A year ago, the killings of three Muslim men, in addition to a fourth several months earlier, shook the Albuquerque community. Muhammad Syed, who attended the same mosque as the victims, at the Islamic Center of New Mexico, was arrested and charged with three of the murders and is a suspect in the fourth.
Muhammad Imtiaz Hussain's brother Muhammad Afzaal Hussain was killed last August. He says that the anniversary is compounding the grief, and he still does not know why his brother died.
“Certainly very painful, the loss of a brother who was a key member in our family,” he said. “But what is more painful, that is perpetual: we do not know so far why this incident had happened.”
He said the Albuquerque Police Department hasn’t been able to tell him a motive for the murder of his brother or the others, Mohammad Ahmadi, Naeem Hussain and Aftab Hussein, following their investigation. An APD spokesperson said he was unable to comment beyond the information in the criminal complaint, which doesn’t include a motive.
Hussain said Syed and his brother didn’t have a relationship and his brother was not a religious leader, nor did he have much in common with the other victims.
“I don’t have any theory, and my mind cannot calculate or conclude any analogy that this could have happened,” he said.
Hussain, who is the secretary of the Islamic Center of New Mexico, said its members have been unified in the aftermath of the killings as they've worked to heal.
“They showed solidarity and gave strength to each other,” he said.
They've also received support from other faith communities and the state at large, according to Hussain. However, lacking an understanding of why it happened, and whether it could happen again, has prolonged concern within the tight-knit Muslim community here.
“So, people are more careful and they are more composed to themselves,” he said.
He said he hopes a motive could come to light in the trial, but a date has yet to be set. The Bernalillo County District Attorney’s Office said Syed's next pre-trial hearing is scheduled for October 27 before Second Judicial District Judge Britt Baca-Miller.
