Of Course, The Muslim Hating, Disgusting, Very Disturbed, Fake Religious, Zit is gleeful about these "numbers". Now here's the truth about them:
"We’re above 800 million Muslims radicalized, more than half the Muslims on Earth That’s not a minority. That’s now a majority."
— Ben Shapiro on Wednesday, October 15th, 2014 in a YouTube video
[h=1]Ben Shapiro says a majority of Muslims are radicals[/h] By Jon Greenberg on Wednesday, November 5th, 2014 at 2:22 p.m.
Conservative columnist Ben Shapiro uses a broad definition of radicalism to draw conclusions about the worldwide Muslim population. The rise of the Islamic State group and its strategic use of grisly beheadings has stirred a heated debate in this country about the nature of Islam. Some critics say core Muslim beliefs invite violence. Defenders of religious tolerance say extremists represent only a tiny minority of Muslims.
Conservative pundit Ben Shapiro jumped in to say the nature of Islam is irrelevant. More important, according to Shapiro, is what its followers believe, "because that’s what they act upon." Through this lens, Shapiro painted a disturbing picture of the religious wellspring for people who fly planes into towers and behead their prisoners. Shapiro is an editor-at-large with the conservative website Breitbart.com and cofounded a conservative media analysis group, TruthRevolt.
In a video, Shapiro blended survey data and population statistics for 15 countries. A good example of his thesis about Islam is in the way he talked about Indonesia, the world’s most populous Muslim nation.
"It’s got almost 205 million Muslims," Shapiro said. "According to one 2009 poll, it showed almost 50 percent of Indonesians support strict Sharia law, not just in Indonesia but in a lot of countries. And 70 percent blame the United States, Israel or somebody else for 9/11. You make that calculation, it’s about 143 million people who are radicalized. You scared yet? We’re just getting started."
To get to 143 million "radicalized" Muslims, Shapiro took the 70 percent of Indonesia’s Muslims who blamed someone other than al-Qaida for the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.
Shapiro then made similar extrapolations using polling data for a number of other countries, often measuring support for Sharia law -- codes of behavior in Islam. Then Shapiro summed up and applied the percentage of "radicalized Muslims" from the 15 nations to a number of other Muslim-majority countries and, with 1.6 billion Muslims worldwide, reached a shocking conclusion.
"We’re above 800 million Muslims radicalized, more than half the Muslims on Earth," Shapiro said. "That’s not a minority. That’s now a majority."
Shapiro spoke with great self-assurance, but as we looked at his claim that most Muslims are radicals, we were left scratching our heads. In the first place, Shapiro consistently used the highest percentages available in the surveys to maximize the number of Muslims he could tag with the "radical" label. Secondly, he used a broad definition of radical. To choose one main example, there are many varieties of how people interpret Sharia law and support for it says little about a person’s specific beliefs.
Other numbers tell a different story
Shapiro cited the work of the Pew Research Center in some of his analysis and much of our work relies on the same source. We tried to reach Shapiro and were unsuccessful.
In about half of the countries he assessed, Shapiro focused on support for Sharia law. According to the Council on Foreign Relations, "Sharia guides all aspects of Muslim life, including daily routines, familial and religious obligations, and financial dealings." It is a moral code that covers marriage, crime and business. Different branches of Islam use different versions of the law. Some elements are widely accepted, such as the immorality of fraud. But for countries and sects that follow the harshest versions in which thieves have their hands cut off and unfaithful women are stoned to death, the opposition from the West, and parts of the Muslim world as well, is strong and visceral.
For Shapiro, support for any form of Sharia law means one thing -- the believer is a radical. Accordingly, Shapiro looks at a place like Pakistan and says that 76 percent of Muslims want Sharia law in all Muslim countries. Pakistan has 179 million Muslims, therefore, "that is another 135.4 million radicals."
But looking at a 2013 Pew report on Muslims, we found that the picture is more complicated. Pew reported that 84 percent of Pakistani Muslims wanted Sharia law, but of those, nearly two-thirds said it should only apply to Muslims. Run those numbers through and you get about 54 million Muslims who think all Pakistanis should be subject to Sharia law. That’s about 60 percent fewer than Shapiro said.
We are not saying that Pakistan has 54 million radical Muslims. Our point is that more detailed polling data changes the results a great deal.
Shapiro chose one yardstick. Other analysts could with at least as much justification choose another. The impact of which question is used becomes even clearer if we look at support for suicide bombings against civilian targets.
Shapiro said actual terrorists draw "moral, financial and religious support from those who are not terrorists themselves." Even if you believe Shapiro, it doesn’t mean that attitudes towards terrorism are irrelevant. Pew asked Muslims if they supported suicide bombings against civilians. In Pakistan, 13 percent of Muslims said such attacks in defense of Islam could often or sometimes be justified.
If that’s your definition of radicals, then Pakistan has about 23 million of them. Hardly a small number, but it’s a far cry from the 135 million Shapiro counted.
Thefollowing table shows how using reasonable alternative measures of radicalism, Shapiro’s majority can become a distinct minority. You can see how Shapiro reached his totals by watching the video.
| Country | Population (millions) | Radical total (Shapiro, millions) | Alternative pct. | Alternative total (millions) |
| Indonesia | 205 | 143 | Pew: 7% say suicide bombing can sometimes be justified. | 14.4 |
| Egypt | 80 | 55.2 | Pew: 29% say suicide bombing can sometimes be justified. | 23.2 |
| Pakistan | 179 | 135.4 | Pew: 13% say suicide bombing can sometimes be justified. | 23.3 |
| Bangladesh | 149 | 121.9 | Pew: 26% say suicide bombing can sometimes be justified. | 38.7 |
| Nigeria | 75.7 | 53.7 | Pew: 22% say suicide bombing can sometimes be justified. | 16.7 |
| Iran | 74.8 | 62.1 | ICP/Charney: 47% would abolish the morality police. | 35.2 |
| Turkey | 74.7 | 23.9 | Pew: 15% say suicide bombing can sometimes be justified. | 11.2 |
| Morocco | 32.4 | 24.6 | Pew: 9% say suicide bombing can sometimes be justified. | 2.9 |
| Iraq | 31.1 | 24.3 | Pew: 7% say suicide bombing can sometimes be justified. | 2.2 |
| Afghanistan | 24 | 24 | Pew: 39% say suicide bombing can sometimes be justified. | 9.4 |
| Jordan | 6.4 | 3.8 | Pew: 15% say suicide bombing can sometimes be justified. | 1 |
| Palestinian areas | 4.3 | 3.83 | Pew: 40% say suicide bombing can sometimes be justified. | 1.7 |
| France | 4.7 | 1.6 | No alternate used | 1.6 |
| Great Britain | 2.8 | 2.2 | Manchester Policy: 2% expressed some support for terrorism. | 0.06 |
| United States | 2.6 | 0.5 | Pew: In 2009, 8% said suicide bombings could sometimes be justified. | 0.2 |
| Total | 946.5 | 680.03 | 181.76 | |
| Percent of total | 72% | 19% |
To be clear, we’re not saying there are 181 million radical Muslims. We’re simply saying by applying different but reasonable criteria to the same data, you can reach a vastly different result.
