Editor’s Note: This article has been updated. The Imam’s assistant (the Maamoune) also passed away as a result of the shooting, few hours after being accepted, in a very critical condition, to a local hospital.
New York, United States (TMT)- The Imam of Al-Furqan mosque (Ozone Park, US) Maulama Akonjee, 55, was headshotted while his brother-in-law (the mosque’s Maamoune) Thara Uddin, 64, was severely injured following a shooting outside said Mosque located in Queens, New York.
The shooting happened after the end of the Duhr prayer, few minutes following the imam leading said prayer.
While the late was shot in the head, his assistant was severely injured both in the head and the chest, in an apparent terror attack by an American extremist, as some local residents put it.
Both were shot while they were walking away from the mosque.
Some residents are blaming Donald Trump for the shooting as they believe his anti-Islam discourse has triggered a growing wave of Islamophobia in the U.S.
The local authorities are saying that “there is nothing in the preliminary investigation that would indicate they were targeted because of their faith,” as NYPD Deputy Inspector Henry Sautner told reporters.
Terrorized, the Ozone Park Muslim community is gathering tonight at 7 PM to denounce this terrorist attack and discuss how they can avoid such terrorist acts in the future.
“We need to talk about this issue so that our future could be more safe,” a local Muslim resident said while calling upon the Muslim community to join them at 7PM.
The Moroccan Times.
