Thousands of Muslims and other supporters gathered in Queens on Monday to demand justice in the murders of an imam and his assistant — and urged the NYPD to label the slayings as a “hate crime.”
The large crowd was joined by Mayor de Blasio at Grant Avenue Municipal Parking Field in South Ozone Park. Many held signs that said, “UNITED FOR JUSTICE” and “WE ARE MUSLIMS NOT ISIS” after the execution-style killing of Maulama Akonjee, 55, and Thara Uddin, 64, on Saturday.
Cries of “We are Americans, just like you!” could be heard ringing out in Arabic, Bangladeshi and other languages as a pair of black hearses rolled up to the lot for the victims’ funeral service.
While some residents were simply in attendance to voice their anger with the NYPD and their decision to not yet label the murders as a hate crime, most were there to pray and pay their respects to the two friends, who were set to be remembered at funeral services later in the day.
“When we see two good men or two men of the cloth, it pulls at all our hearts and pulls at all our souls,” de Blasio told the gatherers.
“We don’t know what happened yet, but we know for sure that two good men, two admirable men, two men who guided this community have been lost and we feel the emptiness the sense of pain … They were examples of goodness and righteousness. They were examples of peace and understanding. We will take their example and build upon it with you and we mourn with you.”
Akonjee and Uddin had been walking home from the Al-Furqan mosque on Glenmore Ave. when a lone gunman walked up behind them and pumped bullets into the back of their heads.
A suspect was brought into custody Sunday night after cops tracked him down through his vehicle — which hit a bicyclist as he made his escape and then an unmarked NYPD car a day later while under surveillance, according to police sources.
But investigators haven’t been getting anywhere with him — because he’s refusing to speak with authorities and has asked for a lawyer, a high-ranking police source said.
While there is still not a clear motive to the murders, police sources in Queens said there have been tensions in the largely Hispanic neighborhood as the Muslim population grows.
“We will make sure that whoever did this is brought to justice. That I can guarantee you,” de Blasio said. “Since this horrible tragedy, NYPD has been expanding every resource and will continue to. I want you to know that not only will we find this killer and find the cause and tell the people, but you will see and we will see him Muslim communities of our city are in support of the community.”
The mayor’s visit comes after he was called out by members of the Muslim community for not stopping by the scene of the murders in the days that followed.
Residents ultimately seemed more focused on getting de Blasio behind their cause Monday, though — laying out seven things they were wanting him to look into.
The demands, almost all of which were aimed at the NYPD, included bringing Akonjee and Uddin’s killer to justice; labeling their murders as a hate crime, not giving “mixed messages” or creating anger and confusion in the community; adding video cameras at street corners where mosques stand; renaming the street where the shooting took place after the two victims and raising the reward to $50,000.
“We are very concerned that the NYPD is not looking as aggressively as they should into the possibility of a crime,” explained Iman Boukadoum, of the Interfaith Center of New York. “The Imam was wearing islamic garb. He had walked out of the mosque a few minutes earlier because he had just finished playing. This was definitely a hate crime. This was clearly motivated by hate.”
Though Boukadoum confirmed that tensions with the Hispanic community does occasionally flareup, he said the Muslim community at-large doubts that this played a role in the murder.
Aziz Ramroop, a 63-year-old Guyanese Muslim living in East New York, agreed.
“Was it because of a feud with Hispanics? Why should there be a feud? We are all immigrants,” he said. “Irrespective of what it is, to shoot someone from the back is inhumane…Islam has always been here…I don’t know exactly what happened; it’s all speculation. But there’s no idea that it was a spur-of-the-moment decision. It was premeditated murder.”
Sayeed Hussain, a 26-year-old Muslim, said he believed Akonjee and Uddin were simply targeted because of their traditional religious garb.
“These two men were killed because they were wearing the Islamic uniform,” he said. “There was no other reason. Nobody robbed these guys. There was no other reason. This was hate, and nothing else but hate. This was a holy man. He had a good relationship with everybody. We believe this was a hate crime and we want justice.”
Warning: Graphic video shows the heinous crime