is would be a matter of time before the village elders found out what she had done.  And then she would be facing certain death.

     Badii’aa made the choice that she would die in Du’a's place so Du’a could live the way she deserved to live.  There could be no other way.  Badii’aa said none of this to her daughter as both of them held each other and cried until there were no tears left.

     After a while she told Du’a to remain at the home of Sheikh Sulaiman while she worked out a plan.  Then she held her little girl one last time, kissing her on the cheek before she got up to leave.

     On mid morning of April 7, 2007, Hamco, the tribal leader, received word through one of his many informants of the plot to smuggle Du’a out of Bashika.  He telephoned Du’a's uncle Salim and told him of the plot.  Uncle Salim immediately got word to the others of the impending plot, telling them to carry out Du’a's punishment at once.

     Minutes later, at the house of Sheikh Sulaiman, There was a loud commotion coming from down the street, and it was getting closer.  Angry shouts and gunshots filled the air as they approached and surrounded the house.  Du’a realised too late that she was in an ambush situation.

     Her uncle Salim and several of his sons and nephews began to hurl rocks which clacked loudly off the stone and stucco siding of the house.  Windows shattered as more and more rocks were hurled at the house.  The front door was kicked in with a sickening splintering of wood as they stormed their way in.

     Du’a made an attempt to run for it, but she was trapped.  She managed to hide, but it only delayed the inevitable.  One of her cousins spotted her hiding under a desk.  Another cousin grabbed the desk and threw it aside.  Du’a cried out in terror.

     The cousin who first spotted Du’a grabbed her in a headlock and savagely dragged her across the room, down the hall, and out the shattered front door and into the street.

 

     A group of cowardly yezidi demon men (2,000 or more) plenty of rocks, and a few cinder blocks awaited her.  Members of her own family (Her two cousins and their father, Du’a's Uncle salam) had sold her out.

     The yezidi demon mob attacked.

     Du’a was thrown to the ground, then repeatedly kicked, punched, stomped, and pummeled with rocks.  They taunted her and egged each other on as they tortured her.  Shouts of “KILL HER!!!  KILL HER”!!! echoed through the demon mob.  Her long, black skirt was torn off her in humiliation as stone after stone struck her face and head as she cried out for mercy.

     The police were right there the whole time, yet they did not intervene.  They just stood by and let it happen, believing it was a ’tribal matter’.  Tax dinars at work.

      Du’a's pleas and agonized cries for help that would never come only emboldened those yezidi demons.

       Several times she tried to get up, but was savagely kicked to the ground each time.  Two yezidi demon men grabbed her feet and spread her legs apart.  A third kicked her square between the legs with all the force he could muster.  Du’a shrieked in pain and terror as a lightning bold of white hot agony rocketed up her spine and down her legs.

 

      Then a large stone struck the left side of her face, shattering several teeth and gashing the inside of her cheek in dozens of places.  She cried out in terror and agony as she spat up blood and shattered fragments of her teeth.

     Another yezidi demon jumped up and came down with both feet on her right knee, painfully fracturing her knee cap in several places. 

     A carefully aimed cinder block struck her in the face, breaking her nose and fracturing her upper and lower jaw and shattering her front teeth.  Her beautiful face slashed in dozens of places.  Blood ran in rivers down her neck.

     She spat up more blood and shattered teeth fragments as she continued to wail in pain and terror.  The volley of rocks continued. 

     Du’a's father tried to get to her, but the yezidi demon men held him back, and if that weren’t bad enough, they forced him to watch!  The yezidi demons were relentless as they continued to torture Du’a.

     Another hard stomp broke her right fore arm.  Another yezidi demon grabbed her broken arm and gave a hard twist.  Muscles and tendons were ripped to shreds as Du’a shrieked in agony.  Ragged edges of bone protruded through her skin.

     Another yezidi demon grabbed her left arm and twisted.  In a sickening sound of breaking cartilage, splintering bone, and tearing of muscle and tendon, her elbow was twisted violently out of joint.

