"...Mother to two. "Amma" to two of [Mo] Hassan's children. She was an architect in her native country. In America, she was a force behind the country's first English-language Muslim American television network.
Her life has been overshadowed by the sensational trial that followed her death, but her efforts to erase misconceptions about Muslim Americans are still needed today.
"She really wanted to promote a world where people of all different faiths and cultures could just work together and understand one another and not stereotype each other and not hate each other," Hassan Shibly, a former Bridges producer, told reporters after the second day of the trial.
Mo Hassan hijacked that dream when he brutally stabbed Aasiya Hassan in the Orchard Park offices of Bridges TV. He did more to tarnish the image of Muslim Americans than the media stereotypes he said he wanted to counter when he and Aasiya started Bridges TV.
In the days after her murder, there was speculation that the crime was some sort of "honor killing." But the details of the years leading up to her death and the final days of her life portrayed by prosecutors couldn't have been clearer. This was classic domestic violence.
Mo Hassan was just one man. It was just one cruel murder. His bizarre and tragic actions represent nothing but himself -- not a culture or a religion.
One of the "tragedies" of Aasiya Hassan's death, Shibly said, was that people tried to use what happened to her "to counter what Aasiya dedicated her life to."
"I don't want to see her life go in vain," Shibly said.
The sad thing is that the misconceptions of Muslim Americans continue to pervade American culture.
From unwarranted concerns that Sharia law will take over the United States to the uproar over a planned Islamic community center near ground zero, anti-Muslim sentiment continues to overshadow real discussion of many issues.
Aasiya Hassan wanted to change the discussion. She lived a nightmare but wanted to make the world a better place for others. Let's remember her life for that." [READ FULL COLUMN]
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