This election season has seen an increase of violence against Muslims and those perceived to be Muslim. CIOGC urges the Chicagoland community to stay alert and report any suspicious activity to law enforcement.
Saturday, August 13, Imam Alauddin Akonjee, and his assistant, Thara Miah were shot and killed near their mosque, Al-Furqan Jame Masjid in Queens, New York. NYPD have since arrested Oscar Morel and charged him with one count of first-degree murder and two counts of second-degree murder in the killings.
Thursday, August 11, Muslim mother and daughter were violently attacked in the Roger’s Park neighborhood of Chicago. The video they recorded shows the attacker calling them “ISIS,” spitting at them and getting physically violent with them. Two pedestrians joined the attacker in calling them “ISIS” and high-fived the woman. CAIR-Chicago has since called on law enforcement to investigate the attack as a hate crime and says it is directly related to the Islamophobic Trump rhetoric.
Monday, August 15, Khalid Jabara, a Christian-Lebanese man, was shot and killed on his front porch by his racist neighbor. The attacker, Vernon Majors, was previously in prison for attacking Jabara’s mother and causing her severe injuries. The day Jabara was killed, he learned that Vernon had a gun and called the police in fear of what would happen. Police told the family they couldn’t do anything about it, minutes later Jabara was shot and killed. Vernon had a long history of harassing the Jabaras calling them “dirty Arabs,” “filthy Lebanese,” “Aye-rabs,” and “Mooslems.”