Sharia ≠ radical
Given that Shapiro used support for Sharia law in 7 of the 15 countries as a marker for radicalism, we should note that the experts we reached urged a more cautious approach. Pew found that when you ask Muslims about specific elements in Sharia law, support shifts.
According to James Bell, director of International Survey Research at Pew, many Muslims will say they want religious judges deciding family or property disputes. But ask them about corporal punishments for criminals or the death penalty for apostates, and support drops off considerably.
"The key takeaway is that Muslims differ in what they mean by Sharia and how they want it applied," Bell said.
Jim Zogby, president of the Arab American Institute, a political and policy advocacy group for Arab Americans, said most Muslims don’t think about every element of sharia.
"It indicates a degree of nominal faithfulness," Zogby said. If I say I support the law in the abstract, it doesn’t commit me to supporting various and assorted aspects."
In two countries, Shapiro focused on support for honor killings. Zogby said that as cruel as honor killings are, they are not tied to beliefs that underlie beheadings and suicide bombings. "One has nothing to do with the other," Zogby said.
Maria Sobolewska, a lecturer in quantitative methods and politics at the University of Manchester, England, studied polls in that country in the wake of the 2005 bus and subway bombings. Sobolewska found enormous variation in Muslim responses depending on small changes in the wording of questions.
"What we receive as a true picture of what Muslims think is mostly an artifact of what they get asked," Sobolewska wrote.
We should note that we found no solid estimate of the number of radical Muslims worldwide. For example, a 2014 report on jihadist terrorism from the Bipartisan Policy Center did not quantify the size of the jihadist population.
Our ruling
Shapiro said that a majority of Muslims are radicals. To make his numbers work, he had to cherry-pick certain results from public opinion surveys. Given the choice between two possible percentages, he chose the higher one. Shapiro also relied heavily on the idea that anyone who supported sharia law is a radical.
Some of the best polling work shows that Muslim beliefs are much more nuanced. Some countries where high percentages of Muslims support Sharia law show low support for suicide attacks on civilians. Large fractions of Muslims that endorse sharia law do not want it imposed on others. The meaning of Sharia law varies from sect to sect and nation to nation.
Shapiro’s definition of radical is so thin as to be practically meaningless and so too are the numbers he brings to bear.
We rate the claim False.
Muslim students' slayings investigated as possible hate crime, FBI says
People also gathered Wednesday at the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill to remember Deah Shaddy Barakat, his wife, Yusor Abu-Salha, and her sister Razan Abu-Salha. (Travis Long / (Raleigh, N.C.) News & Observer)
By David Zucchino and Matt Pearce contact the reporters
Families of 3 young Muslim students slain in N.C. say they want acknowledgment that their faith was a factor
5,000 Muslims and non-Muslims turn out to mourn 3 students shot to death in N.C.
The FBI announced late Thursday that it had opened a preliminary hate-crime investigation into the slayings of three Muslim students in Chapel Hill, N.C.
"The FBI is continuing to provide assistance to the Chapel Hill Police Department to process evidence related to a triple-homicide investigation," the federal agency said in a statement. "The FBI has also opened a parallel preliminary inquiry to determine whether or not any federal laws were violated related to the case."
The announcement followed an emotional prayer service on the North Carolina State University campus, where all three had been undergraduates.
Mourners came by the thousands under leaden skies — men in white skullcaps, women in dark head scarves, children dressed in their finest clothes, and college students in jeans.
Caption Carrying the casketsNamee Barakat, center, father of victim Deah Barakat, kisses his wife, Leila Barakat, after a news conference in Raleigh, N.C., on Wednesday. Police probing the deaths of Deah Barakat, his wife and sister-in-law, all Muslims, are looking into whether the slayings were racially motivated.
On the dead winter grass before them lay the caskets of three young Muslim students slain in nearby Chapel Hill this week. They were two newlyweds and the sister of the bride, all shot Tuesday, allegedly by a neighbor enraged over an ongoing parking space dispute, police said.
Few in the gathering of some 5,000 people, Muslims and non-Muslims alike, seemed convinced that Deah Shaddy Barakat, his wife, Yusor Abu-Salha, and her sister Razan Abu-Salha were gunned down simply over a parking spot. The Muslim community has demanded that the killings be investigated as a possible hate crime.
The deaths — family members said police told them the students were shot in the head — have galvanized Muslims worldwide. Photos of the three, with the two women wearing head scarves, rocketed around the world on social media, some under the hashtag #Muslimlivesmatter.
lRelated
Now, on a bitterly cold winter day, Muslim men bowed and prayed as an imam chanted janazah, or funeral prayers. The mourners' taqiyah, or skullcaps, brushed the worn grass of a soccer field at N.C. State in silent tribute. Non-Muslim mourners stood with bowed heads.
The only sounds were the sudden stab of a baby's cry and a northern wind that rustled through the tall pines cloaking the field.
Mohammad Abu-Salha, father of Yusor and Razan, said the families did not seek revenge. “Our children are much more valuable than any revenge,” he said.
But Abu-Salha, a psychiatrist, said he did seek acknowledgment from law enforcement, and from the world at large, that his daughters and son-in-law were killed at least in part because of their faith.
“We have no doubt why they died,” Abu-Salha told the mourners. “This has hate crime written all over it. I will not bend over that. If they [law enforcement] do not listen carefully, then I will yell.”
He added: “I trust law enforcement to do their duty.”
Caption Vigil held to remember slain Muslim students
Vigil held to remember slain Muslim students
Wife of gunman denies 'hate crime' allegations
Suspect held without bond in North Carolina killings
Man arrested for killing three in North Carolina
Officials have charged the newlyweds' neighbor, Craig Stephen Hicks, 46, with three counts of first-degree murder in the deaths of Barakat, 23, Yusor, 21, and Razan, 19.
North Carolina has hate-crime laws for lesser crimes like property damage and assault, but not for first-degree murder, which already carries the most serious possible punishments, a North Carolina legal expert said Thursday.
If a suspect charged with second-degree murder — an intentional but not premeditated killing — was motivated to kill because of the victim's religion, a judge could slightly increase the prison sentence, said Joseph Kennedy, a University of North Carolina law professor.
But if a killing was intentional and premeditated — first-degree murder — no such hate-crime enhancement exists, and state law does not make specific considerations for religious or racial hatred when a jury considers whether to give a defendant who is found guilty a life sentence or the death penalty, Kennedy said.
Durham County Dist. Atty. Roger Echols, who is prosecuting Hicks, said a hate-crime statute would not come into play in a first-degree murder case such as the one facing Hicks. But he said religious hatred is among the possible motives under investigation in the killings.
“We'll just have to let the investigation take its course,” Echols said in an interview Thursday.
Neighbors described Hicks, a community college student, as a hulking, menacing figure who confronted neighbors of all races and religions over parking spots and noise. One resident, Samantha Maness, described his hostility as “equal-opportunity anger.”
Abu-Salha said his daughter Yusor had complained of a spiteful neighbor who wore a gun on his hip when he confronted the couple more than once over a parking space. “‘Honest to God,' she said, ‘He hates us for what we are and how we look,'” Abu-Salha told a Raleigh newspaper.
