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Domestic Muslims The group has linked the murder of four Muslim men in New Mexico over the past year to sectarianism, but Muslims who knew the victims and suspected the shooter are suspected of being a possible shooter. It points to revenge and personal feuds as motives.
Police named Afghan refugee Muhammad Saeed, 51, as the prime suspect in the shooting of four Muslim men in New Mexico's largest city, Albuquerque, last week. was arrested. Said, who is scheduled to appear at a bail hearing on Wednesday, has denied any involvement. His attorney did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Detectives suspected an "interpersonal dispute" may have led to the shooting of a man of Afghan or Pakistani descent.
The Council on Muslim-American Relations (CAIR) was quick to condemn the killings as possible "anti-Shia hatred," according to Muslim advocacy groups. was one. Three of his victims were members of the Shia Muslim minority. Syed is a majority Sunni Muslim.
Abed Ayub, legal and policy director for the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Commission, said the killings were clearly anti-Shia. The Shia Racial Justice Coalition "condemned the heinous killings targeted at Shiites."
Shia-Sunni tensions flare up in the Middle East and South Asia, including Afghanistan, where Shia are frequently attacked by Sunni extremists.
But New Mexico's local Muslim leaders said it was inaccurate to call the killings sectarian and that Shiites and Sunnis praying together at Islamic centers. Main Mosque in Albuquerque, New Mexico. The United States has not experienced significant Shia-Sunni tensions.
"It's absurd to simply say this is a Sunni-Shia hate crime," said Samia, a Palestinian-American human rights activist who hosted an interfaith memorial service for victims. Ased said.
Mazin Kadhim was his worker in Syed's refugee resettlement case when he arrived in Albuquerque about six years ago. Saeed's traditional male authority was challenged and he was humiliated, Kadim said, when Saeed's daughter married Shia Iftikar Amir against his will in 2018.
Syed was charged with the murder of his Amir friend Aftab Hussein, 41, on 26 July.
Kadhim said Syed harbored hatred for the Shiites, but believes Hussein's death was a revenge killing for the rebellion of his daughter and son-in-law. 40}
"It wasn't Sunni or Shia, it was extremism," said Qadim, a Shiite who helped organize the Muslim unity march on Friday.
Syed's daughter did not respond to a request for comment.
Afghan-American business His owner, Mulla Akbar, said the truck driver, Said, treated women as "property", rarely worked, and digitally stamped his food at the store. was illegally exchanged for cash.
The food stamp system led to a dispute with supermarket owner Muhammad Ahmadi, 62, he said, Akbar. Ahmadi was shot dead by police on November 7, 2021, in a homicide linked to his three other deaths in July and August of this year.
Syed's son, his 21-year-old Shaheen, was arrested last week on firearms charges for providing a false address. At Monday's bail hearing, federal prosecutors have linked young Saeed to his Aug. 5 murder of truck owner Naeem Hussein, 25. Shaheen Syed's attorneys called the allegations "speculative."
Imtiaz Hussein, a relative of the victim, is a sectarian in the murder of his brother Muhammad Afzar Hussein, 27, the director of the Sunni city planning department, on 1 August. I don't think the hatred of people played any role. He dismisses his claim that he was mistaken for a Shiite. Said was charged with murder.
Imtiaz Hussain, a 41-year-old Pakistani lawyer, said he met Syed several times at his mosque in Maine in Albuquerque. Once, Imtiaz Hussain said he and his brother told Sayid about his time as a refugee in Quetta, Pakistan, after Said left Afghanistan.
"He must have seen us praying like other Sunnis," says Imtiaz, who believes his brother was shot by multiple people. Hussein said.
Police are cooperating with prosecutors in the alleged deaths of Naeem Hussein and Ahmadi. (Reporting by Andrew Hay, Taos, New Mexico; Editing by Donna Bryson, Jerry Doyle, and Josie Kao)
