CHARLOTTE – The mother of the black American who was shot dead in Charlotte by a police man announced on Thursday that her son was most likely reading the Qur’an in his truck as he awaited his son to get off the bus.
“That’s a task for him every day, so he can be out there to get a special spot,” Vernita Scott Walker, who lives on James Island, told Live 5 News Thursday night, September 22.
“He sits in the truck and reads his book.”
According to the grieving mother, the book was the noble Qur’an.
“He loved to read that book, he loved to read that book,” Vernita said.
Scott, 43, was shot and killed Tuesday near the University of North Carolina at Charlotte.
The killing of Scott has set off nights of protests and violence which has left 16 officers injured, as demonstrators threw rocks and blocked a highway, authorities said.
Scott’s family told local news outlets Tuesday that he was disabled, denying police claims that he was armed.
Vernita said she received a call from her son at 2:22 pm on Tuesday.
Vernita played the call which consisted of noises, and Keith apparently saying “Lamont.”
“I said ‘I love you son’ and he said ‘I love you mama’ and that’s the first time he ever said it like that,” Vernita said.
The news that Scot was most likely reading the Qur’an when he was shot shocked the Muslim community in the US.
“#keithlamontscott mom says he was probably reading Quran when he was murdered,” sheikh Omar Soliman wrote on Facebook on Friday.
“He used to sit in his truck and read it every day as he waited for his son to get off the bus. But just like that, his life was taken for no crime whatsoever.”
Sarrah Buageila, a Project Manager at Institute for Social Policy and Understanding, also sent a powerful message on Facebook.
“Nonblack Muslims, we have to do better, we HAVE TO DO BETTER! We have to take the time to examine our own implicit biases and prejudices. Realistically, we are fed the same negative stereotypes through the news, media, education,” Buageila wrote.
“There is NO doubt that affects how we think. We need to actively deprogram! We have to take the time to learn American history and how we got here today (from realizing the FIRST Muslims in this country were African slaves to understanding what happened from Slavery to reconstruction to Jim crow to today (institutional and structural racism) and the people behind the movements, —and no, not that BS about Rosa Parks getting tired one day and sitting on a bus.
“We have to work to make our hearts, our homes, our masajid, sanctuaries for all in our community. African Americans make up about 25% of the American Muslim community. We have to do better for our sisters and brothers in faith and in humanity.”
The Qur’an is a revelation from God, the creator of the worlds, so He is the original author.
There is only one Qur’an which is in Arabic and many translations of the Qur’an in several languages.
Memorizing the Holy Qur’an is one of the most important ways to preserve Allah’s message. The others are to publish and distribute the book, or the text on the Internet and to recite the parts that one knows to other people.