     A large chunk of concrete aimed at her head fractured her skull.

     One of the cinder blocks was used to repeatedly strike her already broken right knee, shattering her kneecap and laying her knee wide open.

     This barbaric assault went on for thirty minutes.  Those cowardly yezidi demon men made damn sure she suffered, and it is clear they enjoyed every evil second of it.  Several others were recording this horrific scene with their cell phone cameras like it were a sporting event.

     Then end finally came when her uncle Salim told everyone to stop, which they obediantly did.  He patiently waited for Du’a to painfully lift herself to a sitting position, bleeding and crying in agony unimaginable.

     He then raised the cinder block as high as his arm would allow.  Then he brought it down with all the force he could muster.

     Du’a's final cry was instantly silenced as that final and fatal strike shattered the right side of her skull in a sickening sound of splintering bone and ripping flesh.  Her blood spattered in all directions as she went down for the last time.

     Her body convulsed in sickening death spasms, her head laid open.  Crimson fragments of her skull littered the pavement.  Her blood beginning to coagulate on the hot asphalt street.

     At the tender age of seventeen, the beautiful raven haired Du’a Khalil Aswad, a young spirit so full of life, love, and inspiration, so much to give, her life barely begun, now lay face down in a pool of her own blood.  Lifeless.

    

     A sudden and loud cheer went up as those barbaric yezidi demon men danced their ‘victory’ dance around her now lifeless body.  They spat on her and kicked her as they ‘celebrated’.  A few of the yezidi demon men casually brushed her skull fragments off their clothes like they were reeds of grass.

     To them, this was nothing but a fun night a ballgame, and the home team had won a decisive victory. 

     After they had had enough of their cowards victory celebration, her body was tied to a pickup truck and dragged to the outskirts of town to the garbage dump.  She was thrown into a shallow pit with the decayed remains of a dog as a final defamation.  Symbolically, to show, that she was more worthless than shit.  Family honor had been restored according to yezidi custom.

     It was later when Du’a's parents found her half buried body in a pit next to a garbage pile where she had been thrown half an hour ago.  As they painstakingly extricated her shattered body, authorities of the Kurdistan government showed up.  They intended to take Du’a's body to the hospital in Mosul for an autopsy to prove she was, like she had maintained, a virgin.

     Du’a's parents reluctantly allowed this, hoping this would vindicate their daughter of fornicating with her Sunni Muslim Boyfriend.

     That night, copies of the awful videos of the atrocity were being exchanged among others in the yezidi sect from cell phone to cell phone.  One of the yezidi demon men compiled the videos together and sent it to members of the Sunni Muslims with a message:  Prostitute Du’a was ours to punish as we saw fit!”

     Several Sunni Muslims, along with Du’a boyfriend, Muhannad Ummayed, watched in helpless horror as Du’a was slowly, painfully and brutally murdered.  Muhannad barely made it out the door to throw up.  He then ran away, not to be seen for several days. 

     An anonymous local later said that Muhannad took his own revenge.  Mulhannad snuck into Bashika that night with a rifle and plenty of ammo.  He hid behind a low wall, saw one yezidi man heading up the street in his direction.  Mulhannad took aim and fired.

     The yezidi took it in the chest, the force of the bullet snapping his upper body violently back, then momentarily airborne as his feet came off the ground.  His body did a near backward somersault before his upper body struck the ground.  His legs and feet slammed loudly down on the dusty street.  He lay motionless and was dead a second later.

     Then Mulhannad snuck a few streets down till he found another low wall to hide behind.  Through a window, about twenty yard away, he could see two men, posibly father and son, seated at a table.  He drew a bead on the younger man’s head and pulled the trigger.

     The top of the younger man’s head exploded in a red and grey mist of blood, brain matter, and skull fragments.

     The shrieks of several women immediately followed.

