Photo: Facebook
More than 3,000 members from the Muslim community in Stafford attended the funeral of Sabika Sheikh, the Pakistani exchange student killed in the deadly May 18 mass shooting at Santa Fe High School.
The solemn ceremony took place on Sunday afternoon at an Islamic center in Stafford, not far from Santa Fe High School.
Santa Fe students were among the people who attended to funeral service as they paid their respect to the classmate who was only with them for a semester, but left a lasting impression.
Her host mother recalled that Sabika had given her a handmade shawl on Mother’s Day, American media reports said.
Mayor Sylvester Turner and Congresswoman Shelia Jackson-Lee honored her life. Congressman Al Green presented a boxed American flag with an inscription for her family to Consul General of Pakistan in Houston Aisha Farooqui. It will be presented to her family in Pakistan.
Law enforced respond to shooting in Santa Fe High School in Texas
May 18 2018
Photo: Screenshot/ABC
Since Sabika did not have family members living in Texas to help organize the service, the Islamic Society for Greater Houston planned and organized the funeral, according to reports.
“She doesn’t have any family here, but she has all of us and this whole community that is mourning,” said M.J. Khan, the Pakistani president of the society. “We are all there to be her family.”
According to media accounts, Sabika’s host father, Jason Cogburn, said Sabika and his family learned from each other, and his family even fasted with her during Ramadan.
“We loved her and she loved us,” he was quoted as saying. “She will be very missed, but she will always be loved.”
Sabica Sheikh, Photo: Facebook
Sabika was studying in the United States under the State Department’s Youth Exchange and Study (YES) program, which provides scholarships for students from countries with significant Muslim populations to spend an academic year in the United States.
The Houston area — about 55 kilometers from Santa Fe — has some 60,000 people of Pakistani decent.
Her father said Sabika had dreamed of working for Pakistan’s Foreign Affairs Ministry. She was scheduled to return to Karachi next month for Eid al-Fitr.
The Islamic Society called the shooting “an act of terror” and said such events “remind us as to what world we live in, where sanctity of life is not valued.”
Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner cited Sabika’s desire to be a diplomat as he mourned the student.
“Even through her death, she will continue to be a diplomat. Even in her death, she is pulling the relationships between Pakistan and the United States, specifically the Houston area, even closer, ” he said.
Sabika’s dead body will be flown to Karachi Monday for a final farewell with her family there.