Dentistry students and others huddle during a vigil at the University of North Carolina after the slaying of three Muslim students in Chapel Hill, N.C. (Brendan Smialowski / AFP/Getty Images)
Barakat was a dental student at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. His wife, whom he married Dec. 27, was to join him in the program next fall. Razan was an honor student in architecture at North Carolina State. Several times, speakers at the service used the words “selflessness” and “beautiful souls” to describe the students.
Barakat helped the homeless, and he and his wife raised money for dental care and dental kits for Syrian refugees in Turkey. Her sister was remembered as a loving, smiling young woman who helped everyone she met.
All three had been undergraduates at North Carolina State. Barakat was a rabid N.C. State Wolfpack basketball fan, and had befriended a Muslim player on the team, Abdul-Malik Abu.
“These children were die-hard Wolfpack,” Abu-Salha told the mourners. He said they were enormously proud of their association with the university.
Nouman Siddiqui, outreach director for the Islamic Assn. of Raleigh, asked the mourners “to let God remove from our hearts hate and ill will.” He lowered his head and said quietly: “These are heavy, heavy times.”
Abu-Salha said the families were devastated by the loss of their high-achieving children, who grew up in the United States and considered themselves as American as anyone. “The pain is indescribable,” he said.
He spoke about Hicks' Facebook page, where the suspect described his “anti-theism” beliefs. Hicks wrote that organized religions were based on superstition, and were “ignorant and dangerous.”
Abu-Salha pointed out that Hicks posted on his Facebook page how much he “hated faith.”
To the families, Abu-Salha said, fighting hate crimes “is all about making this country, that they loved and where they lived, safe for everyone.” He urged mourners to honor their memories “by living Islam, which means honoring all people on earth.”
“Islam is not what you read in the media and it's not the ‘American Sniper' movie,” he said.
When the service ended, several men rushed forward to help carry the caskets, two silver and one white. The three students were to be laid to rest in an Islamic Assn. of Raleigh cemetery in nearby Wendell, N.C.
The men hoisted and carried the caskets to waiting cars. Other men and boys followed, chanting and shouting as they left the grounds of a campus the three young students had cherished.
By David Zucchino and Matt Pearce contact the reporters
Families of 3 young Muslim students slain in N.C. say they want acknowledgment that their faith was a factor
5,000 Muslims and non-Muslims turn out to mourn 3 students shot to death in N.C.
The FBI announced late Thursday that it had opened a preliminary hate-crime investigation into the slayings of three Muslim students in Chapel Hill, N.C.
"The FBI is continuing to provide assistance to the Chapel Hill Police Department to process evidence related to a triple-homicide investigation," the federal agency said in a statement. "The FBI has also opened a parallel preliminary inquiry to determine whether or not any federal laws were violated related to the case."
The announcement followed an emotional prayer service on the North Carolina State University campus, where all three had been undergraduates.
Mourners came by the thousands under leaden skies — men in white skullcaps, women in dark head scarves, children dressed in their finest clothes, and college students in jeans.
On the dead winter grass before them lay the caskets of three young Muslim students slain in nearby Chapel Hill this week. They were two newlyweds and the sister of the bride, all shot Tuesday, allegedly by a neighbor enraged over an ongoing parking space dispute, police said.
Few in the gathering of some 5,000 people, Muslims and non-Muslims alike, seemed convinced that Deah Shaddy Barakat, his wife, Yusor Abu-Salha, and her sister Razan Abu-Salha were gunned down simply over a parking spot. The Muslim community has demanded that the killings be investigated as a possible hate crime.
The deaths — family members said police told them the students were shot in the head — have galvanized Muslims worldwide. Photos of the three, with the two women wearing head scarves, rocketed around the world on social media, some under the hashtag #Muslimlivesmatter.
lRelated
Now, on a bitterly cold winter day, Muslim men bowed and prayed as an imam chanted janazah, or funeral prayers. The mourners' taqiyah, or skullcaps, brushed the worn grass of a soccer field at N.C. State in silent tribute. Non-Muslim mourners stood with bowed heads.
The only sounds were the sudden stab of a baby's cry and a northern wind that rustled through the tall pines cloaking the field.
Mohammad Abu-Salha, father of Yusor and Razan, said the families did not seek revenge. “Our children are much more valuable than any revenge,” he said.
But Abu-Salha, a psychiatrist, said he did seek acknowledgment from law enforcement, and from the world at large, that his daughters and son-in-law were killed at least in part because of their faith.
“We have no doubt why they died,” Abu-Salha told the mourners. “This has hate crime written all over it. I will not bend over that. If they [law enforcement] do not listen carefully, then I will yell.”
He added: “I trust law enforcement to do their duty.”
Caption Vigil held to remember slain Muslim students
Vigil held to remember slain Muslim students
Wife of gunman denies 'hate crime' allegations
Suspect held without bond in North Carolina killings
Man arrested for killing three in North Carolina
Officials have charged the newlyweds' neighbor, Craig Stephen Hicks, 46, with three counts of first-degree murder in the deaths of Barakat, 23, Yusor, 21, and Razan, 19.
North Carolina has hate-crime laws for lesser crimes like property damage and assault, but not for first-degree murder, which already carries the most serious possible punishments, a North Carolina legal expert said Thursday.
If a suspect charged with second-degree murder — an intentional but not premeditated killing — was motivated to kill because of the victim's religion, a judge could slightly increase the prison sentence, said Joseph Kennedy, a University of North Carolina law professor.
But if a killing was intentional and premeditated — first-degree murder — no such hate-crime enhancement exists, and state law does not make specific considerations for religious or racial hatred when a jury considers whether to give a defendant who is found guilty a life sentence or the death penalty, Kennedy said.
Durham County Dist. Atty. Roger Echols, who is prosecuting Hicks, said a hate-crime statute would not come into play in a first-degree murder case such as the one facing Hicks. But he said religious hatred is among the possible motives under investigation in the killings.
“We'll just have to let the investigation take its course,” Echols said in an interview Thursday.
Neighbors described Hicks, a community college student, as a hulking, menacing figure who confronted neighbors of all races and religions over parking spots and noise. One resident, Samantha Maness, described his hostility as “equal-opportunity anger.”
Abu-Salha said his daughter Yusor had complained of a spiteful neighbor who wore a gun on his hip when he confronted the couple more than once over a parking space. “‘Honest to God,' she said, ‘He hates us for what we are and how we look,'” Abu-Salha told a Raleigh newspaper.
Barakat was a dental student at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. His wife, whom he married Dec. 27, was to join him in the program next fall. Razan was an honor student in architecture at North Carolina State. Several times, speakers at the service used the words “selflessness” and “beautiful souls” to describe the students.
Barakat helped the homeless, and he and his wife raised money for dental care and dental kits for Syrian refugees in Turkey. Her sister was remembered as a loving, smiling young woman who helped everyone she met.
All three had been undergraduates at North Carolina State. Barakat was a rabid N.C. State Wolfpack basketball fan, and had befriended a Muslim player on the team, Abdul-Malik Abu.
