A truly horrific incident occurred in the town of Bury recently. A thirty one year old Muslim woman, Sarah Hussain, was found burning in the street. Passers by and residents of nearby homes rushed to Ms Hussain’s aid and tried to douse the flames, but were unsuccessful in saving the life of Ms Hussain.
This case has brought fourth an awful lot of speculation and also some false claims that the mainstream media has not covered this case. On the subject of the false claims of lack of coverage it’s plain to see that major mainstream outlets like ITV have covered this case, both when it occurred and also have covered the aftermath. The local press, as is usually the case, is more detailed than the national coverage, but to claim that this case has not been covered is wrong. Of course as there have been arrests the Contempt of Court Act kicks in and changes to police and media relations that came in after the Christopher Jeffries scandal could mean that the media might be limited in what they can legally say. But it’s not correct to say that this case has not been reported. It might not have been reported in the detail that some would like, but it has been reported.
As to the speculation, well this has gone absolutely wild and all sorts of explanations have been put forward. Some have claimed that this was an ‘honour killing’ or a racial or domestic attack. Others have claimed that this might be a gruesome suicide or a tragic and unforeseen accident. At present nobody knows.
I must admit that at present this case is a real mystery. From reading the statements made by Ms Hussain’s family there is no indication that there was any family dispute that might have led Ms Hussain to fall out of favour with the family. The police are also either unaware of a motive or keeping tight lipped about any suspected motive. Surely if this case was racially motivated then they would have said so by now as there is for the police a positive benefit for them doing so in terms of virtue signalling and motivating decent people to unmask a racially motivated murderer?
It’s pretty obvious that at this stage the police may know less than they should about this case. The fact that three people have been arrested but released on bail pending further investigation, looks very much like a situation where the police do not, at present, have enough evidence to charge anybody. The more interesting part of the police’s public statement is about how they are not looking for anyone else in connection to the death of Sarah Hussain other than the three people they’ve arrested and released on bail.
At present I’m not going to claim that this is murder, accident or suicide because it could be any of those. What is happening is that those with particular political views are latching onto this case in order to promote their own political views. I’ve noticed this most prominently among those who are opposed to the ideology of Islam. These individuals are screaming very loudly that this was an ‘honour’ killing but they might be wrong, just as they were spectacularly wrong when claiming that the murder of a child in Bolton last year was the work of a ‘Somali woman’ when it turned out that the assailant was a mentally ill Albanian and the murder was nothing at all to do with Jihad. To those who are for political reasons claiming motivations behind this death that might not be there, I’d give the advice to tread carefully lest you be embarrassed big time.
For the moment this case, or at least any motivation behind it, is a mystery. Hopefully as time goes on this mystery will be solved. It might turn out that those who have speculated about any motive will be proven to be correct, but it is equally likely that many of the speculations about this case might be wildly incorrect.
What we do know is that a young woman has died in horrific circumstances and if this is the result of foul play then those behind it need to be brought to justice. This is a tragic case about which all details have not yet been discovered or revealed and as time goes by we will know whether this was murder, suicide or a horrific accident.
