Yesterday afternoon, Saturday, August 13, 2016, two Muslim men on their way home after the recitation of their afternoon prayers at their mosque were killed. Imam Maulana Alauddin Akonjee, 55, hailing originally from Bangladesh and now part of the fabric of American society (2011) in Queens, New York (2012) along with his assistant, Thara Uddin/*Miah (*updates from other sources August 15th report a conflict of information in last name), 64, were approached from behind, and then killed, each of them with a gunshot wound to the head at close range.
Journalists for the New York Post report that police have involved the New York Police Department’s Hate Crime Task Force in their investigation, but have not specifically affixed the hate crime category as being among their primary motives for the commission of this crime, as of yet.
Also in the report, a suspect described by the Post is said to have fled the scene carrying a gun, and wearing a dark-colored golf shirt with shorts. This person of interest is male, and both of these victims, attributed to police accounts by the Post, were said not to have been robbed.
So, we have two men together, ambushed with murderous intent, walking together, who were not robbed. Here is the way I see it, thus far. That there were other people in the vicinity who were unharmed, and that not just one, but BOTH, of these men were killed, indicates, to me, that the two were likely targeted by their murderer. They were dressed, as mentioned, in customary dress which might mark them as adherents among followers of Islam. They were not confronted where their defense might have been enabled, but were attacked from behind to create an element of surprise and to delay the possibility of reaction. Their personal effects had not been removed. Nothing to hide the victims identities had been either removed or attempted and this attack had been carried out in broad daylight, without cover of darkness to further conceal the killer’s actions.
So, its apparent they were not robbed for their bodily possessions. It was definitely preconceived, being that not one, but two, individuals had been killed together in the same manner, and from behind. Whether it was specifically these two individuals who had been egregiously selected by their murderer is difficult to determine, at this point.
Had it been an opportunistic attack, the murderer lying in wait for these specific people? Or, was it a general execution of certain individuals belonging to a group of people, in a more broad-based application of that meaning? It is hard to know just yet.
Had there been a failed business interest in which these two men were involved, and for which payment for non-collection had become due? It seems somewhat unlikely, as no financial enrichment had been gained by this act. The ultimate payment, though, had been their lives.
It would seem that somebody’s sense of “honor” comes into play, at this point, although this scale slides quite freely, according to the values systems held by each individual, and their perceived sets of boundaries and behaviors beyond which expectations crossed can reap innumerable outcomes. “Honor among thieves” is still thievery, despite a grandiosely-entitled denouement.
Was this a drug deal gone bad? I don’t believe it for a minute. There is nothing that would give the hallmark of an appearance to this suggestion as an even plausible consideration, although, of course, one can never be certain.
Was this a “bad blood” feud between relations? It could be, and domestic or familial disputes rank high in sudden violent episodes, with an often recurring alacrity. It seems among the least possibilities for this senseless act. If we extend it into a regional scope; say, within the community, it would present a more reasonable explanation, as well. But, it’s just not my gut instinct about this case.
Instinct does not serve as a basis of evidence, though: facts must do that. As the adage goes, the American justice system is based on a presumption of innocence, until such that a verdict of guilt is pronounced in a judicial or military capacity. Reasonable cause can suspend the presumption of innocence, but only in shortened duration.
Apparently these two men were guilty in their attackers’ eyes — or, the man was just an unhinged madman acting on a predilection to kill or to act to the imbalancement of his brain ordering his actions.
In any case, I’m not one to jump onto the bandwagon going around about town which says that a derelict individual engaged in a criminal act who gets him/herself killed while in the midst of committing such act is an innocent individual beyond any reproach. That is simply wrong. It must be presumed that robbers, drug dealers, and the like, should expect to find the tables turned in their assaults upon society, as a possible outcome and consequence of their actions. We, as a society, should expect the same.
The most likely scenario that I do see, in this initial presentation by the media of the issues surrounding this case, is that one of the most-probable explanations for this act was the individual’s preconceived conception of people he didn’t know, and toward whom he could not face in his cowardly deed of murder in cold blood. An attack to the face or head is a particularly aggressive expression of a highly personal nature to the assaulter, often seen in cases of domestic violence. Such emotions as jealousy, anger and rage are the outlets for such as these types of behaviors.
Hopefully there was security footage from area cameras which might point police to uncover the perpetrator. Certainly, these men faced a gruesome death, and their communities and families are faced with the tragedies of the loss of these two mens’ lives. I am a constant companion, whether in the abstract, or in the particular, to the feelings engendered by such tragic and senseless acts.
Update August 16, 2016: Information informing my changes and additional details pieced from subsequent reports indicate that Oscar Morel, 35, of Brooklyn, has been arrested and charged in this case. Surveillance video from area cameras caught a suspect fleeing the scene in a vehicle later identified as a black GMC Chevrolet TrailBlazer. Approximately ten minutes after the murders, a bicyclist was hit by a vehicle matching that description, whose driver left that scene. The bicyclist was able to look at the license plate and reported the numbers to police. Police located the vehicle and awaited Morel by the car (reports differ on his returning to the vehicle, or emerging from the vehicle). He then attempted a ramming of the police vehicle blocking his escape as he tried to flee. He was apprehended and brought to the police station for questioning, and was held in custody. No motive has been proferred.
