USA: Imam shot dead in New Jersey

The imam died after he was shot Wednesday morning in front of a mosque in Newark, an industrial and multicultural city across the island of Manhattan in New Jersey. Police were called shortly after 6am to a shooting near the Masjid Mohammed mosque.

When officers arrived on scene, they found a man seriously injured from multiple gunshots. Hassan Sharif was lying on the ground 3 meters from the entrance to the mosque, he had injuries to his stomach and left arm. Taken to hospital, he died there in the early afternoon.

“We do not yet know the motive for this crime (but) the evidence collected so far does not indicate an act motivated by prejudice or domestic terrorism,” the prosecutor said during a press briefing. New Jersey State General (equivalent to local Attorney General, editor’s note), Matthew Platkin, while anti-religious activities, especially anti-Semitic and Islamophobic, are on the rise in the United States following the October 7 terrorist attacks in Israel and the ensuing war.

Hassan Sharif, who also worked as a transportation security officer at Newark Liberty International Airport since 2006, was a well-known figure among Newark’s Muslim community and city leaders. Considered a progressive, Sharif was attached to the Masjid Mohammed mosque, one of the oldest in New Jersey, for more than four years.

“Recent rise in intolerance and bigotry against Muslims”

According to Wahi-ud Din Sharif, head of the New Jersey Council of Imams, who spoke to the New York Times, Imam Sharif was the victim of a similar attack in August. As he was heading to morning prayers, a man approached him and put a gun to his head. The clergyman managed to deflect the weapon of the attacker, who fled.

He spoke about this meeting in a post on his Facebook page. In 1973, the resident imam of the mosque, then Temple No. 25, James Shabazz was shot and killed in the driveway leading to his home. The investigation called into question the power struggles among the black and Muslim communities that occurred in the years after the death of Malcolm X.

A $25,000 reward is being offered to anyone with information about the shooting. The shell casings found at the scene are also being analyzed. Investigators are now checking the mosque’s security cameras and city surveillance cameras to determine if they can locate the attacker. As is often the case, some of the cameras weren’t working, but police believe they found at least one camera angle showing someone driving into the parking lot and then running away.

“We don’t know all the details yet, but here’s what we do know: Imam Hassan Sharif stood with the people of this city, and we will stand with him and his family,” Newark Mayor Ras Baraka said in a press release. release. “None of us need to know the details of this shooting to condemn it. Any act of violence, any killing or harming anyone is never acceptable, no matter what precipitates or motivates such a depraved act. »

Before the death was reported, Democratic Gov. Phil Murphy of New Jersey, home to hundreds of thousands of Muslims and Jews, “assured the Muslim community and believers of all faiths that everything would be done for their safety.”

The Muslim American Defense Association’s New Jersey affiliate, the Council on American-Islamic Relations (Cair), organized a rally at a Newark mosque to “demand that the shooter(s) against Hassan Sharif surrender to authorities.” The group “advised all mosques to keep their doors open but remain cautious given the recent rise in intolerance and bigotry against Muslims.”