Group Plans Metro Detroit Prayer Vigil for Orlando Victims Tuesday

Rochester Hills, MI — A Muslim group dedicated to fighting radical Islam will hold a prayer vigil for the victims of Sunday morning’s horrific massacre at a Florida nightclub popular with Orlando’s gay community.

The vigil will be held  at 8:30 p.m. Tuesday at  Ahmadiyya Muslim Community Center, 1730 W. Auburn Road, Rochester Hills.
Forty-nine people were killed and at least as many more were injured in the mass shooting, the deadliest in the nation’s history. 

Authorities are investigating it as an act of hate and terrorism.

• NEWSLETTER & REAL-TIME NEWS ALERTS: Get the Top Michigan Headlines from Patch Editor Beth Dalbey

Initial reports indicated the shooter had claimed ties to ISIS, but the FBI said Monday that American-born Muslim Omar Mateen was an apparent "homegrown extremist" who had pledged support for a number of often conflicting radical Islam groups, including Al-Qaeda, as well as the Boston Marathon bomber and a suicide bomber in Syria.

The prayer vigil in Rochester Hills takes place at a time when many Muslims are fasting during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan. The Ahmadiyya Muslim community asked members to break their fasts and instead donate blood.

“We condemn this senseless and horrific act of violence in the strongest possible terms,” Dr. Mansoor Qureshi, president of Ahmadiyya Muslim Community Metro Detroit, said in a news release. 

“Our hearts go out to the innocent victims and their families,” Qureshi said. “We stand in solidarity with them as their neighbors and brothers and sisters in peace. Islam teaches reverence for all human life. This is a time to pray and act to stop such senseless violence in our nation.”

The public is invited to attend this prayer service.