“These children were die-hard Wolfpack,” Abu-Salha told the mourners. He said they were enormously proud of their association with the university.
Nouman Siddiqui, outreach director for the Islamic Assn. of Raleigh, asked the mourners “to let God remove from our hearts hate and ill will.” He lowered his head and said quietly: “These are heavy, heavy times.”
Abu-Salha said the families were devastated by the loss of their high-achieving children, who grew up in the United States and considered themselves as American as anyone. “The pain is indescribable,” he said.
He spoke about Hicks' Facebook page, where the suspect described his “anti-theism” beliefs. Hicks wrote that organized religions were based on superstition, and were “ignorant and dangerous.”
Abu-Salha pointed out that Hicks posted on his Facebook page how much he “hated faith.”
To the families, Abu-Salha said, fighting hate crimes “is all about making this country, that they loved and where they lived, safe for everyone.” He urged mourners to honor their memories “by living Islam, which means honoring all people on earth.”
“Islam is not what you read in the media and it's not the ‘American Sniper' movie,” he said.
When the service ended, several men rushed forward to help carry the caskets, two silver and one white. The three students were to be laid to rest in an Islamic Assn. of Raleigh cemetery in nearby Wendell, N.C.
The men hoisted and carried the caskets to waiting cars. Other men and boys followed, chanting and shouting as they left the grounds of a campus the three young students had cherished.
Kinda sucks that this shooter doesn't fit into your SJW template. You can't blame it on some dumb conservative christian hillbilly. Turns out he is a flaming lib like you.
"After making no mention of it on Wednesday evening or Thursday morning, NBC continued its streak of ignoring the militant atheism and liberalism of the North Carolina man accused of killing three Muslim-Americans during Thursday’s NBC Nightly News."
http://newsbusters.org/blogs/curtis-houck/2015/02/12/nbc-continues-omit-atheist-liberal-beliefs-accuser-killing-muslims-cbs
"After making no mention of it on Wednesday evening or Thursday morning, NBC continued its streak of ignoring the militant atheism and liberalism of the North Carolina man accused of killing three Muslim-Americans during Thursday’s NBC Nightly News."
http://newsbusters.org/blogs/curtis-houck/2015/02/12/nbc-continues-omit-atheist-liberal-beliefs-accuser-killing-muslims-cbs
SnyderTalk Comment: I’ve been expecting something like this to happen for a long time. After the beheadings and all of the other evil atrocities perpetrated by Islamist terrorists worldwide, it was just a matter of time. It can get a lot worse going forward if something isn’t done about the underlying problem.
I am appalled by what happened. Muslims have every right to be angry. That said, Jewish people feel the same way when they are targeted by Islamist terrorists simply because they are Jewish. Christians who witness their friends and family being abducted, tortured, raped, sold as sex slaves, and killed feel the same way.
Did the Muslims who are outraged because of the murders in North Carolina think that there would be no blowback? If they did, they were mistaken.
Vigilante justice is as old as the human species. That’s one reason why governments were formed. In the absence of meaningful action by government officials, a segment of society will take it upon itself to exact justice/revenge. Given Obama’s record so far and the records of European leaders, I’m surprised that it took this long.
I want to reiterate this point because it’s very important: it can get a lot worse from here if something isn’t done about the Islamist terrorist problem.
I am appalled by what happened. Muslims have every right to be angry. That said, Jewish people feel the same way when they are targeted by Islamist terrorists simply because they are Jewish. Christians who witness their friends and family being abducted, tortured, raped, sold as sex slaves, and killed feel the same way.
Did the Muslims who are outraged because of the murders in North Carolina think that there would be no blowback? If they did, they were mistaken.
Vigilante justice is as old as the human species. That’s one reason why governments were formed. In the absence of meaningful action by government officials, a segment of society will take it upon itself to exact justice/revenge. Given Obama’s record so far and the records of European leaders, I’m surprised that it took this long.
I want to reiterate this point because it’s very important: it can get a lot worse from here if something isn’t done about the Islamist terrorist problem.
You really can't mock how silly and stupid guesser is:
[h=1]Female Genital Mutilation on the Rise in the U.S.[/h]
Funny coincidence how all the photos in the article are of Muslim women.
[h=1]Female Genital Mutilation on the Rise in the U.S.[/h]
Funny coincidence how all the photos in the article are of Muslim women.
No hate crime.
Just a random act of violence, just totally random, the fact that they were Muslim is just chance.
It could even be work place violence on the campus.
Or he was just mentally ill, the moment he fired the gun, a psychotic moment.
It is a pity the Muslim community does not shout so loud when the Boston Marathon was bombed or when Americans are beheaded. When their own die, all hell lets loose.
Just a random act of violence, just totally random, the fact that they were Muslim is just chance.
It could even be work place violence on the campus.
Or he was just mentally ill, the moment he fired the gun, a psychotic moment.
It is a pity the Muslim community does not shout so loud when the Boston Marathon was bombed or when Americans are beheaded. When their own die, all hell lets loose.
[h=1]N.C. killings linked to Islamophobia[/h]
As a result of rampant Islamophobia in much of the media, three Muslim-American honors students who extensively volunteered for charities were killed in Chapel Hill, North Carolina on Feb. 10 ("Police investigate hate crime theory after 3 slain in N.C.," Feb. 12).
cComments
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Deah Barakat, 23, a second-year student in the University of North Carolina School of Dentistry, married Yusor Mohammad, 21, in December, and Mohammad planned to begin her dental studies in the fall, authorities said. Her sister, Razan Mohammad Abu-Salha, was a sophomore at North Carolina State University. Barakat graduated magna cum laude with a B.S. in business administration in May 2013. Yusor Mohammad graduated cum laude with a B.S. in biological sciences in December 2014.
Barakat and 10 local dentists and faculty from UNC School of Dentistry were planning a trip this summer to Rihaniya, Turkey, to provide dental care to refugees from Syria there (a not-so-well-known fact: Turkey is sheltering 1.6 million Syrian refugees — more than any other non-Arab country).
Craig Stephen Hicks, 46, a militant atheist, was arrested and is charged with three counts of first-degree murder. Police are investigating whether this was a "hate crime" but will probably end up classifying it as a "dispute over parking" — an absurd and unbelievable line. Is the same media that spread Islamophobia seriously trying to convince the readers that someone could have gone to the home of honor students and kill all three of them, including two women, over some parking dispute? Or will that same media try to argue that since Mr. Hicks was an atheist he could not have hated Muslims?
Since Zogby first began polling on American attitudes toward Muslims in 2010, there has been continued erosion in the favorable ratings given, posing a threat to the rights of American Muslims. Favorable attitudes have continued to decline — from 35 percent in 2010 to 27 percent in 2014 for Muslims.
During the meeting with Muslim-American leaders last week and during the National Prayer Breakfast, President Barack Obama acknowledged the problem of Islamophobia and warned against allowing death cults like ISIS to affect the view and perception of Muslim-Americans and Islam as a religion.
