By Ray Hanania
Radio host Rush Darwish
Arab and Muslim callers to The Arab Daily News radio show on US Arab Radio broadcast in Detroit (690 AM) and Washington DC (700 AM) said that the slaughter of three Arab Muslims on Tuesday is clearly a hate crime.
The callers and guests who joined me, Chicago radio host Rush Darwish, also agreed that the mainstream American news media is not covering the Chapel Hill shootings the same way they cover violence committed by Arabs or Muslims.
Last Tuesday night, a White American who is self-described as an “atheist,” shot and killed three of his neighbors, Deah Shaddy Barakat, 23, of Chapel Hill, his wife Yusor Mohammad Abu-Salha Barakat, 21, of Chapel Hill, and Yusor’s sister Razan Mohammad Abu-Salha, 19, of Raleigh. The accused killer, Craig Stephen Hicks, 46, told police after surrendering hours later, that he had a dispute with the Barakat’s over a parking space at the Chapel Hill condominium where both families lived.
Deah Barakat, Yusor and (from Barakat’s Facebook Page.)
But many Muslims and Arabs were asking how could it just be a “dispute” when the accused killer is openly hostile to all religions, including Islam, and in his dispute with Barakat also massacred Barakat’s wife and his sister-in-law. Both women wear Hijabs and were easily identified as Muslims.
Callers to the radio show and guest Rush Darwish said that the killings “are clearly a hate crime” and they should be treated that way.
Darwish is the host of www.RiseUpShow.com, which is broadcast live on Chicagoland radio on 1450 AM and also online at www.YahalaVoice.com. He also producers broadcast videos and raises funds for the Palestine Children’s Relief Fund through events including marathons.
Craig Stephen Hicks, accused killer. Official mugshot provided by the Chapel Hill Police Department.
The Arab Daily News Radio show 2nd Friday of every month in Greater Detroit (690 AM) and Greater Washington DC (700 AM) radio with host Ray Hanania. Friday February 13, 2015. 7 am CST (8 AM EST Eastern).
Download this and other radio podcasts by Ray Hanania by visiting The Arab Daily News at www.TheArabDailyNews.com … or by visiting iTunes …
Darwish and Hanania take phone calls from listeners in Greater Detroit and Greater Washington DC on the recent slaughter of three Arabs who were Muslim in Chapel Hill. Was it a hate crime? Was it an act of terrorism? Or, was it the act of an individual as many American insist. But Americans describe every act of violence by an Arab or a Muslim as an act of terrorism and a hate crime. Is there hypocrisy here?
Has the biased mainstream American news media covered this slaughter the way they cover and exaggerate violence by Arabs and Muslims?
We also talk with callers about Christian-Muslim relations and defining the victims as Muslims or as Arabs.
Listen to the podcast of the show below or by clicking here.
Ray Hanania is an award winning political and humor columnist who analyzes American and Middle East politics, and life in general. He is an author of several books.
Hanania covered Chicago Politics and Chicago City Hall from 1976 through 1992 at the Daily Southtown and the Chicago Sun-Times. He began writing in 1975 publishing The Middle Eastern Voice newspaper in Chicago (1975-1977). He later published “The National Arab American Times” newspaper (2004-2007).
Hanania writes weekly columns on Middle East and American Arab issues as Special US Correspondent for the Arab News ArabNews.com, at TheArabDailyNews.com, and at SuburbanChicagoland.com. He has published weekly columns in the Jerusalem Post newspaper, YNetNews.com, Newsday, the Orlando Sentinel, Houston Chronical, and Arlington Heights Daily Herald.
Hanania is the recipient of four (4) Chicago Headline Club “Peter Lisagor Awards” for Column writing. In November 2006, he was named “Best Ethnic American Columnist” by the New American Media. In 2009, Hanania received the prestigious Sigma Delta Chi Award for Writing from the Society of Professional Journalists. He is the recipient of the MT Mehdi Courage in Journalism Award. He was honored for his writing skills with two (2) Chicago Stick-o-Type awards from the Chicago Newspaper Guild. In 1990, Hanania was nominated by the Chicago Sun-Times editors for a Pulitzer Prize for his four-part series on the Palestinian Intifada.
His writings have also been honored by two national Awards from ADC for his writing, and from the National Arab American Journalists Association.
Hanania is the US Special Correspondent for the Arab News Newspaper, covering Middle East and Arab American issues. He writes for the Southwest News newspaper group writing on mainstream American issues.
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