Press Release: AMP offers condolences to families of slain young Muslims; calls for media to examine its role in country’s Islamophobic climate
The American Muslims for Palestine (AMP) a national education and advocacy organization, sends our deepest condolences to the families and community of the three young Muslims who were shot execution style in a horrific, possibly religiously motivated crime on Tuesday in Chapel Hill, NC.
Deah Barakat, 23, his wife, Yusor Abu-Salha, 21, and her sister Razan Abu-Salha, 19, were all shot once in the head by a self-described atheist, whose facebook page called for all religions to ‘go away’ and that contained pictures of his fully loaded .38-caliber handgun.
The two young women wore the Islamic headscarf, or hijab, identifying them as adherents of Islam. Deah and Yusor were married in December. He received a degree in business administration from North Carolina State University in 2013 and was a second-year dental student at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill. Yusor graduated from North Carolina State with a degree in biological sciences and was preparing to enter dental school at Chapel Hill. The couple had raised funds to provide free dental care to students in Turkey and had planned on traveling overseas next summer to treat children, who are refuges of the Syrian civil war, according to media reports. Razan was a sophomore at North Carolina State University, majoring in design.
“While we do not know the exact motive behind this heinous act, we know that these young people died during a time of increasing Islamophobia in this country,” said Dr. Hatem Bazian, AMP chairman and director of the Islamophobia Research and Documentation Project at the University of California, Berkeley. “The result of this bigotry, which has gone unchecked by politicians, celebrities and some news media, is that Muslims in America have been stigmatized and demonized, making them easy targets for hateful bigots.”
AMP calls upon the law enforcement and justice communities to fully investigate the motive behind these murders and also calls upon the media to examine how it contributes to the Islamophobic climate in this country that is at the base of hate crimes against Muslims.
American Muslims for Palestine
10101 S. Roberts Road
Palos Hills, IL 60465
708.598.4267
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