Council on American-Islamic Relations offers $10k for information leading to arrest on slain NJ Imam

NEWARK, N.J. (PIX11) -- Family members of imam Hassan Shariff placed balloons and a stuffed bear outside Masjid Mohammad-Newark, just steps from where the imam was shot and killed Wednesday while heading to pre-dawn prayers. 
 
The Essex County Sheriff’s Crime Stoppers Program is offering a $25,000 reward for information leading to the arrest of the Imam’s killer. 

In a rare move, the Council on American-Islamic Relations, better known as CAIR, is also offering a separate $10,000 reward. 
 
“As a chapter, we have never done this,” said Dina Sayedahmed, communications manager for CAIR-NJ. “At the national level, it is very, very rare.” 
 
Prosecutors say the evidence so far does not indicate the shooting was motivated by bias or was an act of domestic terrorism. 
 
Sayedahmed, however, believes investigators may have spoken too soon. “It feels very rushed and dismissive,” said Sayedahmed. 
 
Multiple people close to the Imam told PIX11 News he was previously held up at gunpoint in August 2023, also outside his mosque before pre-dawn prayer. Prosecutors declined to comment. 
 
Sayedahmed hopes the Imam’s killing does not deter others from coming out to worship. 
 
“We want mosques to keep their doors open,” said Sayedahmed. “We want to see community members still going to the mosque and finding community and solace at the mosque, not being at the mosque and being afraid of what’s going to happen.”