A week after a shooting outside a Providence mosque, RI's Muslim community wonders: Why?

PROVIDENCE − More than a week after a man was shot in front of a mosque off Broad Street in Providence, a sense of unease has settled over some members of the Muslim community amid heightened tensions across the world because of Israel's war against Hamas in the Gaza Strip.

Mustafa Ramos has recovered from the gunshot wound to the buttocks he received on the morning of Nov. 17, Islamic Center of Rhode Island Imam Abdul-Latif Sackor said at a protest his mosque helped sponsor on Black Friday. The protest, which started with prayers, went from the front of the State House to one of the main entrances to Providence Place.

Like many cities, Providence has public and private spaces that have drawn protest activity, vandalism and some arrests related to the bloody conflict between Palestinians and Israelis, which erupted anew with Hamas's Oct. 7 surprise attack on Israel.

Ramos, in his 50s, was wearing a turban and a robe when he was shot outside the mosque just off Broad Street, where he came every Friday, from Maine, to sell Islamic garments and religious items. In Islam, Friday is a day of prayer.

Rattled and worried: Shooting outside Islamic Center in Providence leaves Muslim community rattled and worried

Car with Massachusetts plates was stolen

More than a week after the shooting, Providence police officials have given no updates on the shooting or said what they think the motive was, or wasn't.

Sackor said the vehicle and its Massachusetts license plates were captured on surveillance cameras, but they came back as stolen.

Shooter was waiting in the parking lot

The surveillance video shows that someone who had been parked in one of the mosque's lots across the street had pulled out of the lot, fired at Ramos and drove away, an elder in the community, L. Talib Sabir, previously said. The shooter's face was partially obscured by a mask.

A man who was with Ramos at the time of the shooting told The Journal that Ramos was tending to a bag of items that he had brought outside for the sale and that the shooter was parked in a lot across the street for at least 20 minutes before the shooting. The witness declined to give his name.

Was shooting a hate crime?

After Sackor learned from police that the vehicle used in the shooting had previously been reported stolen, it made him think of an incident a year ago, when a man in a pickup truck appeared to be surveilling the mosque. After Sackor reported the truck with Massachusetts license plates to police, they reported back that it had been stolen.

Sackor said he does not think the incident a year ago and the current shooting, both involving stolen vehicles with Massachuetts plates, is a coincidence.

That means his congregation needs to be more vigilant, and they need to do more to secure the area around the mosque, he said.

"I feel it was a hate crime," Sackor said.

In an email, Providence police Maj. David Lapatin wrote that it is a "moving, ongoing investigation" and that there is "nothing new to put out as of yet."

"To say the mosque was targeted would be premature," Lapatin wrote.

Uncertainty creates unease in Muslim community

University of Rhode Island student Lina Altaan Alharri, who came to Rhode Island in 2016 as a refugee from Syria, said she recently saw Ramos at an event, despite his gunshot wound. When she pressed him on why he came, he told her that he was a man of his word and he had previously promised to come.

Alharri prays at the Islamic Center of Rhode Island mosque and often stops and talks with Ramos while he is set up in front of the mosque.

She said the shooting is particularly scary and disturbing because she easily could have been standing next to him when he was shot.

"He's such a nice person," she said. "I can't believe this happened to him."

Alharri said she is worried because, unlike Ramos, who might not easily be identified as a Muslim if he is not selling Islamic wares, she always wears the hijab outside her house, a proud sartorial identifier of her creed.

"I'm an obvious target," she said. "Women are more at risk."

University of Rhode Island Professor Nasser Zawia, who attended the Black Friday protest in Providence, said the community has faith, and there is no sense of widespread fear or panic following the shooting.

Being part of a community of faith, and having faith, was also the focus for Verra Elalami, of Rehoboth, who was also at the State House for the protest.

Black Friday protest: Israel-Hamas war protest blocks traffic at Providence Place on Black Friday

World events like the current hostilities in the Gaza Strip tend to bring about attacks by "ignorant people," she said, but added that she is not worried.

"Everything is in the hands of God," Elalami said.

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Reporter Mark Reynolds contributed to this story. Reach reporter Wheeler Cowperthwaite at wcowperthwaite@providencejournal.com or follow him on Twitter @WheelerReporter.

This article originally appeared on The Providence Journal: Providence mosque shooting: Unanswered questions, unease among Muslims