Mayor Bill de Blasio joined Muslim community members gathered in Brooklyn on Monday, August 15, to hold the Islamic funeral prayer (janazah) for Imam Maulana Akonjee, 55, and Thara Miah, 64, who were brutally murdered “execution style” on August 13.
“In Islam, the loss of a person is regarded not just as a loss for their family but for the entire community,” de Blasio said.
“That’s something we, as New Yorkers, understand – again across all faiths, across all neighborhoods, when a loss is felt so deeply, when it affects us all. We don’t know what happened yet, but we will know.”
Imam Maulana Akonjee and Thara Miah were gunned down in broad daylight at around 1:50pm in Ozone Park on Saturday, August 13. They were both transported to Jamaica Queens Hospital where they died. The attacker is still at large.
Photo credit: Mayor’s press office
