January 8, 2013, - 3:42 pm
Muslim Lottery Winner Poisoned; Planned to Give $s to Christian Charity, Violated Islam Gambling Prohibition
Did someone from Muslim immigrant Urooj Khan’s family murder him for the lottery winnings or because he violated Islam and planned to give the money to Christians? It looks like one of these is the reason. He admitted that his lottery winnings were the fruits of gambling, which is haram (prohibited) under Islam. Did that have something to do with his death? Did the fact that this Muslim not only violated Islam, but was planning to give much of his winnings to a Christian Arab charity, another reason for his murder–making it an honor killing? Or was he murdered by his wife or daughter for the money? He was killed on the first day of Ramadan.
Khan, who came to the U.S. from India and owned a dry cleaning business, won a million dollars in the June lottery. He went on the hajj (the Muslim pilgrimage to Mecca) in 2010 and vowed to swear off gambling. But he gambled again anyway by buying $60 worth of lottery tickets the winning lottery tickets, including the winning one. And although his death was originally declared a death by natural causes, it’s now a murder investigation. He was poisoned by cyanide, and the meal he ate before dying was a home-cooked meal, meaning he was probably murdered by a family member. And a family member, likely a different one than the murderer, asked for the investigation to be re-opened, apparently knowing there was foul play. Then, there’s also that pesky fact that Khan planned to give a good deal of the money to a Christian charity, an apostasy on top of the apostasy.
Urooj Khan had sworn off playing the lottery after he took an Islamic pilgrimage to the Middle East in 2010, but as he stood in a 7-Eleven near his home on Chicago’s Far North Side this summer, he lost his will for a moment, handing over $60 to buy two instant-game tickets. . . .
The month after winning the million dollars, Khan died unexpectedly on July 20. Finding no trauma to his body and no unusual substances such as cocaine or carbon monoxide in his blood, the Cook County medical examiner’s office declared his death to be from natural causes. He was buried at Rosehill Cemetery.
But the Tribune has learned that Chicago police and county prosecutors are investigating Khan’s death as a homicide.
In an interview, Medical Examiner Stephen J. Cina said that within a week of Khan’s death a concerned relative asked his office to take a closer look at the case.
By early December, the medical examiner’s office determined from comprehensive toxicology tests that Khan had died of a lethal amount of cyanide.
Now authorities are considering exhuming his body to try to find out how much cyanide he ingested or inhaled, Cina disclosed. . . .
According to an internal police department document obtained by the Tribune, Khan came home from work to his West Rogers Park residence on the night he died. He ate dinner about an hour later and eventually went to bed. He was later heard screaming and was taken to St. Francis Hospital in Evanston, where he was pronounced dead, the document said. . . .
His wife and daughter were home when Khan was stricken, according to Cina.
Interviewed last week while working at one of three dry cleaners her husband owned, Khan’s widow, Shabana Ansari, declined to talk with a Tribune reporter about the homicide investigation other than to say she has spoken to police.
As we know, Cyanide can work pretty quickly. It doesn’t take a lot (thus, the cyanide pill or capsule). A large enough amount can be mixed in with food, and the person will die. Or, if, over time, a person is exposed to constant small dosages in food and drink, the person can also sustain liver and other organ damage and failure. But, either way, it sounds like the poisoning came from home and likely from a close relative, such as the wife or daughter.
Khan owned three dry cleaners and five condos he rented out, so with the million dollar win, apparently that was the time the perpetrator felt it was time to strike and clean up. Unless Khan had a will naming a different beneficiary, it seems all suspicion should fall on the wife and daughter.
And as for his devotion to Islam, this is interesting:
Over the years, Khan enjoyed occasionally buying lottery tickets. But after he made hajj, the once-in-a-lifetime pilgrimage to Saudi Arabia required of all able Muslims, he tried to give up gambling to live a more virtuous life. Last June, when Khan stopped at the 7-Eleven, he even told the clerk, Ashur Oshana, about the vow.
But then he changed his mind and bought the two tickets, the clerk said last week while working at the same store.
So, basically, in the eyes of the Islamic community, Khan was an apostate Had he decided to give the money to a mosque or an Islamic cause, all would be forgiven, since that’s how the community and the religion seem to work. But Khan decided to give a big portion of his winnings to St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital, a charity founded by Christian Arab Danny Thomas and named after the Christian apostle who was born a Jew and preached the Gospel in the Middle East.
And that is a dishonor on top of apostasy.
But, now, that he’s dead and never saw the money, St. Jude won’t see it either. Khan’s murder on the first day of Ramadan can’t be a coincidence. There are no coincidences like this.
Tags: Cook County, Cook County medical examiner, cyanide, Cyanide poisoning, Danny Thomas, gambling, hajj, Honor Killing, Honor Killings, Immigration, Islam, lottery, lottery winner murdered, lottery winner poisoned, Medical Examiner Stephen J. Cina, murder, Muslim, Rosehill Cemetery, Shabana Ansari, St. Jude, St. Jude Children's Research Hospital, Stephen J. Cina, Urooj Khan, West Rogers Park
There are no coincidences.
It was an “honor killing” and his actions brought shame to the family. So he had to die to clear their name.
This how Islam works. The image of the Muslim is everything, morality is a purely secondary matter.
When things like this happen, its always close to home.
NormanF on January 8, 2013 at 3:57 pm