Imagine you’re Muslim, and you want to show people that your religion isn’t the violent, backwards faith the mainstream media portrays. Starting your own English TV station centering on your religion is probably a reasonably good start. Bridges TV was such a project. It featured shows such as Democracy Now, a cooking show called Veggie Table, and the saccharine sounding Talking Peace.

In a twisted bit of irony, the founder of the TV station, Muzzammil Hassan, is currently under police investigation for beheading his wife. It appears the TV station will be folding as a result of the news.

I actually thought the idea for a TV station was a good one; clearly, the religion needs a new PR person, and it was refreshing to see Muslims on the boobtube who weren’t reading a terrorist memo, or talking about eradicating the Jews from the earth. But just like Hassan, the Muslim faith has two faces; one of piety, submission, and adherence to religious ritual, and the other a violent, implacable ideology that is glaringly incompatible with modern values.

It would be silly to assume the behavior of Muzzammil Hassan reflects the general attitude of all Muslims, but it would be irresponsible to discount the role his faith had to play in the murder. The problem with Islam is it has struggled to modernize, and there is a large contingent of believers who would rather die than see that happen. Until they all can be brought into the fold of society’s mores, then we will continue to see tragedies of this sort unfold.