Sister Abducted, $10,000 Reward

[islamica]

Muslim Student Abducted

A missing 19-year-old Missouri college student last seen on the University of Kansas campus left her sister a troubling voicemail the morning she disappeared.

http://today.msnbc.msn.com/id/457286.../#.TvEI8xek4fe

In the voicemail, Aisha Khan told her sister that while she was studying for finals at an outdoor picnic table, a man who appeared drunk had been harassing her and attempted to kiss her before she hit him and he took off.

"'I slapped him. He just smelled really bad, and I didn't know what to do,'" Khan's sister, Faiza Khan, recalled her sister saying in the voicemail, according to ABC News' Kansas City affiliate KMBC. "She's like, 'You need to pick up your phone. I'm confused.' She was freaked out at that point."

Shortly after, Faiza Khan tried to call her sister back, but her sister did not answer the phone. Faiza Khan rushed to where her sister said she had been studying on the university campus and found Aisha's belongings -- her cell phone, backpack and other items -- but Aisha was nowhere to be found.

"We have no information that it was an abduction and no information that it wasn't," Overland Park Police Chief John Douglass said at a news conference Monday. "We are looking at it as a missing person case and putting the resources into it as if it was an abduction."

Khan was last seen around 11 a.m. on Friday at the University of Kansas Edwards Campus. She is a student at the Johnson County Community College, a partner of the University of Kansas, which would explain her presence on campus.

Police have interviewed family, friends, students, faculty and construction workers who were working nearby. Douglass said the construction workers believe they saw someone that matched Khan's description walking away from the area alone, but police have not yet confirmed if it was Khan.

FBI agents are assisting the Overland Park Police Department in the investigation. Investigators on foot and on horseback have searched the campus, nearby woods, a creek bed, park and a nearby golf course to no avail.

There are no suspects or hard leads in the case. Khan's family is offering a $10,000 reward for information regarding her disappearance.

"We have looked at videotapes of all the intersections," Douglass said. "To date, we have seen absolutely nothing in that area."

Khan was married this year and police have spoken to her husband. The couple was living together in an apartment. Douglass said there was "no reason to believe that he is a suspect."

Khan's disappearance has led to an outpouring of support, including from many members of the Muslim community. Her missing person Facebook page has been flooded with messages to Allah, praying for her safe return.

Supporters have set up a "Help Find Aisha Khan" Facebook page that already has more than 10,000 supporters and a Twitter account, @FindAisha, has been set up. Both are frequently updated.

"There's so much we don't know about the case," Douglass said. "She's 19 years old, but not much more than a child. One of our own is missing and we need to find her."

Khan is 5 feet, 2 inches and weighs 120 pounds. She was last seen wearing a black head scarf, black sweat pants, a yellow and black shirt, a black jacket and a black and white coat. The Overland Police Department is asking that anyone who has any information call 913-344-8703.

http://www.newsnet5.com/dpp/shared/m...he-disappeared

http://news.yahoo.com/missing-missou...222343518.html

[Galaxy]

May Allah keep the sister safe a return home unharmed ameen

[جوري]

I saw this today and was very disturbed very disturbed.. Allah yi7fa'th'ha and bring her back safely to her family and her husband ameen..

[Nate]

its been all over the news here, its sad,a lot of people are looking

Hey there! Looks like you're enjoying the discussion, but you're not signed up for an account.

When you create an account, you can participate in the discussions and share your thoughts. You also get notifications, here and via email, whenever new posts are made. And you can like posts and make new friends.
Sign Up

[IslamicRevival]

Oh my God. This is disturbing :(
May Allah Azzawajal protect this sister!

[syed1]

hearing these types of situation literally brings tears to my eyes, especially when he/she are one of our own brother/sister in islam

[Beardo]

Any updates? I was following this story. It's so sad. May Allah Ta'ala reunite her with her family. Her father was crying so hard on TV.

[Banu_Hashim]

I hate it when innocent people, in this case a married, intelligent muslimah, have fallen prey to a sick person's desires whether it be financial or otherwise :(

I pray she is reunited safely with her family, Ameen ya rabb.