The U.S. Turkic Network unifies people of varied religious and ethnic backgrounds — there are Muslims, Christians, Jews and Buddhists, as well as atheists and agnostics, among it members. And as one of its members, I not just condemn the hate crime with which Mr. Hicks is charged but also join to the Twitter hashtag #MuslimLivesMatter, and express my condolences to the families of the three bright Muslim-American students, but wish all mainstream media will institute more sensitive editorial policies rooted in facts when it comes to the coverage of the Middle East, Muslims and Islam. Also, for all elected officials (save maybe Michele Bachmann and John Bennett) to be mindful of stoking hatred and anti-Muslim feelings.
Serpil Gulsen, Gambrills
Copyright © 2015, The Baltimore Sun
- Middle East
- Turkey
- Homicide
- Media Industry
- North Carolina State University
- University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
As a result of rampant Islamophobia in much of the media, three Muslim-American honors students who extensively volunteered for charities were killed in Chapel Hill, North Carolina on Feb. 10 ("Police investigate hate crime theory after 3 slain in N.C.," Feb. 12).
cComments
- Well at least they kept their heads...
Possumman
at 8:04 PM February 13, 2015
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Deah Barakat, 23, a second-year student in the University of North Carolina School of Dentistry, married Yusor Mohammad, 21, in December, and Mohammad planned to begin her dental studies in the fall, authorities said. Her sister, Razan Mohammad Abu-Salha, was a sophomore at North Carolina State University. Barakat graduated magna cum laude with a B.S. in business administration in May 2013. Yusor Mohammad graduated cum laude with a B.S. in biological sciences in December 2014.
Barakat and 10 local dentists and faculty from UNC School of Dentistry were planning a trip this summer to Rihaniya, Turkey, to provide dental care to refugees from Syria there (a not-so-well-known fact: Turkey is sheltering 1.6 million Syrian refugees — more than any other non-Arab country).
Craig Stephen Hicks, 46, a militant atheist, was arrested and is charged with three counts of first-degree murder. Police are investigating whether this was a "hate crime" but will probably end up classifying it as a "dispute over parking" — an absurd and unbelievable line. Is the same media that spread Islamophobia seriously trying to convince the readers that someone could have gone to the home of honor students and kill all three of them, including two women, over some parking dispute? Or will that same media try to argue that since Mr. Hicks was an atheist he could not have hated Muslims?
Since Zogby first began polling on American attitudes toward Muslims in 2010, there has been continued erosion in the favorable ratings given, posing a threat to the rights of American Muslims. Favorable attitudes have continued to decline — from 35 percent in 2010 to 27 percent in 2014 for Muslims.
During the meeting with Muslim-American leaders last week and during the National Prayer Breakfast, President Barack Obama acknowledged the problem of Islamophobia and warned against allowing death cults like ISIS to affect the view and perception of Muslim-Americans and Islam as a religion.
The U.S. Turkic Network unifies people of varied religious and ethnic backgrounds — there are Muslims, Christians, Jews and Buddhists, as well as atheists and agnostics, among it members. And as one of its members, I not just condemn the hate crime with which Mr. Hicks is charged but also join to the Twitter hashtag #MuslimLivesMatter, and express my condolences to the families of the three bright Muslim-American students, but wish all mainstream media will institute more sensitive editorial policies rooted in facts when it comes to the coverage of the Middle East, Muslims and Islam. Also, for all elected officials (save maybe Michele Bachmann and John Bennett) to be mindful of stoking hatred and anti-Muslim feelings.
Serpil Gulsen, Gambrills
Copyright © 2015, The Baltimore Sun
Gun nuts and hate, never a good mix:
[h=2]Suspect in Shooting of 3 Students Had 13 Guns, Stash of Ammo[/h] [h=3]Man arrested in shooting of 3 Muslim students in North Carolina had 13 firearms, cache of ammo[/h] [h=4]By MICHAEL BIESECKER[/h] [h=4]The Associated Press[/h] RALEIGH, N.C.
The suspect in the deaths of three Muslim college students in North Carolina had at least a dozen firearms stashed in his home, according to search warrants released Friday as world leaders decried the shootings.
Warrants filed in Durham County Superior Court listed an inventory of weapons seized by police from the Chapel Hill condominium of Craig Stephen Hicks, the 46-year-old charged with three counts of first-degree murder.
The warrants list four handguns recovered from the home Hicks shared with his wife, in addition to a pistol the suspect had with him when he turned himself in about an hour after the shootings. The warrants also list two shotguns and six rifles, including a military-style AR-15 carbine. Police also recovered numerous loaded magazines and cases of ammunition.
Eight spent shell-casings were found in the neighboring apartment of Deah Shaddy Barakat, 23, and his wife, Yusor Mohammad Abu-Salha, 21. Also killed was the wife's sister, Razan Mohammad Abu-Salha, 19.
Relatives say all were shot in the head. Authorities haven't disclosed exactly how the victims died.
"No one in the United States of America should ever be targeted because of who they are, what they look like, or how they worship," President Barack Obama said in Washington.
In New York, spokesman Stephane Dujarric said United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon was "deeply moved" by thousands thronging Thursday's funeral. Jordan's Embassy in Washington said its ambassador visited the families Friday. Yusor Abu-Salha was born in Jordan, as where her parents. The younger sister was born in the U.S.
Police in Chapel Hill said they have yet to uncover any evidence Hicks acted out of religious animus, though they are investigating the possibility. As a potential motive, they cited a longstanding dispute about parking spaces at the condo community where he lived in the same building as the victims.
The FBI is now conducting a "parallel preliminary inquiry" to determine whether any federal laws, including hate crime laws, were violated.
Family members of the slain students are pressing for hate crime charges against the alleged shooter, but legal experts say such cases are relative rare and can be difficult to prove.
"This has hate crime written all over it," said Dr. Mohammad Yousif Abu-Salha, speaking Thursday at the funeral for his daughters and son-in-law. "It was not about a parking spot."
To win a hate-crime conviction, however, legal experts say prosecutors would have to prove Hicks deliberately targeted those killed because of religion, race or national origin.
North Carolina does not have a specific "hate crime" statute, though it has laws covering such acts of "ethnic intimidation" as hanging a noose, burning a cross or setting fire to a church.
Colon Willoughby, a retired top prosecutor of 27 years for North Carolina's largest county, said he could remember only a handful of ethnic intimidation cases ??? namely because defendants often faced other potential charges with far stiffer penalties.
Hicks will likely face either the death penalty or life in prison if convicted on murder charges. Willoughby said evidence about motive would have a role in the prosecution.
"Hate crime' is really just another way of describing the motive for why a crime was committed," Willoughby said. "As a prosecutor, you want the jury to understand the motive for the crime and you would present the very same information ... and look at his mindset, and use these things to prove motive."
Hicks, who was unemployed and taking community college classes, staunchly supported Second Amendment gun rights and had a permit to carry a concealed handgun. Neighbors described an angry man often in confrontations over parking or loud music, sometimes with a gun holstered at his hip. His social media posts often discussed firearms, including a photo posted of a .38-caliber revolver.
Regarding religion, Hicks, an avowed atheist, appeared critical of all faiths in Facebook posts. During the 2010 controversy over on old building near the site of the 9/11 attacks could be converted into an Islamic community center, Hicks took Christians to task.
