By Arul Louis Dallas 10th, August : An Muslim man in the US has been accused in the murders of four Muslims from Pakistan and Afghanistan that a major American Islamic organization said could be driven by “anti-Shia hatred”.
Police announced Tuesday that they had taken into custody Muhammad Syed, 51, as the “primary suspect” in the killings in Albuquerque, New Mexico.
Civil rights organizations, officials and the media have fueled the fears in the Islamic community of bias attacks on Muslims.
The president Joe Biden had tweeted that he was “angered” by the murders and added that his “administration is in full support with the Muslim community”.
The citizenship of Syed was not made public by government officials however the potential of anti-Shia murders in the US could suggest that the religious tension in Pakistan as well as Afghanistan in which Sunni terrorist groups are targeting Shias has spread to the US.
Two of the murders occurred during the celebrations of Muharram which is a time of mourning in the religion of Shias.
The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) admitted on Tuesday that “anti-Shia hatred” could have “motivated the murders” after its Director Edward Ahmed Mitchell had earlier issued an advisory general that “the lives of Albuquerque Muslims are in danger” and urged Muslims all over the US to “exercise vigilantity”.
CAIR National Executive Director Nihad Awad said: “Although we are waiting to find out more about these crimes, we are concerned by the early indications that the suspected killer might have targeted specific individuals of the Shia community.”
Alburquerque police say they discovered evidence that suggests the suspect was aware of the victims and that “an interpersonal conflict could have caused the murders”.
They claimed that the bullet casings discovered at the scene of the killing of two Pakistanis, Aftab Hussein on July 26 and Muhammad Afzaal Hussain on August 1 were matched to a gun that was found in the residence of Syed, and they brought charges against Syed.
Albuquerque Police Chief Harold Medina said police were working with prosecutor’s offices in relation to “potential allegations” in the other two cases -the murder of Mohammad Zaheer Ahmadi, an Afghan who was killed in November and Naeem Hussain who was a Pakistani on the 5th of August.
The police claimed that as the detectives were preparing to search Syed’s house on Monday morning, he was seen leaving in the Volkswagen Jetta that was used in at least one of the murders.
The detectives arrested Syed and searched his house as well as his vehicle, and found more evidence linking Syed to the killings police said.
(Arul Louis may be reached via [email protected] and he can be followed via @arulouis.)
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