The shooting of another Muslim in Texas last week has left the Muslim community reeling from increasing hate crimes, demanding a federal investigation into the incident.
"We urge state and federal law enforcement authorities to investigate a possible bias motive for this shooting and to bring appropriate charges if that motive is proven," Mustafaa Carroll, the executive director of Houston office of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), told International Business Times.
"We have seen too many cases of anti-Muslim hate, threats and violence recently nationwide to ignore the possibility that Islamophobia led to this terrible incident."
Last Friday, 42-year-old victim Zaid Abu Naim was shot and killed in Texas.
A CAIR representative in Houston said witnesses have attested to Klimek’s alleged slur against Naim: “Go back to Islam.”
The shooting followed a dispute of over who had the right of way at a four-way stop, according to the Houston Chronicle.
“Words were exchanged," Silva said, "and the victim went to confront the other driver."
Though Robert Craig Klimek, 43, has been charged with aggravated assault with a deadly weapon in Naim’s death, Houston police spokeswoman Jodi Silva described the shooting as one of road rage “at its heart.”
Naim, who is of Palestinian heritage, died Sunday in a Houston hospital.
The Muslim man is not the first victim of hate this year.
Last March, 17-year-old Nykerion Nealon shot Ahmed Al-Jumaili, 36, who was taking photos of the first snow in his life with his newly-wed wife.
In February, three young American Muslims, Deah Shaddy Barakat, 23 his wife Yusor Mohammad Abu-Salha, 21 and her sister Razan Mohammad Abu-Salha, 19, were found dead at a condominium complex off campus.
The gunman, identified as 46-year-old Craig Stephen Hicks, reportedly turned himself into police.
source : abna