"Seems an overwhelming majority of Christians in this country feel that the Muslims are using the Ground Zero mosque plans to 'mark their conquest,'" he wrote. "Bunch of hypocrites, everywhere I've been in this country there are churches marking the Christian conquest of this country from the Native Americans."
Durham County District Attorney Roger Echols, with jurisdiction over the shootings, said he hasn't made up his mind whether to bring any ethnic intimidation charges in the case.
Federal authorities could potentially bring separate charges against Hicks for violating the victims' civil rights. Federal hate-crimes laws give prosecutors wide latitude to bring charges for violent acts triggered by race, ethnicity, religion or perceived sexual orientation.
In 2012, the most recent year for which statistics are available, law enforcement agencies nationwide reported 5,796 "hate crime incidents," though it's unclear how many yielded criminal convictions.
———
[h=2]Suspect in Shooting of 3 Students Had 13 Guns, Stash of Ammo[/h] [h=3]Man arrested in shooting of 3 Muslim students in North Carolina had 13 firearms, cache of ammo[/h] [h=4]By MICHAEL BIESECKER[/h] [h=4]The Associated Press[/h] RALEIGH, N.C.
The suspect in the deaths of three Muslim college students in North Carolina had at least a dozen firearms stashed in his home, according to search warrants released Friday as world leaders decried the shootings.
Warrants filed in Durham County Superior Court listed an inventory of weapons seized by police from the Chapel Hill condominium of Craig Stephen Hicks, the 46-year-old charged with three counts of first-degree murder.
The warrants list four handguns recovered from the home Hicks shared with his wife, in addition to a pistol the suspect had with him when he turned himself in about an hour after the shootings. The warrants also list two shotguns and six rifles, including a military-style AR-15 carbine. Police also recovered numerous loaded magazines and cases of ammunition.
Eight spent shell-casings were found in the neighboring apartment of Deah Shaddy Barakat, 23, and his wife, Yusor Mohammad Abu-Salha, 21. Also killed was the wife's sister, Razan Mohammad Abu-Salha, 19.
Relatives say all were shot in the head. Authorities haven't disclosed exactly how the victims died.
"No one in the United States of America should ever be targeted because of who they are, what they look like, or how they worship," President Barack Obama said in Washington.
In New York, spokesman Stephane Dujarric said United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon was "deeply moved" by thousands thronging Thursday's funeral. Jordan's Embassy in Washington said its ambassador visited the families Friday. Yusor Abu-Salha was born in Jordan, as where her parents. The younger sister was born in the U.S.
Police in Chapel Hill said they have yet to uncover any evidence Hicks acted out of religious animus, though they are investigating the possibility. As a potential motive, they cited a longstanding dispute about parking spaces at the condo community where he lived in the same building as the victims.
The FBI is now conducting a "parallel preliminary inquiry" to determine whether any federal laws, including hate crime laws, were violated.
Family members of the slain students are pressing for hate crime charges against the alleged shooter, but legal experts say such cases are relative rare and can be difficult to prove.
"This has hate crime written all over it," said Dr. Mohammad Yousif Abu-Salha, speaking Thursday at the funeral for his daughters and son-in-law. "It was not about a parking spot."
To win a hate-crime conviction, however, legal experts say prosecutors would have to prove Hicks deliberately targeted those killed because of religion, race or national origin.
North Carolina does not have a specific "hate crime" statute, though it has laws covering such acts of "ethnic intimidation" as hanging a noose, burning a cross or setting fire to a church.
Colon Willoughby, a retired top prosecutor of 27 years for North Carolina's largest county, said he could remember only a handful of ethnic intimidation cases ??? namely because defendants often faced other potential charges with far stiffer penalties.
Hicks will likely face either the death penalty or life in prison if convicted on murder charges. Willoughby said evidence about motive would have a role in the prosecution.
"Hate crime' is really just another way of describing the motive for why a crime was committed," Willoughby said. "As a prosecutor, you want the jury to understand the motive for the crime and you would present the very same information ... and look at his mindset, and use these things to prove motive."
Hicks, who was unemployed and taking community college classes, staunchly supported Second Amendment gun rights and had a permit to carry a concealed handgun. Neighbors described an angry man often in confrontations over parking or loud music, sometimes with a gun holstered at his hip. His social media posts often discussed firearms, including a photo posted of a .38-caliber revolver.
Regarding religion, Hicks, an avowed atheist, appeared critical of all faiths in Facebook posts. During the 2010 controversy over on old building near the site of the 9/11 attacks could be converted into an Islamic community center, Hicks took Christians to task.
"Seems an overwhelming majority of Christians in this country feel that the Muslims are using the Ground Zero mosque plans to 'mark their conquest,'" he wrote. "Bunch of hypocrites, everywhere I've been in this country there are churches marking the Christian conquest of this country from the Native Americans."
Durham County District Attorney Roger Echols, with jurisdiction over the shootings, said he hasn't made up his mind whether to bring any ethnic intimidation charges in the case.
Federal authorities could potentially bring separate charges against Hicks for violating the victims' civil rights. Federal hate-crimes laws give prosecutors wide latitude to bring charges for violent acts triggered by race, ethnicity, religion or perceived sexual orientation.
In 2012, the most recent year for which statistics are available, law enforcement agencies nationwide reported 5,796 "hate crime incidents," though it's unclear how many yielded criminal convictions.
———
[h=1]Feds probe killings of 3 Muslims in N.C.[/h] Doug Stanglin and Michael Winter, USA TODAY 7:58 p.m. EST February 13, 2015
A crowd of more than 5,000 mourners attended the funeral in Raleigh, North Carolina for three Muslims who were shot to death. VPC
(Photo: Brendan Smialowski, AFP/Getty Images)
The Justice Department and FBI are examining whether hate-crime or other federal laws were violated in the fatal shootings of three Muslim students in North Carolina that police believe stemmed from a long-standing dispute over parking at a Chapel Hill condominium complex.
President Obama on Friday called the murders "brutal and outrageous," saying, "No one in the United States of America should ever be targeted because of who they are, what they look like, or how they worship."
Craig Stephen Hicks, 46, a neighbor in the complex, has been charged with three counts of first-degree murder.
Search warrants released Friday show he had a dozen firearms in his home, including six rifles and two shotguns, along with cases of ammunition and several full magazines. Eight spent shell casings were found where all three were shot in the head.
The killings have prompted a wave of concern in the community, and nationally, over whether their deaths resulted from anti-Muslim bias.
The victims, Deah Shaddy Barakat, a 23-year-old dental student; his wife, Yusor Mohammad Abu-Salha, 21, and her sister, Razan Mohammad Abu-Salha, 19, of Raleigh, were buried Thursday following a funeral in Raleigh that drew more than 5,000 mourners.
"As we saw with the overwhelming presence at the funeral of these young Americans, we are all one American family," the president said in a statement that offered condolences to the victims' families. "Whenever anyone is taken from us before their time, we remember how they lived their lives – and the words of one of the victims should inspire the way we live ours."
