NEW YORK – The shooting of a Muslim imam and his assistant in Queens, New York, has triggered unprecedented support from public, who took to social media to offer chaperoning Muslims to mosques.

Many social media users have used the #IllWalkWithYou hashtag to express their solidarity with the Muslim community after the fatal double shootings, Time reported on Sunday, August 14.

“I’m big and tall and scary… I want you to feel safe,” one user wrote.

“No one should be afraid to practice their religion in America,” another tweeted.

Supporters took to social media after imam Maulama Akonjee and his assistant Thara Uddin were killed in assassination style shooting as they walked along a street in the New York borough of Queens on Saturday, August 13.

Akonjee, 55, a married father of three, was a respected religious leader since his arrival in Queens from Bangladesh less than two years ago.

The shooter left his victims lying in their own blood just one block from the Al-Furqan Jame Mosque in Ozone Park, where the two victims prayed together only minutes earlier.

The hashtag has trended on Twitter, with many accompanying the tag with an expressions of support.
“To my Muslim friends, neighbors, and strangers, #ILLWalkWithYou – in MI, in NY, wherever we meet…,” one wrote.

“#IllWalkWithYou because no one should be afraid to practice their religion in America. Sacramento, Ca,” another added on Twitter.

The hashtag campaign is similar to the #IllRideWithYou campaign created after the Lindt Café siege in Sydney in December 2014.