Urgent.. Details of the armed attack on those praying during Eid al-Fitr prayers in… "Parkside"
At least three people were shot during a Muslim celebration of Eid al-Fitr in West Philadelphia on Wednesday, according to multiple reports.
Context
While Muslims around the world were celebrating Eid al-Fitr on Wednesday, which means “the celebration of breaking the fast,” which marks the end of the month of Ramadan, the month of fasting, meditation and prayer.
The shooting comes at a time when gun violence has remained prevalent in America in recent decades.
According to data from the Gun Violence Archive, a non-partisan organization For Profit Tracking Gun Violence In the United States, there has been an upward trend in gun-related deaths including homicides and suicides in the past decade, for the most part. In 2023, there were 43,128 firearm deaths.
WhatWe know him
The shooting occurred during an Eid al-Fitr celebration in the Parkside section of Philadelphia on Wednesday around 2:30. At noon, about 1,000 people had gathered at a local park to pray when gunfire erupted.
Philadelphia Police Commissioner Kevin Bethell said at a news conference later that day that about 30 gunshots, noting that police arrested four men and a woman in connection with the shooting. Four of the suspects were juveniles, according to local CBS affiliate KYW-TV, citing police.
Four weapons were also found at the scene, Bethel said. .
The Associated Press reported that one of the suspects, a 15-year-old young man, was shot by police and sustained wounds to his shoulder and leg.
At the same time, a man was wounded. He was shot in the stomach during the shooting, and another juvenile was shot in the hand, the AP reported.
Philadelphia police also said a juvenile at the scene was wounded by a police cruiser responding to the shooting, according to Chris O’Connell, a correspondent for the local Fox affiliate WTXF-TV.
O’Connell said in a post on X, previously a Twitter post, that the child suffered a broken leg.
There was a large presence Police were at the scene and nearby schools were on lockdown, according to the Philadelphia Inquirer.
Meanwhile, in New Jersey, the Islamic Life Center at Rutgers University in New Brunswick was reportedly broken into and ransacked hours before dawn prayers on Wednesday. Windows were smashed and a Palestinian flag was torn from its flagpole in the front lobby, according to Qaiser Aslam, the Islamic chaplain at Rutgers University. “The community has been shaken because it is our home on campus,” Aslam told Hanan Adele of NorthJersey.com in a Daily Record article published on Wednesday. "It is a safe space for many of our students." “This reprehensible act, which occurred on our holy day, is undoubtedly fueled by Islamophobia,” Aslam said, adding that it was “a hate crime targeting our Muslim population at Rutgers.”
What’s next?
It is unclear what the motive behind the shooting was and whether it was a hate crime. According to the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), there was a sharp rise in anti-Muslim bias incidents in 2023.
CAIR has received 8,061 complaints last year, the highest level in 30 years.
Nearly half of last year’s complaints were reported after the Palestinian resistance movement Hamas carried out Operation Al-Aqsa Flood against the Zionists. In occupied Palestine on October 7, 2023.
In the wake of the Palestinian resistance attack, the Zionist entity launched a brutal aggression against the Gaza, which turned the already tense relationship between Gaza and Israel into a process of genocide of the defenseless population of the Palestinian Strip.
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