[جوري]

was looking for updates I didn't want to read the comments of the people yesterday, I pray for her safe return insha'Allah.. Allah yi7fa'th'ha wo yoltof beha.. I am thinking bad things that this drunk guy could be doing to her la 7wala wla qiwta illa billah.. what a nightmare.. such a nightmare..

[Banu_Hashim]

Any updates? I was following this story. It's so sad. May Allah Ta'ala reunite her with her family. Her father was crying so hard on TV.

Those in the states; do keep us updated on what's happening inshaAllah. Are they any closer to finding her?

This is scarily reminiscent of a young woman from the UK who went missing last year around christmas day, subhanAllah, but inshaAllah she is found swiftly and the perputrator is brutally dealt with! SubhanAllah, I cannot imagine what the family is going through right now.

Keep her in your sincere du'aas people! :cry:

[Aprender]

ALHAMDULILLAH!!

They found her. She is safe!

Missing college student Aisha Khan found safe

osted: 10:25 PM
Last Updated: 2 minutes ago

• By: Victoria Swoboda

OVERLAND PARK, Kan. - A missing 19-year-old Olathe woman was found safe Wednesday afternoon.
Aisha Khan, a student at Johnson County Community College, disappeared on Friday, Dec. 16.
According to Overland Park police, officers made contact with her Wednesday afternoon.
She was not abducted or held against her will. Police said there is no criminal investigation.
Police had been searching for Khan, a student at Johnson County Community College, since Friday. She was at the University of Kansas Edwards Campus in Overland Park when she left her sister a voice mail saying she was assaulted by a stranger.
"Oh my gosh. It was so scary," Khan said in her voice message. "My heart is like pounding. I've never got this scared in my life."
When the sister drove to get her, she found only her book bag and cellphone.
Overland Park Police Chief John Douglass said earlier this week that Khan’s disappearance was classified as a missing case, but police would devote resources typical of an abduction case.
Officers said they searched the campus on horseback, interviewed family members and students on campus and even looked through surveillance video from a nearby gas station. KU Edwards Campus does not have any surveillance cameras.
Stay with NBCActionNews.com for updates.



Read more: http://www.nbcactionnews.com/dpp/new...#ixzz1hEhjQchv

[جوري]

what happened to her.. my God I am so relieved.. the article doesn't give any more info. about the incident at all this is the oddest thing ever..

[Beardo]

^ALHAMDULILLAH! Thank you so much for the update! This is such good news!

[syed1]

I find it very VERY peculiar that the news reporter would not indicate what happened within the time frame of her being 'lost' and then 'found'...

could this be a diversion perhaps to get everyone to stop thinking about her and move on? :exhausted

[Nate]

hope she did not plan it.... Im happy she is safe but people have questions hope there answered. chances are a boy is involved there usually is LOL

[Nate]

Im still waiting on the FB page to be updated I checked it earlier and there is still a search scheduled tomorrow

[syed1]

Lol probably, I really hope that there was a legitimate reason for concern because it would be quite embarrassing to have give such a matter so much media attention only to find out it was a sham

[Nate]

yea she was a runner. but they say she is most likely NOT facing charges, I have been seeing posters all over the place here as im only a few miles away,

[syed1]

yea she was a runner.

what do you mean? running from the drunken man or from her family :S I thought things were cool with her newlywed husband

[Darth Ultor]

God keep her safe.

[Nate]

I think she just ran away for some reason, no real details released. JUST POSTED ON FACEBOOK
On behalf of the Khan family, we are ecstatic to announce that Aisha has been found. She is safe and is unharmed. The family is truly grateful to each and every one of your support and encouragement during this difficult journey. Thank you for your prayers, locally, nationally and from across the world. Thank you to all local and national media outlets for keeping her story alive. And most of all, thank you to the Overland Park Police Department who have put in hundreds of hours into finding her safely and to the hundreds of volunteers who dedicated their time around the clock toward the search efforts. Our prayers have been answered. Thank you all.