     The father’s first reaction was to leap up, where he and Mulhannad made momentary eye contact half a second before the next bullet violently impacted his throat, and exited through the back of his neck in a crimson fantail of blood, bone, and tissue which splattered throughout the room.  The sound of female shrieks went on and on.

     The police were summoned, and began a frantic search for what they thought were multiple snipers.  Further down, more and more gunshots rang out one at a time in quick succession.  Three more yezidi men now lay dead.

     As he reloaded and searched for another yezidi demon male target, images of his beloved Du’a echoed through his mind in sound and visual:  Her smile.  Her soft raven black hair.  Her sweet laughter, Her warmth.

       Her playful and kittenish antics.  Her heartbeat.

         The vibrancy of her soul, powerful as the sun.  He could still feel the magic of her touch, her sweet caress.  Her eyes that could shine to eternity.

 

     He could still feel the magical sensation of her loving embrace.  Of her smooth, soft kiss.  The life giving warmth of her angelic soul.

     The one image now super imposed over all else:  His beloved Du’a face down in a pool of her own blood and gore.  Lifeless.

 

 

                                         

     The yezidi demon men who did this to her – dancing, shouting, almost as if mocking him:  Yeah, we killed her, and what are you gonna do about it??!!”

     Muhannad knew his way around, as the bungling police searched in vain for him, powerless to stop his feral rampage, revenge in his eyes.

     He snuck around from place to place in and around Bashika, picking off one yezidi male after another.  For every yezidi male he shot dead, was, to him, just one more of the thugs that had taken part in the slaughter of his beloved angel.  He made sure not to hit any women or children.

     His rampage finally ended when he ran out of ammo.  More than one hundred yezidi males lay dead in his wake.  Some had been asleep in their beds.  He snuck quietly away as the sounds of women wailing and children crying rang throughout the town.  Law enforcement officials might as well have been chasing their own tails as he slipped past them unseen.  A wraith vanishing into the night.  Then Bashika began to fall away from him.

     He jogged for a while, rifle still in hand, the barrel still hot to the touch.  His jog became faster and faster until he was running.  He ran until civilization was long behind him.  He ran until he could run no more.  He ran and ran in hopes that he could outrun the tragedy his mind was only now beginning to comprehend.

     How much later was it when he found himself in a small canyon.  A canyon twenty or so feet wide.  The jagged walls of sheer granite thirty feet high on each side.  Boulders and rocks strewn about.  The half moon toward the southwest casting a grey kaleidoscope of light and shadow.

     He wailed a loud, primordial howl that echoed off the barren rock as thousands of images of Du’a flashed relentlessly through his mind:  The humiliation as her skirt was violently torn off her.  The terror in her eyes.  Her cries for help that would never come.  Her agonized shrieks as her bones were shattered.  

     To him, the world was awash in her blood.  Her violated body appeared and reappeared in one horrific ghostlike image after another.

          He swore to himself that he would kill more yezidi men if given half the chance.  But in the end, all he could do was wander aimlessly in the desert as night and day seemed to run together.  Time had no meaning.  Life had no purpose.  He was like one lone survivor of a nuclear holocaust as he wandered sightless through the smoldering aftermath of what had only hours before, been his future.

     You’ve got to feel for the poor guy.  He just lived every guy’s worst nightmare of watching his girlfriend, whom he loved very much, tortured to death in the most gruesome manner, and not a damn thing he could do to stop it.

     Back in Mosul, an autopsy performed on Du’a's shattered body proved she was still a virgin.  Du’a's mother, father, and two brothers reclaimed her body to be taken to the cemetary for a proper burial.  They held their own impromptu funeral for Du’a as she was finally and decently laid to rest.  Sadly, Mulhannad could not be there.

     Badii’aa, Du’a's mother, still in a state of shock, remained at her daughter’s graveside all day.  As the sun went down and the sand stone tombs cast long shadows over the village cemetary, Badii’aa Aswad knelt on the dirt grave of her seventeen year old daughter, and wailed in anguish as the cruel reality finally began to set in.

