Because he suspected her of infidelity. This happened in 2006, but is just coming to trial now for some reason.

Of course, this story makes no mention of Islam. Said Biyard is just a “Somali man.” And generally whenever an honor killing takes place in North America or Europe, the mainstream media tells us that honor killing is a cultural practice that has nothing to do with Islam — despite several facts indicating the contrary. It is no accident or coincidence that Muslims commit 91 percent of honor killings worldwide. A manual of Islamic law certified as a reliable guide to Sunni orthodoxy by Al-Azhar University, the most respected authority in Sunni Islam, says that “retaliation is obligatory against anyone who kills a human being purely intentionally and without right.” However, “not subject to retaliation” is “a father or mother (or their fathers or mothers) for killing their offspring, or offspring’s offspring.” (‘Umdat al-Salik o1.1-2). In other words, someone who kills his child incurs no legal penalty under Islamic law.

Syria in 2009 scrapped a law limiting the length of sentences for honor killings, but “the new law says a man can still benefit from extenuating circumstances in crimes of passion or honour ‘provided he serves a prison term of no less than two years in the case of killing.'” And in 2003 the Jordanian Parliament voted down on Islamic grounds a provision designed to stiffen penalties for honor killings. Al-Jazeera reported that “Islamists and conservatives said the laws violated religious traditions and would destroy families and values.”

Nonetheless, the media drumbeat is constant: honor killings have nothing to do with Islam. And as long as that continues, we will see more and more murders like this one.

“Police describe grisly scene in Somali man’s trial in deaths of his children,” by Jason Riley in the Courier-Journal, April 18 (thanks to Twostellas):

Louisville Metro Police officers described in court on Monday a grisly scene when they walked into the home of Said Biyad’s family on Oct. 6, 2006, with a trail of blood starting in the hallway and leading to bedrooms with his four children lying dead, their throats cut.“He left them laying in pools of their own blood,” Assistant Commonwealth’s Attorney Christie Foster said in her opening statement about Biyad, whose murder trial began on Monday in Jefferson Circuit Court.

Foster told Judge James Shake that Biyad “brutally” killed his four children — Goshany, Khadija, Fatuma and Sidi Ali, ages 2 through 8 — and raped and assaulted his wife before turning himself in at police headquarters and admitting what he had done.

Detective Brenda Wescott testified that three of the children were found in one room, with the youngest apparently trying to put her thumb in her mouth before she died. The other child was found in a separate room in bed, partially covered in blankets.

Wescott, who had to compose herself once during her testimony, said she arrived at the scene to find a veteran officer looking “shell-shocked.”…

Defense attorney Mike Lemke said in his openings to Shake that they believe Biyad is mentally ill and will offer expert testimony that he is a paranoid schizophrenic.

Lemke said Biyad has for years believed people were trying to kill him and get his money, and that he was a multimillionaire celebrity.

He said this trial will show “clear evidence of a person who is mentally ill” and provide a “peek into a brain that does not function in a normal way.”…

The first witness for the prosecution, Officer James Clark, said Biyad was sitting calmly in the lobby of the police station on Seventh and Jefferson streets, his hands crossed, when he first met him.

Biyad “kept saying he had done very bad things,” Clark said.

Clark testified that Biyad told his story, in broken English, “matter-of-factly.”

Biyad told police he had slit the throats of his children, making a motion by sweeping his hand across his neck, and believed they were dead. He said his wife, Fatuma Amir, may also be dead. Amir was beaten and raped, but survived.

Clark said Biyad was angry because he believed his wife was cheating on him and he was asked to pay money to the elders to have a relationship with her.

Biyad allegedly raped his wife and beat her with a hammer before she was able to lock herself in a room.

Biyad said he then went to the rooms of each of his children, cutting their throats, before throwing the knife in a garbage can, according to court documents.

When Officer Krissy Hagan went to the home, she said she heard Amir crying inside.

“A sob I won’t forget,” she said.

Biyad is not facing the death penalty through an agreement between defense and prosecutors and the maximum sentence he faces is life in prison.

What kind of agreement?