[Darth Ultor]

Alhamdulillah

[syed1]

I think she just ran away for some reason, no real details released. JUST POSTED ON FACEBOOK
On behalf of the Khan family, we are ecstatic to announce that Aisha has been found. She is safe and is unharmed. The family is truly grateful to each and every one of your support and encouragement during this difficult journey. Thank you for your prayers, locally, nationally and from across the world. Thank you to all local and national media outlets for keeping her story alive. And most of all, thank you to the Overland Park Police Department who have put in hundreds of hours into finding her safely and to the hundreds of volunteers who dedicated their time around the clock toward the search efforts. Our prayers have been answered. Thank you all.

I guess we can just leave it at that...

[Muhaba]

Alhamdulillah she is safe. i was going to read Ayatul-kursi for her when i saw the news item saying she's been found and is alright.

[Banu_Hashim]

Alhamdulillah!! Such a relief!

So what happened? Was she abducted? Did she go for a walk?? What???

[Banu_Hashim]

what happened to her.. my God I am so relieved.. the article doesn't give any more info. about the incident at all this is the oddest thing ever..

Exactly! So weird. Articles I've read have said "her whereabouts during her absence remain a mystery"... Just ask her! They're trying unsuccessfully to brush the whole thing under the carpet :hmm:

[IslamicRevival]

Glad she's safe but the story just doesn't make any sense.
http://www.nydailynews.com/news/nati...ticle-1.995306

[Snowflake]

Oh Al hamdulillah, phew.. I was just about to start crying when I saw the post that she'd been found safe and sound. Al hamdulillah she is safe, and my head is too now.

[Nate]

Chances are her lawyer is telling her ans the family not to talk about it, so she is not charged for any of the search, there is a lot of people wanting answers here, because she was hiding out and a friend of hers told were she was, thats just the info I got

[Nate]

just herd the local news she is still hiding she has not come home she just reported to the police she was safe and that she is going to remain in hiding until further notice, so I guess her family has not even seen her

[IslamicRevival]

The whole thing looks staged, The phone call..drunken man etc etc..

[Beardo]

Although I am curious as to know what happened, it is none of our business. Give her the benefit of the doubt and let it go.

[جوري]

as much as I felt for this girl and prayed for her, I am very annoyed now I hate people who cry wolf. It isn't in the least bit amusing to waste people's time and money organizing search parties and worst yet abuse people emotionally to that extent and then hope it will all go away, shame on her!

[Veiled]

Alhumdullilah she was found. But Just a few days back everyone was claiming sympathy for Aisha Khan, and going out of the state to join and help with the search party. But now people are looking for ways to slander her. There are claims now that she purposely ran away to evade her new marriage which she was "forced" into. Others say, she was just looking to threaten her parents and worry them so they give into her side of the issue. There are even claims that she tried to elope with the guy she originally wanted to marry and was residing with him in the time she "disappeared."

AstaghfurAllah x 100.


Hamdun al-Qassar, one of the great early Muslims, said, “If a friend among your friends errs, make seventy excuses for them. If your hearts are unable to do this, then know that the shortcoming is in your own selves.” [Imam Bayhaqi, Shu`ab al-Iman, 7.522]

The Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) said, “Overlook the slips of respected people.” [Bukhari in al-Adab al-Mufrad; Abu Dawud; Nasa'i in al-Kubra; and others--rigorously authentic (sahih), from A'isha (Allah be pleased with her)]

And the "70" excuses is not to be taken in a literal sense. You shouldn't sit there making a chart 1-70 and listing excuses next to it (however, that would be rewarding inshAllah). The number 70 implies "a lot". You should make a lot of excuses before deeming the brother or sister worthy of accusation of something negative.