A search of Morel’s residence on Miller Avenue in Brooklyn turned up a gun and clothing initially believed to match the evidentiary items from the scene where the crime occured. Similarly, the police sketch based on descriptions bears a remarkable resemblance to the person now charged with the murders.
It has been posited, as rumors go, that buzz for the motive is being attributed to racial tensions between the Latino community and the Muslim community. The Muslim community, in particular, is painting this as a hate crime. My own opinion assesses the same verdict. One particular recent article in the New York Times (mobile edition) provides a compelling look at the murder of Muslims in that vicinity over the last several years. The article states that the death rate has been low. I don’t know by which comparable measurement this opinion is ascertained… By New York standards? By large city standards? What?
To me, they seem ridiculously high and way too many. Any is too much, but that just represents the ideologically impossible realm of imagination. In 2002, Mizanur Rahman, 37, was beaten to death by Rafael Santos, 27, and Hardy Marston, 18. In 2014, Nazmul Islam, 55, was beaten to death by Nestor Rodriguez, 22, and Carlos Genno, 25. Their trial has not yet commenced. There is a coincidental racial factor here, the third of which makes this a trine; but I don’t claim this to be a causative factor, per se.
I did say that I thought it a more reasonable conclusion to think that this could be a regional issue, and it is. While news headlines report the apprehension of this Brooklyn murder suspect of an incident which occured in Queens, the boroughs are also neighbors. In fact, a Google search inputting the al-Farqun Jame Masjid mosque in Queens, the mosque where Maulana Alauddin Akonjee served, and Miller Avenue in Brooklyn, the residence of the suspect, brings up an almost straight-line distance of just 1.8 miles across the lines — a mere ten-minute car drive.
It’s also interesting that the mosque is located within a two-story house in a residential neighborhood of similarly-constructed homes. There have been many a contentious battle waged over the religious conversion of residential neighborhood homes being converted to houses of worship, no matter which faith its purpose would serve. People become concerned over the increase to neighborhood traffic and noise, and I am well aware of this issue and how often it has affected Jewish faith practitioners and the location of our own small “homes of worship”.
It has been a constant battle we have had to legally fight; I guess we’ve paved many paths to follow. Such neighborly intimidation has extended to include even being able to operate in a building on a parking lot, or to add signage which might be able to be viewed from the roadside (Shhhh…. Jew worshipping here). With every such incident, I feel the discrimination. Cities are free to enact their own particular rules and conformance/compliance regulations to allow or to reject faith-based structures in their areas via zoning requirements and other codes. I recall the vehemence with which the development company at Ground Zero, the World Trade Center towers, was being castigated for considering a sale to Muslims of land at that sacred site, which Muslim hijacker terrorists defiled with their dastardly actions on 09/11/2001. To have given in would have represented a victory claim by Muslims to this site, and it just didn’t happen. Zoning issues, or something. I know that there have been hackles raised at proposed mosques being built in communities elsewhere, especially where such sensitivities have caused great loss of life to other communities, such as where terrorists had lived amongst us. Perhaps this similar dynamic had festered here.
But, the mosques have been built, despite the audible complaints of community members, and if you follow such issues, as I tend to, you still find a litany of incidents around such matters. But religious freedom and freedom from religious persecution are part of the fabric of our society. We hope it will survive.
Update: August 18, 2016: A potential witness to the incident has fingered a different individual, what Reuters reports as a “filler”, in a police line-up.
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Megan McGibney, Georgett Roberts, Larry Celona and Stephanie Pagones. “Queens Imam and His Assistant Executed in Broad Daylight”. New York Post; August 13, 2016: http://www.nypost.com/2016/08/13/2-wounded-in-queens-shooting/
Rick Rojas, Liz Robbins, Noah Remnick and William K. Rashbaum. “Brooklyn Man Charged with Killing Imam and Assistant Near Mosque”. The New York Times, N.Y./Region, Mobile Edition; August 15, 2016: http://mobile.nytimes.com/2016/08/16/nyregion/oscar-morel-queens-imam-shootings.html?referer=
Maria Alvarez, Matthew Chayes, Alison Fox, Anthony M. DeStefano, and John Valenti. “NYPD: Oscar Morel Held in Killing of Imam and Aide”. Newsday, New York edition; August 16, 2016: http://www.newsday.com/news/new-york/nypd-oscar-morel-held-in-killing-of-imam-and-aide-1.12177644/
Reuters, via Yahoo News! “Witness in N.Y. Cleric Killing ID’d Someone Other than Suspect”. Reuters, via Yahoo News!; August 18, 2016: http://www.yahoo.com/news/witness-ny-cleric-killing-idd-someone-other-180758817.html?ref=gs
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