Demonstration for justice after shootings of Akonjee and Udin, 2016. AP Photo/PA Images/Craig Ruttle. All rights reserved.In August 2016, Khalid Jabara was shot on his front porch by his neighbour Stanley Vernon Majors in Tulsa, Oklahoma. It took place only 30 minutes after Jabara had contacted the police saying he felt unsafe. Majors, who had repeatedly insulted the family using anti-Arab slurs such as "dirty Arabs", "filthy Lebanese", had hit Jabara’s mother, Haifa, with his car in September 2015, and had recently been released on bail.
Jabara’s death came five days after another racist murder, this time in Queens, New York. Imam Maulama Akonjee and his close friend Thara Uddin were shot while walking home from afternoon prayers. They were wearing ‘traditional dress’. The NYPD initially said there was no evidence it was a racially motivated attack, though the $1000 Akonjee was carrying remained untouched by the killer.
In early September, two women wearing hijabs were attacked in Brooklyn while out walking their 11- and 15-month-old children. Their attacker, Emirjeta Xhelili, allegedly told them to “get the f*** out,” saying they “don’t belong here”. She tried to rip their headscarves from their heads and pushed one of the children’s prams to the ground.
