New York Muslims Gather in Hundreds to Pray for Orlando Shooting Victims

New York: Hundreds of Muslims in New York came together on Monday to pray for the victims who lost their lives in the deadliest attack on a gay nightclub in Orlando.

On June 12, at least 50 people were killed and 53 others were injured when a suspect named Omar Mateen barged into a gay club in Orlando, Florida and opened indiscriminate fire with his assault rifle.

“This morning 50 people were killed in a senseless act of violence in an Orlando nightclub. We are praying for those who were lost that God grants them peace and tranquility,” said one of the participants talking to   The Huffington Post .

“As Muslims we are united in our outrage over this senseless act of violence. A lot of us are US citizens. Regardless, we are all in this country, we are going to school here, we are working here,” she added.

On what made her and many other Muslim people to get together and organize the collective prayers, she said: “We wanted the rest of the country to know that we are thinking about what happened in Orlando and that we are standing with those people.”

A day earlier, Dr Muhammad Babar, a local physician and community leader in Kentucky , was at a vigil organized by the Muslim community for the victims of Sunday’s shooting

“It’s like somebody has punched us in the gut,” he said. “Last week, we thought, finally this monkey is off our back, but now it seems the burden is back on us to prove our innocence for something a criminal who claims to be Muslim has done.”

Across the country, Muslim Americans were quick to condemn the attack, and some mosques took extra security measures to protect against backlash. – Huffington Post