USA TODAY
Chapel Hill 'rocked' by killings of 3 Muslim students
The crowd at Thursday's funeral was so large the services had to be moved from a mosque to a nearby athletic field.
Craig Stephen Hicks, 46, enters the courtroom for his first appearance at the Durham County Detention Center in Durham, N.C. (Photo: Chuck Liddy, The News and Observer, via AP)
In an emotional speech, Mohammad Yousif Abu-Salha, father of two of the victims, called on President Obama and the FBI to examine the motivation behind the killings, which he said "has hate crime written all over it."
"If they don't listen carefully I will yell, and everybody else will," he said. "All honest Americans, they're all here – white and black, and all colors and shapes. So let's stand up – real and honest – and see what these three children were martyred about. It was not about a parking spot."
USA TODAY
Murders of Muslim students spark outrage
Friday, Attorney General Eric Holder said that along with the FBI and the U.S. attorney in North Carolina, the civil rights division of the Justice Department had opened "a parallel preliminary investigation," including whether hate-crime laws were violated.
The FBI, which was already processing evidence from the crime scene, announced its investigation Thursday.
"Like all Americans, I was shocked and saddened by this week's heinous murders of three young people in Chapel Hill, North Carolina," Holder said in a statement. "I join President Obama in offering my deep sympathies to the friends and loved ones of Yusor Mohammad Abu-Salha, Deah Shaddy Barakat, and Razan Mohammad Abu-Salha."
He added, "Protecting the safety and securing the civil rights of everyone in this country is, and must always remain, a top priority for today's Department of Justice. We will never waver in this commitment. And going forward, we pledge to stand with the families of these three remarkable young people – and with all whose lives were touched by this tragedy – as they begin the long road to healing."
U.S. Attorney Ripley Rand, the district's top federal prosecutor, had said Wednesday that there was no immediate evidence Muslims were being targeted.
A makeshift memorial appears on display Feb. 11, 2015, at the University of North Carolina School of Dentistry in Chapel Hill, N.C., in remembrance of Deah Shaddy Barakat, 23, Yusor Mohammad Abu-Salha, 21, and Razan Mohammad Abu-Salha, 19, who were killed on Tuesday. Craig Stephen Hicks, 46, has been charged with three counts of first-degree murder in the case. (Photo: Chris Seward, AP)
Chapel Hill police are also investigating whether the killings involved a hate crime but say a preliminary investigation points to a long-simmering spat over parking.
A woman who lives near the scene of the shootings described Hicks as short-tempered.
"Anytime that I saw him or saw interaction with him or friends or anyone in the parking lot or myself, he was angry," Samantha Maness said of Hicks. "He was very angry any time I saw him."
Hicks' ex-wife, Cynthia Hurley, said that before they divorced about 17 years ago, his favorite movie was Falling Down, the 1993 Michael Douglas film about a divorced unemployed engineer who goes on a shooting rampage.
"That always freaked me out," Hurley said. "He watched it incessantly. He thought it was hilarious. He had no compassion at all," she said.
Supporters of the Council on American-Islamic Relations hold a vigil in Dupont Circle in Washington, DC. The vigil was held to honor three young Muslim students, Deah Shaddy Barakat, Yusor Mohammad Abu-Salh, and Razan Mohammad Abu-Salha, who were recently shot to death in Chapel Hill, N.C. (Photo: Win McNamee, Getty Images)
Family and friends of the victims remembered them as outgoing and optimistic young adults working to make the world a better place.
Barakat and Yusor Abu-Salha were newlyweds who met while helping to run a Muslim student association before Barakat moved to Chapel Hill to study dentistry at UNC. Yusor, who graduated in December, planned to enroll in the dental school in the fall. Razan Abu-Salha, her sister, was still at N.C. State, and was visiting from Raleigh when they were killed.
USA TODAY
Listen: 911 calls during shooting of 3 Muslim students
The couple had planned to travel to Rihaniya, Turkey, this summer to provide free dental care for Syrian refugee schoolchildren. To offset the costs, Barakat posted a video on a fundraising website seeking $20,000 in donations. Contributions surged after their deaths, to more than $250,000 by Thursday.
Barakat's family was from Syria, although he was born in the U.S. Yusor Abu-Salha was born in Jordan and came to the U.S. with her family as a young girl.
In an interview recorded last year as part of the StoryCorps project and broadcast by North Carolina Public Radio on Thursday, she expressed gratitude for her adopted homeland.
"Growing up in America has been such a blessing," she said. "And, you know, although in some ways I do stand out, such as the hijab I wear on my head, the head covering, there's still so many ways I feel so embedded in the fabric that is our culture. That's the beautiful thing here, is that I doesn't matter where you come from. There are so many people from so many different places, of different backgrounds and religions. But here we're all one, one culture."
A crowd of more than 5,000 mourners attended the funeral in Raleigh, North Carolina for three Muslims who were shot to death. VPC
(Photo: Brendan Smialowski, AFP/Getty Images)
The Justice Department and FBI are examining whether hate-crime or other federal laws were violated in the fatal shootings of three Muslim students in North Carolina that police believe stemmed from a long-standing dispute over parking at a Chapel Hill condominium complex.
President Obama on Friday called the murders "brutal and outrageous," saying, "No one in the United States of America should ever be targeted because of who they are, what they look like, or how they worship."
Craig Stephen Hicks, 46, a neighbor in the complex, has been charged with three counts of first-degree murder.
Search warrants released Friday show he had a dozen firearms in his home, including six rifles and two shotguns, along with cases of ammunition and several full magazines. Eight spent shell casings were found where all three were shot in the head.
The killings have prompted a wave of concern in the community, and nationally, over whether their deaths resulted from anti-Muslim bias.
The victims, Deah Shaddy Barakat, a 23-year-old dental student; his wife, Yusor Mohammad Abu-Salha, 21, and her sister, Razan Mohammad Abu-Salha, 19, of Raleigh, were buried Thursday following a funeral in Raleigh that drew more than 5,000 mourners.
"As we saw with the overwhelming presence at the funeral of these young Americans, we are all one American family," the president said in a statement that offered condolences to the victims' families. "Whenever anyone is taken from us before their time, we remember how they lived their lives – and the words of one of the victims should inspire the way we live ours."
USA TODAY
Chapel Hill 'rocked' by killings of 3 Muslim students
The crowd at Thursday's funeral was so large the services had to be moved from a mosque to a nearby athletic field.
In an emotional speech, Mohammad Yousif Abu-Salha, father of two of the victims, called on President Obama and the FBI to examine the motivation behind the killings, which he said "has hate crime written all over it."
"If they don't listen carefully I will yell, and everybody else will," he said. "All honest Americans, they're all here – white and black, and all colors and shapes. So let's stand up – real and honest – and see what these three children were martyred about. It was not about a parking spot."
USA TODAY
Murders of Muslim students spark outrage
Friday, Attorney General Eric Holder said that along with the FBI and the U.S. attorney in North Carolina, the civil rights division of the Justice Department had opened "a parallel preliminary investigation," including whether hate-crime laws were violated.
The FBI, which was already processing evidence from the crime scene, announced its investigation Thursday.
