Muslims gather at Somali Center to pray for family of teen killed in hit-and-run

KSHB Kansas City
By Syed Shabbir
Saturday, December 6, 2014

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KANSAS CITY, Mo. - Nearly 200 Muslims gathered at the Somali Center Friday afternoon to pray for the family of 15-year-old Abdisamad Sheikh Hussein.

The teenager was killed Thursday during a hit-and-run crash .

"He was a loving boy that was growing," family friend Yusif Abdi said. "He's very polite, respect to everybody."

Ahmed Mohamed was a close friend to Sheikh-Hussein and said his loss has devastated the community.

"He's like one of those people you can go to talk to," Mohamed said. "He was just a very good friend."

Sheikh-Hussein was the son of one of the religious leaders, and he was quickly growing into a leader himself.

"He use to lead the prayer," childhood friend Muhammad Musa said. "Before he died he was leading the prayer, and then he went outside and after like 30 minutes the incident happened."

On Friday, prosecutors charged Ahmed Aden in the teen's death . For this tight-knit community, the loss hurts even more knowing the man responsible had made recent threats again the Muslim community.

"He had signs on his van saying, ‘Quran is worse than Ebola,’" Musa said.

The hateful remarks and threats have triggered an investigation from the FBI, and Muslims across the metro with the help of the Council on American Islamic Relations (CAIR) hope to educate the Kansas City community about their faith.

"If there is a silver lining here, this is our opportunity as a Muslim community in Kansas City metro area to use this and reach out and educate people and talk to them and engage them and let them know that Islam stands for peace," CAIR representative Habib Mir said. "We are part of this community. We will be here. We would like to live in this community in peace."

(Source: KSHB Kansas City

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