Early Sunday evening, mourners packed the recently named Diversity Plaza, located in the shadow of the 74th Street/ Roosevelt Avenue #7 elevated stop. The commercial center of Jackson Heights, the area’s shops offer a wide array of ethnic foods as well as overseas telephone service, testament to the vitality of the Asian and Latino immigrant communities who inhabit the neighborhood. The Pulse nightclub in Orlando was having its weekly Latin night when the attack occurred.
A tearful Dromm, in a short opening statement, said simply,
“I don’t want this incident to separate us. Love conquers hate.”
Ali Najmi, president of the Muslim Democratic Club of New York, said,
“We simply condemn this horrible, dreadful attack.”
Dr. Ammaar Saeed Muslim Resident Scholar and Muslim Chaplain added,
“Every human life matters, regardless of personal faith or actions against particular religion or group background, such actions are evil and we condemn type of actions against humanity”
The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) condemned the Pulse Nightclub massacre earlier Sunday morning and urged its members to donate blood.
“We condemn this monstrous attack and offer our heartfelt condolences to the families and loved ones of all those killed or injured,” CAIR-Florida’s Orlando regional coordinator Rasha Mubarak said in a statement. “The Muslim community joins our fellow Americans in repudiating anyone or any group that would claim to justify or excuse such an appalling act of violence.”
Members of the LGBT community, he said,
“have been our strongest allies.”
Omar Mateen, the 29-year-old shooter who was himself killed in the assault, phoned 911 shortly before entering Orlando’s Pulse nightclub to pledge his allegiance to ISIS. His father, Mir Seddique, told NBC News that his son had been angered several months ago seeing two gay men kiss on the street in Miami when Mateen was with his own young son.
Letitia James, the city’s public advocate, called for a moment of silence to remember the victims of the shooting.
“Fifty lives lost, 50 reason to stand together,” she said. “We will not allow one criminal individual to define who we are.”
Many speakers remarked that June is both the month of Pride and the month of Ramadan, a sacred Islamic holiday.
Melissa Mark-Viverito, the City Council speaker, said,
“Our hearts are heavy. It is about extremism, not about religion.”
State Senator José Peralta focused his remarks on the need for more gun control measures, saying the Orlando slayings were a reminder of similar incidents in recent years that ripped through a Newtown, Connecticut elementary school, the Virginia Tech campus, and a holiday party for county workers in San Bernardino, California.
“Enough is enough,” Peralta said.
Other elected officials voicing their sorrow and echoing the call for unity included State Senators Toby Ann Stavisky and James Sanders and Councilmember Barry Grodenchik.
Senator Toby Ann Stavisky (D-Queens)
“I am deeply disturbed by the shootings in Orlando that left 50 people dead,”