Muslim cleric and associate shot to death on NY street

Police say there was no argument before the shooting – the man just approached and fired.

People gather for a demonstration near a crime scene where the leader of a New York City mosque and an associate were fatally shot in a brazen daylight attack as they left afternoon prayers Saturday, August 13, 2016.

Akonjee’s daughter, Naima Akonjee, said the Queens Imam did not “have any problems with anyone”, according to AP. “A lot of neighbors said, ‘Hey, don’t take your kid with you.’ People, they just hate us”. He says there need to more police officers patrolling the neighborhood.

The local community has been congregating around Akongi’s mosque, demanding police action and making plans for the two mens’ funerals.

The men who gathered on the steps of the small, brown-painted Al-Furqan Jame mosque in NY today had a message for the authorities.

The New York Chapter of Muslim civil liberties and advocacy organisation Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) said it has reported an unprecedented spike in anti-Muslim incidents nationwide since Republican Presidential nominee Donald Trump’s “bigoted call for a complete ban on Muslims entering the United States”.

An Imam and his associate were killed Saturday in Queens, NY, shortly after leaving the mosque where they were saying their afternoon prayers.

Mashuk Uddin says his brother came to the USA from Bangladesh five years ago.

The assaults included one in April in which a man believed to be high on synthetic drugs burst into the predominantly Bangladeshi Jamaica Muslim Centre and beat up several worshippers.

The Muslim community in Queens, NY is calling for justice after a beloved Imam and his friend were killed this weekend, and surveillance footage of the double-homocide has come to light.

The Anti-Defamation League is also urging the NYPD to investigate the shooting as a possible bias crime, according to the Associated Press.

The ADL fights anti-Semitism around the world through programs and services.

Akonjee’s son, Naim Akonjee, 21, said his father first worked as an imam in the Bronx before working at two mosques in Queens and put his family first.

Police have not announced a motive.

A 55-year old Bangladeshi-American Imam at a mosque in NY and his associate have been shot and killed from point blank range by an unidentified gunman in broad daylight amid growing concerns across the country over rising Islamophobic rhetoric. The sketch shows a dark haired man with glasses and a beard.

A member of the Al-Furqan Jame Masjid mosque stands near a police sketch of a suspect believed to have shot the mosque’s imam.

The shooter, wearing a dark polo shirt and shorts, shot them and fled, while still carrying the gun. When reporters asked if it was a robbery, police said nothing was taken from either man.

On Saturday night, more than 100 mourners and members of the largely Bangladeshi Muslim community rallied near the elevated subway tracks and chanted, “We want justice”.

Residents of Queens in NY gathered at the mosque where just hours earlier an imam and his assistant were shot dead.