Woman Slashes Husband's Throat Because He's Not Devout Muslim

A Staten Island woman was charged with attempted murder, assault and criminal possession of a deadly weapon after slashing her husband's throat with a knife. The police say the devout Muslim woman was upset her husband did not follow Islam strictly, allegedly making her drink alcohol, dress in short skirts, and eat pork.

According to the Daily News, Sheikh Naseem, a teacher at Susan Wagner High School, woke up on Wednesday to find wife Rabia Sarwar on his chest yelling, "It's time for you to die!" and slashing his throat. Naseem told the Post, "She just screamed, ‘They are going to be orphans now!’"—referring to his children from previous marriages—"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 had to call the police from a neighbor's home, because she had hidden the phones. Naseem was treated for surface wounds.

Sarwar allegedly confessed to the police, listing her husband's various abuses and how Salman Rushdie was his favorite author. Her lawyer said she was "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."

Naseem, "who was born in Pakistan, but is half Norwegian and is a Unitarian," explained that he wed Sarwar, who is from Pakistan, through an arranged marriage five months ago. (Given his two previous failed marriages, an ex-wife said, "Being that he didn't do very well the first two times, he thought he would try a woman of his own culture.") Naseem said he thought she was adjusting to American culture just fine, "There was no gun pointed to her head to do these things."