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Albuquerque — Islam People interviewed Wednesday in Muslim New Mexico said they were shocked and embarrassed by the arrest of a Muslim immigrant from Afghanistan in connection with the murder of four Muslim men.
On Tuesday, police announced they had detained 51-year-old Muhammad Said. The motive for the killing remains unclear, but police said he may have acted on personal grudges, possibly with nuances within Muslim sects.
According to the New York Times, Saeed denied any involvement in any of the four killings when questioned by police.
``We don't believe it at all. Mulla Akbar, an Afghan-American businessman who said he helped settle, said.
"His hatred of Shiites may have had something to do with it," said Akbar.
Syed is from Sunni Islam, New Albuquerque. He prayed with most of the victims at his mosque in the Islamic Center of Mexico. Three of them were Shia Muslims. All four victims were of Afghan or Pakistani descent. One he died in November and his remaining three died in the past two weeks.
Said, who first appeared in court on Wednesday, said on July 26 he killed Aftab his Hussein, who was 41 years old, and on August 1, he killed Muhammad, who was 27 years old. formally indicted for
Police said Tuesday that truck driver Naeem Hussain, 25, was killed outside a grocery store on November 7, 2021. ) and Mohammad Ahmadi, 62, said they were cooperating with prosecutors in the possible murder. A store he ran with his brother in southeastern Albuquerque.
It was not immediately clear if Syed had hired a lawyer. His family did not immediately respond to a request for comment, but local TV station KRQE News 13 said the family said they believed he was innocent.
Palestinian-American 's Samia Ased said the Muslim community of about 4,000 living in the city of over half a million people has work to do to prevent the violence left in countries such as Afghanistan and Pakistan.
After hosting an interfaith memorial service at the Islamic Center for New Mexico (ICNM) in Albuquerque, the human rights activist said, "He wanted to hide under a rock. I'm back," he said. Albuquerque's oldest and largest mosque.
"For this to happen, it's like putting us back 100 years from her," she said.
According to a congregation interviewed by Reuters, the mosque is non-denominational and primarily she serves Sunnis from more than 30 countries and has never experienced this kind of violence. It says.
On Tuesday, police declined to comment on rumors that Saeed was upset that one of his daughters had eloped and married a Shia man.
Syed is a truck driver, father of six, of Pashtun descent, who arrived in the United States as a refugee from Kandahar province in southern Afghanistan about six years ago, said to have worked in Afghanistan. said his Akbar, a former US diplomat. He solved the problem and helped found the Afghan Society of New Mexico.
Syed had a misdemeanor record, including a case of domestic violence, over the past three to four years, police said.
The February 2020 video is believed to be owned by the family of his Ahmadi, the first victim in his ICNM, according to Ahmad Assed, the president of the mosque and lawyer. It showed him cutting a car tire.
"We are trying to make sense of the senseless killings we have suffered in surreal times," he said. (Reporting by Andrew Hay of Albuquerque; Editing by Donna Bryson, Howard Goller, Rosalba O'Brien)
