This past winter marked the time of worship and remembrance at Sion for the 15-year-old Abdisamad Sheikh-Hussein. And near the end of first semester, the presidents of S.E.E.D club put together a service for him. Sheikh-Hussein was murdered in a hate crime outside the Somali Center of Kansas City. Seniors Zoya Khan, Rose Puthumana and junior Manahil Khan were close to Sheikh-Hussein and his family.

Khan did not know Hussein personally, but she knew of him through mutual people at the mosque. The Khans are not part of only one mosque, but multiple mosques throughout Kansas City. Khan said that he was always there when they were doing volunteering events and helping out in the community. According to all his friends and sisters, he was always at the front line to anyone who needed help and he was always there for his community.

Khan found out at the diversity conference in Indianapolis that the S.E.E.D club. attended this year and her mom had called her four or five times and she was concerned, so she called her back and her mom told her.

“It gave me more of a pessimistic view of the racial divide, or even like the religious divides within our community and especially how that’s represented in the media, or lack thereof,” Khan said.

Ahmed H. Aden was charged with first-degree murder, armed criminal action, leaving the scene of an accident and unlawful use of a weapon after running over Sheikh-Hussein with his car on Thursday, December 4.

Aden, who is described as a Somali Christian truck driver, had anti-Muslim graffiti on his rear window when he swerved his vehicle into Sheikh-Hussein according to KMBC.com. Members of the local Somali community said Aden had frequently made violent threats against Muslims and the mosque, but most interpreted them as hateful but ultimately harmless.

“It gives me more of a critical perspective of something that’s easier to relate to I guess, when it happens right close to you,” Khan said.