     “Come to mama, my precious Du’a”  She cried as she caressed the plain concrete headstone.  “The last thing you told me was that you were hungry,” Badii’aa sobbed.  “I said you could come home, let me cook, let me feed you,” She tried to say as she dissolved into uncontrollable sobs. 

           

     A long time friend heard the heartbreaking wails of Du’a's mother and offered water in hopes of soothing her.  But Badii’aa screamed that she could not drink a drop.

     “Du’a is thirsty.” She shrieked, directing her friend to pour the contents of her water bottle over the dusty grave instead.  “Yes, drink, my angel, my precious, honorable girl, light of my eyes.”

     All Badii’aa could do now was wail endlessly that of o mother who was living a mother’s worst nightmare.  A nightmare from which she could not awake.

     “May they all burn in hell,” she finally said, her sobs beginning to taper off as she laid her hands at the foot of the grave as if washing her daughter’s feet. 

     “You were a good girl, you were the epitome of honor, and I miss you more than any words could describe.”

     She broke down and wept for a few more moments, then pleaded in a whisper:  “Please, my angel, come to me in my dreams just once, I beg you, my beloved Du’a, oh daughter, my gentle child.”

     Grief overtook Badii’aa again as she began to wail endlessly while her friend held her in her arms.  Badii’aa Aswad was living the cruel and seemingly endless nightmare so many mothers have had to live.  The brutal murder of her own daughter in the name of ‘family honor’.

     In the Sunni Muslim sect, and elsewhere in Iraq, the horrific video footage was being circulated through emails and from cell phone to cell phone.  It was only a matter of time before it would find its way onto the Internet.  The Sunnis knew by now about the autopsy report that vindicated Du’a of any wrong doing.  Her own people murdering her like that was so damn senseless.  The Sunnis were ready to accept Du’a into their community. 

     If only she could have been smuggled to safety in time.  She would have had a good life with the man who truly loved her.  Those devil worshiping yezidi demon men would pay for what they did to her.  The Sunnis angrily vowed retribution.  And retribution they had.

     Two weeks after Du’a's murder, a group of heavily armed Sunnis caught up with a bus load of workers headed home from Mosul to Bashika.  The Sunni gunmen surrounded the bus and forced it to stop.  They displaced the driver by force and drove the bus a few hundred feet, then they turned down a narrow alley while several other Sunnis checked ID’s.  Their armed escort of several cars and pickup trucks followed closely.  A few minutes later the bus stopped.  Anyone who was not a yezidi was told to get off the bus. 

     The Muslim and Christian workers knew all about what had happened to Du’a at the hands of her own people.  They quickly exited the bus, which then sped off.  Everyone, by now, had heard the repeated demands by the Sunni elders, who demanded that the yezidi  hand over to them the nine thugs responsible for the murder their martyred sister, or face the wrath of Allah.  

     The yezidi had been given one week from the day of Du’a's murder to comply.  At this moment it was now a week past that deadline.  The yezidi would not give in.  They stuck to the notion that Du’a was theirs to punish as they saw fit for dishonoring the yezidi religion.         

     After the Christians and Muslims had disembarked, the Sunni gunmen drove the bus and twenty three captive yezidis to a secluded place near eastern Mosul.  The other armed Sunnis in the several vehicles parked on both sides on a vacant dirt lot bordered on one side by a  crumbling ten foot high concrete wall.

     They marched the captive yezidi workmen off the bus at gunpoint, then lined them up against the wall.  They ordered the terrified captive workers not to move as they stood lined up side by side against the wall.  Dozens of angry and heavily armed Sunni glared at them.  Several of the Sunnis spat at the yezidi workers as they held their weapons on them.  A video camera was brought out from one of the Sunni’s cars.  

     Then, with the camera rolling, the Sunnis shot each yezidi worker several times, individually picking off one yezidi worker after another. 

