Dallas Muslim murdered while watching his first snowfall, media largely silent

In the quiet moments before Ahmed Al-Jumaili died, he and his wife stepped out of her family's apartment, in a small complex in a suburb of Dallas, to photograph the first snowfall he'd ever seen.

Al-Jumaili had hesitated to leave his home in Iraq, but his wife had urged him to come to the US, where he'd be safer. She'd gone ahead to Dallas not long after their 2013 marriage, but he stayed in Iraq to work and save for their new life. Finally, last month, he followed her to Texas, where she had family, and left behind the chaos of Iraq.

On Thursday, the last night of his life, three and a half inches of snow fell on Dallas, the most since 1942. It was almost midnight when he and his wife stood outside to take photos of this new sight, in the country that was to be his new home. As they lingered, what residents would later describe to police as two to four men, moving on foot, entered the small complex. One or more of the men raised a rifle and shot Al-Jumaili. Police would later find bullets lodged in nearby cars as well. He died a few hours later at a nearby hospital; he was 36 years old and had been in the US for three weeks.

Neither police nor Al-Jumaili's family are yet claiming a motive, but focus has naturally fallen on the growing trend of violence against Muslims in the United States. Dallas Police Major Jeff Cotner said police considered hate crime a "possibility." A local Methodist pastor, as well as a representative from the Council on American-Islamic Relations, have both said the local community already fears as much.

And yet Al-Jumaili's killing has received strikingly little attention, other than a few mostly brief media reports, and the statements of faith leaders in Dallas hinting at a climate of hostility toward Muslims there.

http://www.vox.com/2015/3/7/8165583/ahmed-al-jumaili-killed-texas

Ben me darlin, see http://www.newsfixboard.com/t8336-ahmed-al-jumaili-fled-iraq-to-escape-isis-only-to-be-gunned-down-in-dallas-texas

Hi Ben. What a coincidence after me asking you about the KKK and any attitude in US against Moslems. Well, it's not surprising really. Islam, wherever it is, has brought mistrust and contempt upon itself, although of course most Moslems are not members of IS, and not terrorists. But because of the barbaric atrocities by IS the general public look upon Moslems with a wary eye and suspicion.

Ben, could you possiblly merge the two threads, as I think I answered Stardesk's question on the other one. Islam has not brought distrust on itself, fundamentals have stirred up trouble for it, as have many other kinds of fundamentalists, including RW nutters.

Handsome couple.

How ironic, safer in Iraq than Dallas. But then, I wouldn't consider the south as safe, either.

Texas Muslims fear for safety after Iraqi man shot dead in Dallas attack

Muslim leaders in Texas have expressed their fears over rising anxiety in the community following the murder of an Iraqi migrant who was shot dead in Dallas as he stood outside his apartment to photograph his first snowfall.

Ahmed al-Jumaili had waited a year for paperwork to be completed so he could join his wife, Zahraa, in the US, where they hoped they could start a new life together in a safer country. She greeted him at the airport with balloons, flowers and a sign that said she had “waited 460 days … for this moment”.

Less than three weeks later, Jumaili was dead: killed in an apparently random shooting by unknown assailants who are still at large. Police said that Jumaili, his wife and her brother were outside their apartment complex in a north Dallas suburb late last Wednesday, taking photographs of snow in the parking lot. Four suspects entered the complex on foot, multiple shots were fired, and the 36-year-old was killed after being hit in the chest.

While no motive has been established, there were immediate suspicions that it was a hate crime – a fear that is emblematic of the increased anxiety felt by many Muslims in the wake of high-profile Isis executions of westerners, the deaths of three students in North Carolina last month and some inflammatory statements and protests in Texas.

A press conference was held in Dallas on Monday afternoon where activists said they would offer a $7,000 reward for information leading to the capture of Jumaili’s killer or killers. A memorial fund for the family has raised in excess of $25,000.

