Ohio Muslim Executes Daughter in Bed While She Sleeps
If a father shoots his adult daughter in the head three times while asleep in her bed, then claims it was an accident, it sounds too bizarre to believe.
Something like this could not happen here in America. Or could it?
Authorities say that’s exactly what happened in Rocky River, Ohio, on Sept. 27, leaving the community in shock and disbelief.
Last week in court, Jamal Mansour, 64, pleaded not guilty to aggravated murder charges, and his attorney reaffirmed the same reason for the shooting: A mere accident.
This despite new evidence entered into court that Mansour was caught on video loading his revolver at a gas station the day before the shooting.
That adds yet another layer to the case. Not only did Mansour shoot his 27-year-old daughter, Tahani, three times in the head at close range, once from just one foot away, while she lie helpless in her bed at 1:15 a.m., but he should have known his gun was loaded, prosecutors said.
The prosecution is not buying the “accident” theory, saying the video of him loading his gun the day before proves he had a “calculated plan.”
Prosecutor Michael O’Shea has described the killing as an assassination carried out “execution style,” but he refuses to say what could have motivated Mansour, leading some to suggest that it was an honor killing.
But the defendant’s attorney, Angelo Lenardo, took issue with that, saying the mere suggestion was “racist and offensive.”
To decipher a motive, the prosecutors may need to consult an expert on Shariah law, which guides Muslim fathers in family matters.
Mansour is a Muslim who migrated to the United States in the 1978 from Jordan. And, according to experts on Islamic law, his execution-style killing of his adult daughter bears the hallmarks of an Islamic honor killing.
Tahani had recently traveled alone on a business trip to Las Vegas against her father’s wishes. They’d reportedly had an argument about that trip.
“Mr. Mansour might have assimilated to Western culture sufficiently to shave his beard and wear jeans but not to accept his daughter behaving like Western girls,” said Daniel Akbari, a former top Shariah lawyer in Iran and author of “Honor Killing: A Professional’s Guide to Sexual Relations and Ghayra Violence from the Islamic Sources.”
Tahani Mansour was educated and successful. She received a doctor of pharmacy degree from Northeast Ohio Medical University in 2013, worked as a clinical pharmacist for University Hospitals and taught at the University of Findlay and the medical school, according to her LinkedIn account.
Yet she still lived at home under her father’s protection, a totally Islamic thing to do for even a grown adult woman.
Mansour, a successful businessman who owns several gas stations and stores in the Cleveland area, eventually became a U.S. citizen. He’d traveled to Jerusalem recently to participate in a family business venture that involved the construction of an apartment complex.
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