B’desh woman wearing hijab stabbed to death in US, hate crime suspected
3 Sep 2016 10:59 PM GMT
Nazma Khanam, a former schoolteacher, was on her way home along with her husband Shamsul Alam Khan, 75, after closing their shop and picking up some groceries when she was attacked. They were just blocks away from their home when the attacker struck about 9:15 am on Wednesday, New York Daily News reported.
Her asthma-stricken husband found her on a Queens sidewalk in Jamaica Hills with a 4-inch knife lodged in her chest, the sources said. Khanam is survived by her husband and three children. They moved to the US from Bangladesh in 2009 and became US citizens in June.
"Somebody killed me," a mortally-wounded Khanam told her husband. She was wearing traditional Muslim attire –head scarf – when the assailants struck. "He (Khan) is screaming and crying, 'My wife just came to this country to just get killed! We had a better life in Bangladesh!," the victim's nephew Humayun Kabir, who is a policeman, said.
The attack prompted Khanam's relatives to denounce the slaying as a hate crime. "They did not take her phone, pocketbook, bag, nothing. We feel this is a hate crime... We want justice," the victim's another nephew Mohammad Rahman said.
Investigators, however, believe Khanam may have been the target of a robbery attempt. The NYPD Hate Crimes Task Force is monitoring the probe.
Man pleads not guilty in slaying of imam, aide
A man has pleaded not guilty to charges he gunned down an imam and his assistant as they left a New York City mosque. Oscar Morel, 36, entered the pleas to charges of first-degree murder, second-degree murder and criminal possession of a weapon in the August 13 attack.
Prosecutors said Morel approached 55-year-old Imam Maulana Alauddin Akonjee and 64-year-old Thara Miah from behind and shot both of them in the head near a mosque in Queens. Defense attorney Michael Schwed said he’s confident he can prove his client is innocent.
Muslim tourists branded ‘terrorists’, treated like ‘aliens’
A Muslim family of 12, including seven hijab-clad women, have claimed that they were called "terrorists" and stared at as if they were "aliens" during their holiday at an English seaside town. The group of 12 visited Skegness, Lincolnshire, last week.
One of them said that they were treated like "aliens" after they were allegedly stared at and called "terrorists" by passers-by, The Independent reported. The incident came to light when one of the women woman wrote to 'Tell MAMA', a website measuring anti-Muslim attacks that was set up with government funding and whose data has been used in the past by Prime Minister Theresa May.
"Me and my family went for a family trip for the first time to Skegness with a local community centre. Together there were 12 people, of which seven of us wore hijabs," the woman was quoted as saying.
"Once we reached the main area, where there were shops, we noticed a lot of people just staring at us as if we were some form of aliens. It didn't really bother us until we walked past the pub and a man shouted 'terrorists'," she said.
"My sister and I just looked at each other and didn't bother looking back at the man and we were shocked at what he had said. As we went to the beach again, a lot of people continuously stared at us. We just smiled back, but it made us think how ignorant these people are," she added.
The woman said they then went to buy some seaside 'rock' and the lady at the shop said to them "don't you get hot in them", referring to their hijabs (head scarf).
"My sister replied 'no' and they were not that thick and showed her the material of her hijab. The only friendliness the family experienced in the town came from a local Muslim woman, who greeted the family. This was our first family trip with our kids to Skegness and I don't think I would like to go again seeing the behaviour of the people there. It really made us sad and made us miss the area we are from and also made us reflect on how different people are in England. It opened my eyes to the nasty comments Muslims get," the woman said.
A Tell MAMA spokesman was quoted as saying, "We were concerned to hear about the experiences of this visible Muslim family, from the abuse of being called terrorists, to the looks and the abuse that they suffered just to have a day out at the beach."
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