Concern among the Muslim community in Houston was heightened last month when part of an Islamic centre in Houston burned down. A homeless man was arrested and charged with arson. He claimed it was accidental, the Houston Chronicle reported.

Shpendim Nadzaku, the imam for the Islamic Association of North Texas, told the Guardian that since taking up the role last June, he had seen that “unfortunately, some of this racial and bigoted talk and behaviour has been quite common”.

“There has definitely been an increase of very open vitriolic language towards Muslims in general,” he said.

Nadzaku said he had met with the family and that Jumaili was “gunned down before their eyes without any type or reason or explanation”. His funeral took place last Saturday.

In January, about a week after the Charlie Hebdo massacre, large numbers of protesters gathered outside a Muslim conference in Garland that took place only seven miles away from the site of the murder.

“We’re here to stand up for the American way of life [against] a faction of people that are trying to destroy us,” one man told NBC’s local news outlet. The title of the conference was “Stand with the Prophet against terror and hate”.



Nadzaku said he saw one sign that read “Go home and take Obama with you”. He believes that some rightwing politicians have stoked a threatening atmosphere by seeking to make connections between violent terrorist acts overseas and a perceived potential threat to American domestic security.

“I think politics has a lot to do with it. When our politicians are going to import the unfortunate situations out there as if it’s something we have in our own backyard and use it to polarise us … I think it’s a very dangerous path they’re taking,” he said.

An anti-Muslim activist said in February that she planned to hold a “draw the prophet” contest in the same convention centre in Garland.

Texas Muslim Capitol Day in Austin in January was disrupted by protests, while Molly White, a Republican state representative from central Texas, posted a message on her Facebook page saying she “did leave an Israeli flag on the reception desk in my office with instructions to staff to ask representatives from the Muslim community to renounce Islamic terrorist groups and publicly announce allegiance to America and our laws. We will see how long they stay in my office.”

In 2007, Dan Patrick, then a Texas Republican senator and now lieutenant governor – the second-most powerful elected position in the state – boycotted a prayer delivered by a Muslim cleric in the Texas capitol.

Ted Cruz, a US senator from Texas and possible presidential candidate, said in 2012 that Sharia law is “an enormous problem”.

Alia Salem, the executive director of the Dallas-Fort Worth chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, said that there were an estimated 200,000 Muslims in the region and that she had noticed a rise in activity by white supremacists and other racist groups since the election of Barack Obama as president.

“The sentiment that I know I personally have and that others have expressed to me is that even though we don’t have anything concrete on whether it’s a hate crime or not, it’s another Muslim who has been killed in a very violent way and it just continues to heighten the sense of insecurity that we feel,” she said.

“I can’t tell you how many people come up to me and they’re frightened to leave their house. Women who wear their headscarves don’t want to go to work or school or even go to the grocery store, for that matter.

“I personally have received death threats and have had to report them to law enforcement. It just continues to build. Even though we’re trying to be strong and say, ‘oh, these are just crazy, they’re not going to do anything’, every time a Muslim dies the first fear that’s popping into everybody’s head is, ‘they’re after us’.”

http://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2015/mar/09/dallas-iraqi-man-shot-dead-texas

Funnily enough, it has all been building since American Sniper, but that's what you wanted wasn't it Clint?

Blimey is every tory where the victim is Muslim to take precedent over any other faith or non-faith now?
Again lets look at this for what it is, it is a murder sadly, which happens in America, if a hate crime murder it would be rare.
If you want unity within a nation you do not promote a view of fear, as we see of fear promoted against Muslims because of what some do, it is the same negative arguiment which has no backing.
Muslims are by far much safer in the west than they are in Muslim majority countries.
To claim otherwise is skewing the facts.
Yes we need to deal with those who do persecute Muslims, but this is just one of many problems faced by many whether racially, religious, gender etc.
This is why again those promoting this kind of unsubstanciated fear are as bad as those who promote the same of Muslims.