A grieving community. An imam was shot and killed Wednesday outside his mosque in Newark, near New York, according to officials who ruled out a racist crime.
“We do not yet know the motive for this crime (but) the evidence gathered so far does not indicate an act motivated by prejudice or domestic terrorism,” the prosecutor declared during a press briefing. General of the State of New Jersey (equivalent to local Minister of Justice), Matthew Platkin.
The magistrate and his deputy for Essex County, Ted Stephens, indicated that imam Hassan Sharif, a local figure in Newark, had been hit by several bullets fired in the street at dawn on Wednesday and that he had died in the afternoon at the hospital. The official also ruled out “terrorism” in reference to racist killings by white supremacists.
Security officer
First it was the public security services of Newark, which indicated to AFP in the morning that the imam had been seriously injured by one or more shots in front of the mosque of this industrial and multicultural city in the west of Manhattan, on the other side of the Hudson River. The CNN channel was the first to announce the death of the victim, citing a police source.
Furthermore, “Hassan Sharif had been a security officer at Newark Liberty International Airport since 2006,” a spokesperson for the American Transportation Security Agency (TSA) wrote in an email. “We are deeply saddened to learn of his death and send our condolences to his family, friends and colleagues,” she confirmed to AFP.
Before the announcement of the death, the Democratic governor of New Jersey Phil Murphy, where hundreds of thousands of Muslims and Jews reside, “assured the Muslim community and the faithful of all beliefs that everything would be done for their safety” . Democratic Senator Dick Durbin
Gathering planned
For its part, the New Jersey branch of the organization defending American Muslims, Council on American-Islamic Relations (Cair), called Wednesday evening for a rally at the Newark mosque to “demand that the shooter(s) against Hassan Sharif surrender” to the authorities.
Since the start of the war in Gaza between Israel and the Palestinian movement Hamas, the UNITED STATES and in particular New York and its region, in the northeast of the country, are shaken by a number of demonstrations, community tensions and some sporadic violence.
The only city of new Yorkpopulated by 8.5 million souls, has nearly two million Jewish Americans, the second largest population after Israel, and hundreds of thousands of Arabs and Muslims.
Mr. Platkin acknowledged that “in light of international events, with a surge in prejudice against many communities in our state — particularly Muslims — many in New Jersey are feeling more fear and fear.”