NEW YORK police charged a suspect Monday with the double murder of a Brooklyn mosque Imam and his friend, both are migrants from Bangladesh as the slaying sent shock waves through the US Muslim communities. The suspected killer a 35-year-old who has been charged by police with two counts of murder and two counts of criminal possession of a weapon, news report said as the Imam’s body is being flown to Bangladesh for burial while his assistant will be buried in a New York City graveyard.
Bangladesh community in New York City has blamed racial hatred and Islam phobia which has been let lose recently by a right wing political leader and presidential candidate in November US election. Community leaders slammed “xenophobic statements” made against Muslims in speeches by Donald Trump and his campaign team who has earlier called for banning the Muslims from entering the USA and promised other degrading measures to Muslim migrants. New York police said they are investigating into hate factor.
As we know the USA is a multi-racial society, which is known for its tolerance and equal opportunity to all migrant communities working to make their life better and make America great as the leader of the free world. The two major political parties – Democratic Party and Republican Party have their differences based on political outlook and economic issues. But they share the common values of democratic pluralism, human rights and freedom of expression. They are open to migrants irrespective of religion and regions where they come from. In fact America is a nation of migrants working together to build the modern civilization.
The hate factor against Muslims and Mexicans quickly became prominent this time in the US election when the wrong-headed Republican presidential candidate took the issue to cheer his ultra-nationalist voters to rally around him. Needless to say he has already proved largely unacceptable to his party and the US establishments against a highly capable democratic challenger from Hilary Clinton. Trump is already deserted by most of his senior party leaders and registered party voters whose politics aims at dismantling America as a global political and economic powerhouse by isolating it from friends and allies in other continents.
What we are scared here is the fallout of his racial campaign, which appears to be encouraging criminals to resort to slaying Muslims. We have to wait until election if he can become president, but be it or not — the harm that he has already done to community relations and US multi-racial culture may not be altogether overcome. America may not be the same again, although the two major parties will not shelter such hatred to destroy American values. We have all confidence in mainstream US leaderships. We also hope that New York police will be able to identify the killer and put him on trial.
