Tension roils Queens immigrant community after killings
Photo courtesy of Craig Ruttle/AP
Abigail Hauslohner in the Washington Post reports on a troubling set of killings in NYC. With chants of “We want justice,” in the air, tension is gripping Queens, particularly its large Bengali immigrant community, a day after Al-Furqan Jame’s imam and his assistant were shot at point-blank range in the head on a sidewalk just a few blocks from the mosque in the Ozone Park neighborhood.
Maulama Akonjee, the 55-year-old imam, and Thara Uddin, 64, both immigrants from Bangladesh and fathers of three, were walking home from midday prayer when they were killed. Their attacker remains at large.
In an election year marred by anti-Muslim vitriol, there is a feeling of certainty for many in this Queens community that what happened was a hate crime — a double murder perpetrated because the men were Muslim.
KJ