Don't think ill of others, but think well of their intentions InshAllah. =/

[Beardo]

On Facebook, the family posted this:

We would like to express our utmost gratitude for all the support, help, and prayers we received during this past week. To our neighbors; to the hundreds of volunteers who dedicated their time towards the search efforts; to the online community who helped spread awareness of her story and prayed for her; and to all local and national media outlets for keeping her story alive; we extend our heartfelt appreciation. Last but not least, we are tremendously grateful to the Overland Park Police Department who put in hundreds of hours into finding Aisha safely.

The last few days have been very difficult for the Khan family, especially Aisha. We are deeply thankful that our prayers were answered and that she was found safe and unharmed. The family is dedicated to giving Aisha the unconditional love, support, time, and whatever other tools she needs to work through these trying times.

This is a difficult period for Aisha and the family, so we ask for compassion and privacy as we remain committed to healing. We will be making no further statements on this matter as we hope you recognize this very public matter has now become a private family matter. We thank you in advance for your cooperation.

The family will be donating the $10,000 reward offered during her search. $5,000 will be donated to the Overland Park Police Department or a related law enforcement charity, and the remaining half will be given to other charitable organizations. - From the Khan Family

[Aprender]

What We Can Learn from Aisha Khan

Guest Authors | December 30, 2011 5:00 am

For the last two weeks, Muslims on the internet have been enthralled by a real-life drama playing out before their eyes. On Friday, December 16th, Aisha Khan, a 19-year-old Muslim woman from Kansas City, disappeared. According to media reports, she left voicemails with her family two hours before a final exam, describing a drunk man who accosted her. When her family raced to the campus location she specified, they found only her backpack and mobile phone and Aisha was nowhere to be found.


Thereafter followed what can only be described as an on-the-ground and online media blitz. Police coordinated a search with over ten detectives, 50 officers and security from campus, while officers on horseback diligently searched nearby parks and other locations. Video surveillance footage from nearby businesses were studied and every house within a mile of the University was canvassed. Family and friends created fliers of the beautiful Muslim girl showing her with and without a hijab, to blanket the city and the internet. Hundreds of emails were sent to Islamic lists and national Islamic leaders sent out tweets asking for people to help. Muslims and non-Muslims updated their social network statuses and added links about the disappearance, asking everyone to spread the news and pray for her return. Aisha’s parents, siblings and husband appeared tearfully on national television pleading with kidnappers for the return of their daughter, sister, and wife. The FBI was called in to help and a $10,000 reward was announced for any information leading to her safe return.


A facebook page was created with news and updates and people were asked to change their profile pictures to Aisha’s “Missing!” poster. Hundreds of comments appeared on the page by the hour from Muslims and non-Muslims as far away as Australia and Egypt with messages saying they were praying for Aisha and her family. Some said they were depressed, anxious, crying and praying all night and couldn’t sleep for worry.


The critical 72-hour mark came and went and still officials were no closer to finding out what happened to Aisha Khan.


Finally, on the night of Dec. 21, five days after Aisha went missing, the news broke. She had been found. She was safe and unharmed and was never held against her will. “On behalf of the Khan family, we are ecstatic to announce that Aisha has been found,” her family said in a statement posted on the ‘Help Find Aisha Khan’ Facebook page. “She is safe and is unharmed. The family is truly grateful to each and every one of your support and encouragement during this difficult journey.”


Within minutes, there was an outpouring of thankfulness and gratefulness, immediately followed by a firestorm of messages and statuses asking where Aisha Khan had been and what had happened to her. People were upset and felt betrayed. That were angry she had “lied and staged a kidnapping” and that she “had wasted the resources of the police, the media, the internet and the Muslim community.” Some were upset that she could put her parents through something like this. They called her “selfish”, “immature”, and “a brat” and using her “Missing” poster, created profile pictures with wording to mock her. Those who posted prayers for her just days before now were full of hate against her. Some were upset that the next Muslim girl who went missing would not be taken seriously. Others were upset that this was another reason for people to attack Muslims and Islam in a time of heightened Islamophobia. On the other side, rumors abounded that she was forced into an unhappy marriage and had sent emails to her family indicating she wanted to leave, and that she still wanted nothing to do with them. Other conspiracy theories included that something did happen to her but that the family wanted to keep it quiet for the sake of her reputation or that she might have had a nervous breakdown or had psychological problems. New articles in the media appeared talking about the “Facebook Mob” that wanted answers from Aisha Khan. Comments full of vitriol and argumentation for and against Aisha Khan and her family number into the thousands and continue until today.
….
The circumstances and reasons behind Aisha Khan’s disappearance are a mystery to us, and will probably remain so well into the future. The reasons may be difficult to understand and appreciate even for her family – and as a psychology major, I would say perhaps even to Aisha herself. I believe that we only know perhaps 10% of this story, while the controversy and speculation surrounding it have spun completely and disproportionately out of control. I don’t think we as Muslims should be fighting over what happened and who is to blame. There’s a larger and more important story here and that’s recognizing and working on the problems in our community.