     After each of the twenty three yezidi workers lay dead, the Sunnis reloaded, put their weapons on auto-fire, and proceeded to empty their magazines into the twenty three bodies as they lay on the ground, the camera catching it all in its gruesome horror.  Blood and gore spattered everywhere as the guns thundered their song of death and revenge, painting the lower quarter of the old concrete wall a bloody mural of death.

     After that was over, one of the Sunnis, his face hidden behind a mask, stood before the camera, and made the demand, soon to be seen by the yezidi elders, one last time:  “You will hand over the nine devils responsible for the murder of Du’a Khalil Aswad, our beloved sister and friend, or you will face the wrath of Allah!!!  This is your last warning!!!”   

     Then they panned the camera slowly back and forth, giving would be viewers a shot of hell.  

     The Sunnis took several still pictures of the carnage before speeding away in their cars and trucks.  They left the bus where they had parked it, and twenty three ripped apart yezidi bodies, which, by now, were beginning to attract flies.  The media would call this the Mosul Massacre.

     The yezidi elders lost no time demanding more protection from the Kurdistan government in light of what had just happened.  They also demanded the murderers of the twenty three workers be brought to justice. 

     Are the yezidi really dumb enough not to realize by now that what they did to Du’a pissed a lot of people off, and not just the Sunnis?  Makes you wonder.  Because they continued to ignore the demands of the Sunnies.  And the Sunnis weren’t the only ones with a axe to grind for what the yezidi did to a defenseless beautiful young lady.  

     World wide, people were horrified when they saw the grusome video of Du’a's gristly murder.   Because by now, it was on the internet for the whole world to see.  Several news outlets, like CNN, played portions of the slaughter to mortified viewers.  Bashika became the most hated town on earth.  Once it was an oasis of peace, now it was withering under the harsh glare of the entire civilized world.

     How can what the yezidi did to Du’a be justified?  What had she done that was so wrong?  What could justify what was shaping up to be a whole new war in the Kurdistan region?  How can anyone be that cruel and that stupid?  Family honor, aw hell, let’s be real.  It wasn’t ‘honor’, it was the over inflated egos of the yezidi demon men trying to justify what happened to Du’a.  Did they really think the civilized world would agree with them? 

         One thing for sure is that the atrocity against Du’a painted the ugliest picture of the yezidi culture, and what horrific acts they are clearly capable of.  Not to mention the purpetrators of Du’a's honor killing clearly enjoyed every damn second of it, as could be seen in the video.

     World wide outrage resulted immediately after that ghastly video got onto the internet and the evening news worldwide.  Life has always been tough for the yezidi people.  Now look what a hand full of cowards brought down on their own people.  You would think elders like uncle Salim have been around long enough to know what would happen if the whole world were to see the atrocity he masterminded, then carried out.     

     Word has it that there have been two hundred and fifty more honor killings in the Kurdistan region since then, but I guess this time they had the brains not to broadcast it to the world this time.  

     Was the simple idea of Du’a falling in love with a guy from a different sect really an affront to the yezidi god?  A god resembling a peacock and is said to symolize a fallen angel?  I really don’t care.  Not when it’s used to justify what those yezidi demon men did to Du’a.  Makes one want to use their day-glo-turkey-god for target practice.  Or better yet, video tape someone taking a whiz on the yezidi day-glo-turkey-god, and put that on the damn net! 

     On another note, authorities in the Iraqi and Kurdish governments have paid off the Aswads forty million Iraqi dinars to keep quiet about the whole thing.  More to the point, act like you agree with happened to your daughter, or you will be next!

    Also, the authorities with the help of the US Army, have rounded up four of the nine thugs directly responsible for Du’a's murder.  They are:  Reyaz Kamal Omar, Zeyad Mahmmud Khdr, Aras Farid Salim, and Wahid Farid Salim.  They have all been sentenced to death by hanging. 

