By Sadef Ali Kully
Less than 24 hours after Mayor Bill de Blasio spoke about the Muslim community as an ally, Sarker Haque, a Muslim grocery store owner in Astoria, was reading the news in the middle of a slow afternoon moments when he was attacked by a 50-year old Florida man, police said.
Haque, who has lived in the city for 16 years, said his attacker said he would kill Muslims while punching him several times. He was scared for his life.
While federal authorities in California pieced together the reasons behind the fatal shooting that left 14 dead in San Bernadino, de Blasio joined the Muslim community last Friday at the Jamaica Muslim Center to condemn the attacks.
Hundreds of members of the congregation, the young and old, gathered to welcome the mayor at a time when Muslims across the world face criticism as terrorist assaults on innocent lives in the name of their religion grab media headlines.
After Queens’ Muslim leaders condemned the attacks in Paris and California, the mayor was welcomed with loud applause.
“This city is a stronger city, because every kind of community exists here. We are a stronger city because of the Muslim community here. This community wants a relationship with the city.” he said.
He said New Yorkers should reject the notion that the city could be torn apart by racism-driven fear.
“This Muslim community of New York City is an ally in the fight against terror,” he said. “We need to be clear. The people of this community desire peace and harmony and understand a sad fact: When acts of terror occur, all communities suffer.”
Blasio pointed out there were 1.6 billion Muslims across the world and almost a million across the city.
“[Muslims] are law-abiding, good people and the few who have chosen a different path does not define them,” he said.
DeBlasio said violence against any community is not tolerated and would be pursued as a hate crime by the NYPD.
The Jamaica Muslim Center, also known as Masjid Al-Mamoor, is a multi-purpose mosque that caters to religious studies, prayers, celebration, after-school programs and food service for all denominations at 85-37 168th St. in Jamaica.
Many Muslim men at the event, who feared a backlash against the community, said they worked hard, enjoyed their families and had big dreams for their children to do great things, just like every individual in this country.
“This is absolutely historic,” said 29-year-old Muhammed Salahuddin, rom Jamaica. “The feeling was always like we weren’t being heard. We were being marginalized. The racism has not always been direct. It has been small, carefully crafted comments. But as a Muslim you try to understand where the other person is coming from — people are scared but so are Muslims. We are scared, too.”
Reach Reporter Sadef Ali Kully by e-mail at skull