As the transition from largely first generation Muslims moves to a second generation, a host of new problems and challenges will be presented to us. Whatever the truth may be in the Aisha Khan story, we can’t ignore the fact we have major problems affecting Muslims and their families in the U.S. We can choose to ignore them and have story after story and controversy after controversy affect us; or we can acknowledge that we have to change and work on certain things from the inside out in our communities first.


I thought that we together could come up with some *positive* things we can start working on in our community instead of arguing about the details of this controversy.
Let’s begin with…

• • We need more trained Muslim counselors and mediators. These are people who are well-versed in Islam as well as in social work. Communities can set aside scholarship money for students or even adults to go back to school and do a degree in counseling in exchange for having open office hours for the community. Confidentiality agreements would be extremely important here. Perhaps we can bring in non-Muslim counselors along with an imam for when there is a problem in the meantime.
  • Announce that our mosques are safe havens and if any kids feel that they cannot stand things at home anymore and want to run away, they can come to the mosque with impunity, and without judgment or punishment. Members of the community can help take care of them and try to work out solutions with the families.
  • Educate our communities on the practice of forced marriage and how it is wrong in Islam. A girl always has the right to not marry someone. Parents are not the final authority, especially if they are acting in a way that is oppressive. We should recognize that forced marriages nowadays are not going to be with father holding a gun to a daughter’s head, but often through psychological pressure, which amounts to the same and is just as wrong.
  • Educate the youth on how to deal with their problems in a mature way. They can go to other community members, family, imams, teachers or organizations for help as well.
  • As Muslim communities we need to learn not to hide the very real problems going on among our youth and families. Yes, it is difficult to talk about domestic violence, child abuse, adultery, forced marriages and so many other of a myriad of issues. But it’s important for us to bring them out into the open and so that we can deal with them.
  • Hold parenting seminars on a regular basis. Teach Muslims parents how to communicate and educate their children from an Islamic perspective.
  • As in the story of Prophet David `alayhi as-salaam (peace be upon him), authorities and people should be careful not to make judgments or take a side until they have heard both sides, and even then they should admit they do not know the whole story.
  • Pre-marital counseling. In some faiths couples have a minimum of three to four sessions with their pastor to make sure they are compatible, ready for marriage and understand their rights and responsibilities before they are allowed to marry.
  • Leaders in Muslim communities can hold crisis management seminars so families can understand how to deal with family issues in a productive way.
  • Mosques and imams need to make themselves more open to women. Their education and spiritual needs should be met. Muslim women should not be left out in the cold and made to believe that mosques are “good ole boys clubs” and that they are second class citizens in Islam with no rights. They need the support and welcome of the entire community.
  • Better marriage system and community support for Muslims to meet compatible people for marriage. The alarming divorce rate and amount of singles in our community who can’t get married is too high. We need to work on this problem as soon as possible.

http://www.suhaibwebb.com/society/do...om-aisha-khan/

[CosmicPathos]

Yea, I think she staged it.

2nd generation Muslims in kufaar lands are in deep trouble. I am doing hijra as soon as I am done my education and grow my children in Muslim lands, even if the rulers are tagut, at least the cultures are more conservative and more in tune with my "discriminatory" worldviews. inshAllah.