Editorial: Religious Leaders Support Hate Crime Victim's Relatives

September 15, 2003

Source: The Washington Times

http://www.washtimes.com/op-ed/20030915-123024-7289r.htm

On September 15, 2003 in The Washington Times, Bishop Melvin G. Talbert, Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf, and Rabbi Marla J. Feldman wrote that "two years ago, an angry young man walked into a convenience store in Dallas and killed Waqar Hasan, an innocent Pakistani man who was working hard to earn a living for his family and to become an American citizen. Mark Anthony Stroman shot Hasan to death, claiming that he 'did it to retaliate on local Arab Americans or whatever you want to call them...As a result of Hasan's death, his wife and four daughters, who live in suburban New Jersey, now face removal from the United States unless Congress acts to permit them to remain in their adopted homeland. As American religious leaders representing three faiths � Islam, Christianity and Judaism � we believe that it would be inconsistent with our values as Americans and as people of faith to allow this family to be deported."