Loading...
Loading...
Click here if you don’t see subscription options
Mayor Tim Keller of Albuquerque, N.M., speaks at an interfaith memorial ceremony at the New Mexico Islamic Center Aug. 9, 2022. The ceremony was held to commemorate four murdered Muslim men came hours after police said they had arrested a prime suspect in the killings. (CNS photo/Andrew Hay, Reuters)Mayor Tim Keller of Albuquerque, N.M., speaks at an interfaith memorial ceremony at the New Mexico Islamic Center Aug. 9, 2022. The ceremony was held to commemorate four murdered Muslim men came hours after police said they had arrested a prime suspect in the killings. (CNS photo/Andrew Hay, Reuters)

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (CNS) — During a Mass for peace, Archbishop John C. Wester of Santa Fe decried the killings of four Muslim men in New Mexico since last November.

“We in the Archdiocese of Santa Fe and all of us here are appalled at these hateful and horrific crimes and utterly condemn them,” Archbishop Wester said at the start of his homily during a Mass Aug. 9 marking the 77th anniversary of the atomic bombing of Nagasaki, Japan.

Police arrested Muhammad Syed, 51, a Muslim immigrant from Afghanistan, Aug. 9 and said in a statement that he was charged with two of the murders. Police continued to investigate whether all four killings were related.

“We in the Archdiocese of Santa Fe and all of us here are appalled at these hateful and horrific crimes and utterly condemn them.”

Until the arrest, the murders rattled the Islamic community in Albuquerque, New Mexico’s largest city, whose members feared the violence was fueled by anti-Muslim sentiment.

The four victims were either Afghani or Pakistani. One man was killed in November and the other three men in late July and early August.

Authorities said the incidents may have been fueled by sectarian differences and that the investigation was continuing.

During a search of the suspect’s home, investigators “discovered evidence that shows the offender knew the victims to some extent and an interpersonal conflict may have led to the shootings,” the Albuquerque Police Department said in a statement Aug. 9.

Archbishop Wester offered a prayer for the victims’ families and Albuquerque’s Muslim community.

“These abhorrent crimes have no place in the just, loving and tolerant society that we’ve come to know and treasurer here in the Southwest,” he said.

The latest from america

A leading figure in academic Catholic feminism after the Second Vatican Council, Anne E. Carr was also a renowned scholar and an inspiration to generations of theologians.
James T. KeaneJuly 01, 2025
At the time of his appointment as prefect of the Dicastery for Bishops in 2023, then-Cardinal Robert Prevost described in an interview one change he would like to see in the bishop selection process: greater involvement of lay people.
Colleen DulleJuly 01, 2025
Bishops from the conferences of Africa, Asia, and Latin America produced a joint document calling for climate justice ahead of the U.N. climate conference in November.
“One of the things I find most appealing about the award-winning writer and poet Mary Karr is her forthright, almost brutal, honesty.”
James Martin, S.J.July 01, 2025