Alwaght- A Muslim cleric and an associate were gunned down on Saturday while heading home following afternoon prayers at a mosque in the New York City borough of Queens, as authorities are investigating as a hate crime
The gunman approached the Muslim Imam, Maulama Akonjee, and his friend, Thara Uddin, from behind and shot both in the head at close range at about 1:50 p.m. local time after leaving the Al-Furqan Jame Masjid mosque in the Ozone Park neighborhood. Both men were wearing religious garb at the time of shooting.
The men were transported to Jamaica Hospital Medical Center where they died, hospital spokesman Andrew Rubin said.
Reuters cited Afaf Nasher, executive director of the New York chapter of The Council on American-Islamic Relations as saying "These were two very beloved people."
"These were community leaders," leader of the Muslim civil rights and advocacy group said.
"There is a deep sense of mourning and an overwhelming cry for justice to be served," Nasher said. "There is a very loud cry, too, for the NYPD to investigate fully, with the total amount of their resources, the incident that happened today."
The organization held a news conference on Saturday evening in front of the mosque, the Al-Furqan Jame Masjid, where the two men had prayed.
"We are calling for all people, of all faiths, to rally with compassion and with a sense of vigilance so that justice can be served," Nasher said. "“You can’t go up to a person and shoot them in the head and not be motivated by hatred.”
The suspect was seen by witnesses fleeing the scene with a gun in his hand, police said.
"We are currently conducting an extensive canvass of the area for video and additional witnesses," Deputy Inspector Henry Sautner said in a statement.
"He would not hurt a fly," his nephew Rahi Majid, 26, told the New York Daily News. "You would watch him come down the street and watch the peace he brings."
"We feel really insecure and unsafe in a moment like this," Millat Uddin, an Ozone Park resident told CBS television in New York. "It's really threatening to us, threatening to our future, threatening to our mobility in our neighborhood, and we’re looking for the justice."
In June, CAIR issued a statement calling for Muslim community leaders to consider increasing security after the Orlando massacre and incidents that it said had targeted Muslims and Islamic houses of worship.
