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Hate crimes against US Muslims

Friday, 19 August 2016 4:26 PM [ Last Update: Friday, 19 August 2016 4:26 PM ]

A woman looks at a sketch of a suspect taped to a wall outside of a mosque up the street from the Al-Furqan Jame Masjid mosque where Imam Maulama Akonjee and his assistant, Thara Uddin, 64, were killed in a shooting on August 13 in the Queens borough of New York on August 15, 2016 in New York City. ©AFP

Black people are three times more likely to have a Taser used on them. More than two-thirds of police Taser uses have been against people with mental health issues. Black men are 17 times more likely to suffer from psychotic illnesses and so face an increased risk of having the weapon discharged against them by police. Black people are twice as likely to die in police custody or following contact with the police than white people.

Arab communities in the United States are in shock after a Lebanese-American man was shot and killed by a neighbor who had allegedly used violence and racial slurs against the family for years. Khalid Jabara, 37, was shot and killed on his front porch in Tulsa, Oklahoma, on Friday 12th August.

Imam Maulama Akonjee and his assistant, Thara Uddin, both Bangladeshi immigrants were killed in New York Saturday 13th August at 1.50pm.

It has heightened Muslim American fears of rising violence against the 3.5 million-strong community. The killings have sparked deep unease across the area, where many residents are convinced that the two Muslim men were killed in a hate crime.

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