SHEIKH Naseem, a 41-year-old high school math teacher living in Staten Island, New York, was unlike your average Muslim. He had a taste for barbecued pork ribs, alcohol, women in sexy dresses – and books by one of the most reviled figures in the Muslim world, Salman Rushdie.
And it damn near cost him his life. According to this report, last week, as he lay sleeping, his devout Muslim wife – Rabia Sarwar, 37 – climbed onto his chest in the early hours of October 28 and repeatedly slashed at his neck with knife, screaming:
It’s time for you to die!
Naseem, known as Eddie, said he woke up with the knife to his neck, and he wrestled with his wife – whom he wed five months ago in an arranged marriage — for the weapon.
Sheikh Naseem is a fan of Salman Rushdie
He begged her to consider his two children from a previous marriage.
She just screamed, ‘They are going to be orphans now!’ She kept on coming after me with the knife and I grabbed it and broke it into two pieces and ran out of the room.
He then realised that Sarwar had hidden all the phones, so he ran into the hall and pounded on a neighbor’s door for help. Police were called, and Sarwar arrested.
Naseem escaped with surface wounds to his neck, face and hands and was later released from a local hospital.
Sarwar now faces a charges of attempted murder, second-degree assault and criminal possession of a weapon, and is on bail of $25,000. She has pleaded not guilty, claiming that her husband forced her to drink alcohol, eat pork and dress provocatively. In a statement she wrote:
He made me do so many things that are against Islam. I did all that just to make him happy but inside me there was a war. I did my best to cut his throat. But the next moment he jumped on me and grabbed me.
Naseem – who was born in Pakistan, but is half Norwegian and is a Unitarian – said he moved to the US more than 20 years ago and quickly adapted to American culture, taking to drinking casually and developing a taste for barbecued ribs.
He even twice married outside his culture.
But since both earlier marriages failed, he decided to try marrying a Muslim, and wed Sarwar five months ago through nuptials arranged by relatives in New Jersey. Although Sarwar has lived in the US for more than a decade, Naseem said “she had never been exposed to American culture.”
At first everything seemed fine, he said.
She was getting adjusted. She was trying to live the way I live, but by the same token she tells her parents ‘I went out drinking with him,’ and her mother started making derogatory statements about me. There was no gun pointed to her head to do these things.
Sarwar’s lawyer, Joe Licitra, admitted his client had been hospitalised in the past for depression, but insisted she had been “emotionally abused.”
He got her to drink alcohol, eat pork and change her clothes. She wanted to dress traditionally. I think he was a cruel person who preyed on her.
Sarwar – who appeared in court wearing a blue, velour tracksuit, but later put on a headscarf – was charged with attempted murder, assault, and criminal possession of a weapon. She was released after her family came up with $25,000 bail.
She claims that Naseem had pretended to be a devout Muslim before their marriage, but after they were wed, she discovered he had previously dated mostly “white” women, had been married before and liked to go out to drink, and was a Unitarian Christian.
Naseem said he would immediately file for divorce but did not think she should be in jail.
I think she’s a lunatic and she should be in a mental hospital. I want the best for her in her life. I hope she gets herself corrected.
In an ealier report, Sanwar said Naseem often yelled and cursed her family and one of his favorite writers was Salman Rushdie, author of The Satanic Verses, which caused violent protests by Muslims in several countries because the book was perceived as an irreverent depiction of the Prophet Mohammed.
She added:
He hates Pakistan and he hates Pakistanis then why did he marry a Pakistani girl?
The Freethinker was founded in 1881 by GW Foote, an outspoken critic of religion. After the publication of 
November 3rd, 2009 at 11:28 am
Sounds like a regular guy, who’s managed to jettison a load of bullshit from his head and participate normally within society. (sad he couldn’t go the whole “hog” really and lose religion completely!)
Amazing though his wife is someone who thinks that slitting his throat is a reasonable course of action for participating in aforesaid developed society.
Surely this woman is incurably insane if murder is her first point of call with a spousal difference of opinion?
November 3rd, 2009 at 11:56 am
Oh dear.
She’s going to be found not guilty because he lied to her and “made” her do things she didn’t consent to. Oh, and he’s a man which helps. Possibly there will be some Diminished Responsibility thrown into the mix to make it easier on the press.
Then muslim women the world over will see this as permission to kill their husbands, which certain countries will use to justify giving even less rights to women etcetera etcetera.
November 3rd, 2009 at 2:16 pm
Perhaps she should turn some of her anger on the pre arranged marriage vetting process. Her mum and dada seemingly didn’t do a bang up job matching them up now did they?
Divorce or murder, sometimes you can have entirely too much choice
November 3rd, 2009 at 4:29 pm
Throw the book at her. She’s already admitted that she tried to kill him.
November 3rd, 2009 at 5:56 pm
off topic but :http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/earthnews/6494213/Climate-change-belief-given-same-legal-status-as-religion.html
so I wonder what other philosophical view are protected by law? naturism is the office..?
November 4th, 2009 at 2:29 am
I stated in another post on this story that if true -HE forced HER to do evil things ie eat port- then he got what he deserved. But now we hear more of the story and it shows 1)dont judge a story till you get all sides. & 2) SHE’s crazy – IF this new story is true.
All I know is since the chances of me marrying her are ZERO then I will not have to worry about her. I think this can also apply to the question -can an atheist have a relationship with a deeply religious person?
November 5th, 2009 at 3:53 pm
@CybrgnX
“I stated in another post on this story that if true -HE forced HER to do evil things ie eat port- then he got what he deserved. ”
You are quite clearly crackers.
November 6th, 2009 at 3:20 pm
Presumably she thinks that ‘white’ women are only ever going to be Christians, and is offended by interracial dating, as is normal with the sort of raving lunatics who pull stunts like this. I can’t make my mind up whether she thinks he ‘hates’ Pakistani ‘girls’ because he has ’shockingly’ slept with females from other ethnic groups, or because she is being pig-ignorant about the content of Salman Rushdie’s books. Which are not anti-Pakistan or anti-Pakistanis, although I thought some of the comments about Benazir Bhutto (represented by the character ‘Arjumand’) in ‘Shame’ were rather creepy, but that is a different ballpark.
Further to that, this woman describes herself as a ‘girl’. She isn’t a girl. She is a middle-aged woman who has probably been left on the shelf because she is insane. Irrespective of the differences between this couple, an attempt at the premeditated murder of someone who has never beaten her or laid a hand on her, and a total lack of regard for the fact that he had kids, indicate that the woman is dangerously deranged. I think we can assume that she was a virgin when she married, too, and that her prudery has been offended by her husband’s sexual adventures and the kids that are the evidence of them.