     Seems it would have been so much easier if the cops who were there when it all went down put a stop to it then.  And saved Du’a's life.  And saved the yezidi culture from broiling under the harsh searing glare of the whole of humanity.  Or does that make too much sense?  

     The five others directly responsible ran away with their tails between their legs.  That includes Du’a's uncle salim, who dealt the final death blow with a cinder block.  I guess they’ll spend the rest of their useless lives hiding in a cave like osama bin laden.  Maybe they’ll have a few goats to keep them company until it’s their turn to face God for, ehh, what was that commandment they broke?

     Something………………..no make others dead………no wait,………….death, bad to

cause………………uhhmm…………….hep me out here……maybe…………..aww yessss:

 

THOU

         

        SHALT         

 

        NOT         

 

       FUCKING         

 

KILL!!!!!!! 

    

     I would imagine that “Judge not and you will not be judged” could also apply here.  Of course it does. 

     Remember what Jesus said “Let he who is without sin cast the first stone,”  when a similar mob was about to stone to death an adulteress.  Jesus was the only one who could have lobbed the first rock at the adulteress, but he didn’t.  All of her accusers gradually slinked away.  Jesus said to her Woman, where are thine accusers, hath no man condemned thee?“  

     No lord” She replied. 

     ”Then neither do I condemn you.  Go, and sin no more“.  Jesus replied.

     By modern standards, Jesus single handedly stopped an honor killing.  That’s because Jesus is more into forgiveness.  That’s the whole reason he came down here and died for us all in the first place. 

     The yezidi could learn a thing or two from Jesus.  Like forgiveness instead of cruelty and  lies.  And maybe to care about the women who endure the pain of child birth and raise their children.  The mothers, wives, and daughters love them and take care of them.  The women who are the future of any culture.  

     How could the yezidi not see the true picture:  The love of a good woman is the life blood of the human race.  Young Du’a Khalil Aswad to a tee.  And the millions of vibrant and loving women everywhere on earth.   

     I would imagine that if he could have, Du’a's boyfriend Muhannad might have come up with a beautiful eulogy for his beloved.  As a dedication to those two, I came up with one.  It is my intention here to honor the love they shared, if only for a fleeting moment in time.  A tribute to young love.  A tribute to every young couple out there.  A tribute to every woman like Du’a.

     May God reunite Muhannad and Du’a in heaven soon.  And may Du’a's wedding day in heaven be more magnificent than in her wildest dreams as she and Muhannad are united forever in the presence of God, family, and thousands upon thousands of friends the world over.  True love will always prevail.

 

BELOVED DU’A

 This is for my beloved Du’a

Here but not here

Gone, but not gone

For that tiny fragment of time we shared

The time we sailed on together as one

The indescribable joy you always made real

The power of your love, so pure, so vast

A life-giving nectar in so many ways

 

The love that is you, your ocean of life

So powerful and true, so vast and pure

Hard to describe, how to define?

The soul of an Angel

Your soul, your spirit

So perfect, so Angelic

A well spring of wonder, of energy, of life

Now a new star in the heavens above

Now an Angel in God’s great kingdom

Here is a fact, set firmly in stone:

What you’ve become – This is you:

Sweet Angel Du’a, God’s finest creation

The epitome of everything good and pure

A real gift from God

An Angel of love

Here is one more very true definition of you

The life blood of the human race

Your perfect love

You, sweet Angel Du’a

 The well source of life, this truly is you

Beloved Angel Du’a

God’s finest creation

A tribute to life, love, and hope

A blessing for all of the human race

God’s pride and joy

Child of God

Forever in my soul

Forever with God

Forever young

Forever on, life goes

Thanks to you, Angel Du’a

Someday soon, God will return

Then forever reunited

:,-)     You and me     :,-)

My beloved Angel Du’a and I

 

From Muhanned to Du’a

 

May God reunite them soon

 

 

To be continued on “The Distant Thunder, Part Three”

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The Distant Thunder, Part Three

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Distant Thunder, Part Four

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