By Mustafa Caglayan
NEW YORK
It was the first time Ahmed al-Jumaili had ever seen snow when he was fatally shot March 5 by a group of men outside of his apartment complex in Texas.
The Iraqi refugee had fled violence in his homeland only three weeks before and moved to the U.S. to reunite with his wife, Zahraa, in a "safer place."
In a night with a beautiful snowfall, with flakes falling obliquely against streetlights, the newlyweds went out to take some pictures, to enjoy the night.
Then came the hail of bullets, one of which hit Jumaili, a Muslim.
It remains unknown whether the shooting will be considered a hate crime, but the incident came at a difficult time for the U.S. Muslim community.
"There is not enough evidence to say it was a hate crime. We do not have enough information," said Alia Salem, executive director of the Dallas-Fort Worth chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, a Muslim civil rights organization.
"But the Muslim community is, to be honest, very nervous right now. Because this young man was a Muslim, he was an Arab, he worked in Iraq."
A little more than a year ago, his wife, Zahraa, made the poignant decision to leave her husband in Iraq, and come to, what she believed to be a safer place, in the U.S. to reunite with her family in North Texas, according to a fundraising page created by Salem.
Jumaili had saved for more than a year to leave behind deadly strife in Iraq. He and Zahraa had married just 16 months ago.
On Feb. 10, Muslims in America mourned the death of three young Muslims who were ruthlessly killed in North Carolina. The suspect in that shooting described himself as a "gun-toting" atheist. The family of the victims branded the incident a hate crime, with a broad spectrum of Muslim advocacy groups urging authorities to examine a possible bias motive.
With a wave of anti-Muslim sentiments already high in North Texas, Salem said fears that Jumaili was targeted because of his faith are making Muslims "scared to leave their houses."
"We were struggling with Islamophobia for a long time, and it has gotten worse in these last couple of years especially," she said. "With the North Carolina shootings, things we experience in North Texas, we have people conducting hate rallies and chanting very anti-Muslim slogans."
Meanwhile, the Dallas Police Department says it is still investigating the case and it remains unknown whether Jumaili was targeted.
"Detectives are following-up on leads provided from tip lines in response to the department’s and the Muslim community’s plea for public assistance to this crime," Dallas Police Maj. Jeff Cotner told The Anadolu Agency.
The Council on American-Islamic Relations, the nation's largest Muslim advocacy group, released a statement the day after the killing, calling on law enforcement to address community concerns about its motive.
The statement pointed out that Jumaili's wife was wearing an Islamic head scarf at the time of the incident.
“Because of recent incidents targeting American Muslims, including the murder of three young Muslims in North Carolina, we urge law enforcement authorities to address community concerns about a motive in this case,” read the statement.
