Muslims: Police Killing of Boston 'Terror Suspect' Itself Suspect

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Law enforcement at the scene of the shooting of a Muslim man armed with a knife on a Boston street by FBI agents and police. Police claim the man threatened them with the knife, while the man's brother -- an Imam in Boston -- said he was speaking to his father on the phone when the shots were fired and he was killed. Internet photo.


On the morning of June 2, 2015, a young man, Usaama Rahim, was killed by both the FBI and the police while he was waiting for a bus, at in the morning in Boston, MA. The young man was the younger brother of Imam Ibrahim Rahim, a graduate of University of Madinah and an imam of the Lighthouse masjid in Oakland, CA.

According to AP, Police Commissioner Evans said the officers didn't have their guns drawn when they approached Rahim. He said police have video showing Rahim "coming at officers" while they are backing away. Rahim was shot twice on his abdomen and chest, according to police.

That account differs from one given by Imam Rahim, who said in a Facebook posting that his youngest brother was killed while waiting at a bus stop in Boston to go to his job. There are many unanswered questions as the media accounts, the police and FBI accounts and the family’s account are so vastly different. Initial reports media reports said US terrorism experts killed Rahim, who CBS misidentified as being of Middle Eastern descent.

"He was confronted by three Boston Police officers and subsequently shot in the back three times," he wrote. "He was on his cell phone with my dear father during the confrontation needing a witness." Rahim was married and his home has been searched after his death by the police.

 

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Boston Imam Ibrahim Rahim, the brother of Usaama Rahim, implies that Usaama was on the phone with his father so he could have a witness during the confrontation .


The authorities have not identified why Rahim was under surveillance. Journalist Glenn Greenwald noted that police can kill a man on the street, anonymously claim that he was radicalized by ISIS and kill him. Other critics on Twitter noted that the media had run with the story, declaring Rahim a radicalized terrorist based on unnamed sources.

“They have added a national security component to divide and conquer the movement. At the end of the day, a Black man was shot on a bus stop on his way to work and we should treat this like any other case of police violence. All we want is answers to our questions,” noted Linda Sarsour, an activist with the Justice League in New York CIty.

A Facebook post from Imam Rahim alleges his younger brother Usaama Rahim was shot today on his way to work. The victim who was fatally wounded died in hospital.

Imam Rahim stated, “we are deeply grieved by the loss of my younger brother. While we understand the need for information. We ask that the press give us time to grieve. We will have a statement once we have met as a family.”

Boston is touted at the government’s a CVE (Countering Violent Extremism) model city. The Justice Department launched a pilot program in 2014, aimed at deterring US residents from joining violent extremist groups. Questions that civil rights activists are asking include counter-terrorism tactics that allow for questioning on a street corners without warrants, what law enforcement agencies made up the JTTF (Joint Terrorism Task Force), which agency is in charge on site, who attempted to "speak" with him, locals, Feds, or both.

Many of the questions were met with ‘no comments’ by authorities at the press conference on Tuesday. Feds do say that Rahim was under 24 hour surveillance for ‘some time’.

“I just watched the FBI Boston press conference on the homicide of Usaama Rahim.

The FBI stated that there was no arrest warrant for him this morning, and that they were merely trying to question him. The FBI didn't state that he committed any crime whatsoever.

They didn't say if they were plain clothes agents or not. So in other words, they came up on him just after sunrise at a bus stop to talk with him without an arrest warrant nor sufficient evidence to charge him with any crime,” Dawud Walid, Ex. Director of CAIR-MI,  noted on his Facebook page.

"We have a number of questions: Why exactly was he being followed? What was the probable cause for this particular stop? Were there any video cameras or body cameras of the incident? How do you reconcile the two versions of the story, the family version being that he was on his normal commute to work at a bus stop?" said Ibrahim Hooper with CAIR.

We are hearing two different narratives of the incident,” said Farhana Khera, executive director of Muslim Advocates. “The victim’s family has said that Rahim was shot in the back as he was talking on the phone with his father, while law enforcement officials have claimed he was shot in the front. During a press conference by the FBI and the Boston Police Department soon after the shooting, officials clearly said that there is no ongoing threat in this case to the American people. Given the lack of a continuing threat, the public deserves to understand why police were spying on and fatally shot Rahim. This transparency is critical to gaining trust of law enforcement by communities that are all too often victims of police surveillance and killings.”

In a statement, the Islamic Society of Boston said police have invited Muslim leaders Wednesday to watch surveillance video of the shooting.

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