"Like all Americans, I was shocked and saddened by this week's heinous murders of three young people in Chapel Hill, North Carolina," Holder said in a statement. "I join President Obama in offering my deep sympathies to the friends and loved ones of Yusor Mohammad Abu-Salha, Deah Shaddy Barakat, and Razan Mohammad Abu-Salha."
He added, "Protecting the safety and securing the civil rights of everyone in this country is, and must always remain, a top priority for today's Department of Justice. We will never waver in this commitment. And going forward, we pledge to stand with the families of these three remarkable young people – and with all whose lives were touched by this tragedy – as they begin the long road to healing."
U.S. Attorney Ripley Rand, the district's top federal prosecutor, had said Wednesday that there was no immediate evidence Muslims were being targeted.
Chapel Hill police are also investigating whether the killings involved a hate crime but say a preliminary investigation points to a long-simmering spat over parking.
A woman who lives near the scene of the shootings described Hicks as short-tempered.
"Anytime that I saw him or saw interaction with him or friends or anyone in the parking lot or myself, he was angry," Samantha Maness said of Hicks. "He was very angry any time I saw him."
Hicks' ex-wife, Cynthia Hurley, said that before they divorced about 17 years ago, his favorite movie was Falling Down, the 1993 Michael Douglas film about a divorced unemployed engineer who goes on a shooting rampage.
"That always freaked me out," Hurley said. "He watched it incessantly. He thought it was hilarious. He had no compassion at all," she said.
Supporters of the Council on American-Islamic Relations hold a vigil in Dupont Circle in Washington, DC. The vigil was held to honor three young Muslim students, Deah Shaddy Barakat, Yusor Mohammad Abu-Salh, and Razan Mohammad Abu-Salha, who were recently shot to death in Chapel Hill, N.C. (Photo: Win McNamee, Getty Images)
Family and friends of the victims remembered them as outgoing and optimistic young adults working to make the world a better place.
Barakat and Yusor Abu-Salha were newlyweds who met while helping to run a Muslim student association before Barakat moved to Chapel Hill to study dentistry at UNC. Yusor, who graduated in December, planned to enroll in the dental school in the fall. Razan Abu-Salha, her sister, was still at N.C. State, and was visiting from Raleigh when they were killed.
USA TODAY
Listen: 911 calls during shooting of 3 Muslim students
The couple had planned to travel to Rihaniya, Turkey, this summer to provide free dental care for Syrian refugee schoolchildren. To offset the costs, Barakat posted a video on a fundraising website seeking $20,000 in donations. Contributions surged after their deaths, to more than $250,000 by Thursday.
Barakat's family was from Syria, although he was born in the U.S. Yusor Abu-Salha was born in Jordan and came to the U.S. with her family as a young girl.
In an interview recorded last year as part of the StoryCorps project and broadcast by North Carolina Public Radio on Thursday, she expressed gratitude for her adopted homeland.
"Growing up in America has been such a blessing," she said. "And, you know, although in some ways I do stand out, such as the hijab I wear on my head, the head covering, there's still so many ways I feel so embedded in the fabric that is our culture. That's the beautiful thing here, is that I doesn't matter where you come from. There are so many people from so many different places, of different backgrounds and religions. But here we're all one, one culture."
[h=2]Why So Many People See the UNC Killings as a Hate Crime[/h]
3:38 PM ET
Al Drago—The News & Observer/AP People light candles during a vigil on the campus of the University of North Carolina, for three Muslim students who were murdered, in Chapel Hill, N.C. on Feb. 11, 2015. Erica Williams Simon is a cultural critic, speaker and media maker. She also curates content for Upworthy.com and is a World Economic Forum Global Shaper.
[h=2]We can't help but see the deaths of the three young students through our own experiences[/h] In the aftermath of the shocking murders of three Muslim students, Deah Shaddy Barakat, 23, his wife, Yusor Mohammad, 21 and her sister, Razan Mohammad Abu-Salha, 19, in North Carolina, vigils and social media symbols of solidarity abound. We’ve changed our profile pictures, created trending hashtags and joined prayer services, all trying frantically to process this latest act of senseless violence.
But as the country came together to mourn the loss of these precious young people, two of them newlyweds, it took no time for the “War Of The Narratives” to emerge around one central question: Were these killings hate crimes?
[h=6]More[/h]Chapel Hill Killings Had 12 Guns in Home NBC News'We Want Justice': ISIS Captive Recalls Slave Trade Horrors NBC News
According to the victim’s family, the motivation was clear and it had to do with the family’s Muslim faith. Abu-Salha’s father has quoted his daughter as saying about the killer, “Honest to God, he hates us for what we are and how we look.”
But new information is also emerging minute by minute that suggests that the suspect, who has been charged with three counts of murder, had a constant, general angry nature and “parking obsession”, leading some to believe that this really was merely a “parking dispute gone horribly wrong.”
The FBI has also begun an investigation and as we wait to see what they uncover, it’s worth looking at the context that informs the thinking of those who have taken to the virtual streets to make the connection between the deaths of these students and the way they looked, what they wore, and what they believed.
The context that informs this assumption has nothing to do with the nuances of official investigations and everything to do with history, lived experiences and common sense. Many of us understand that hatred and bias, like God, work in mysterious ways.
Witness Scenes from the Vigil for Chapel Hill's Shooting Victims
Chris Keane—Reuters
1 of 6
We can’t help but wonder: Did their otherness provoke an exaggerated and disproportionate sense of anger over an otherwise minor dispute? Was it their headscarves (hijab) that drew a killer’s attention to them in the first place? Did their Arab names invite an elevated volume, an antagonistic tone, overly aggressive body language?
For those of us who proudly wear our “otherness” on our skin, our bodies, our hair, the questions of bias and motive—why was she so rude to me? why did they speak to me that way? why is he being to angry? why is this unfair and unjust thing happening to me?—are a harrowing constant. Is this action, this situation, a direct response to who I am? The answer, as shown throughout history, is too often a resounding yes.
With that context in mind, the immediate assumption by many that this was a hate crime cannot be written off as a “rush to judgment” by a social media driven, protest hungry culture. It must be viewed as what it is: An obvious, contextualized, intelligent and reflexive positioning born of decades of exclusion and hatred. And for post-9/11 American Muslims living in an American Sniper obsessed culture, it would be ludicrous to think any other way.
I wish it weren’t so. I want to someday live in a world where when a senseless thing like this happens, thinking that bias was the cause seems as absurd as a parking dispute. I want to live in a world where we all feel the safety, community and love that 19-year-old Abu-Salha felt when she told public radio in an interview last summer: “It doesn’t matter where you come from. There’s so many different people from so many different places of different backgrounds and religions. But here we’re all one — one culture.”
But until that day, crimes that look, smell and feel like hate will continue to be called hate by those who regularly experience hate. And for those who don’t understand that experience, a simple suggestion:
As investigators work to solve the crime, do something to solve the hate. Actively work to change the unwelcoming, dangerous and prejudiced society that Muslim Americans – and many others – live and die in every single day. That will be an honor to these victims. That will be an honor to us all.
3:38 PM ET
[h=2]We can't help but see the deaths of the three young students through our own experiences[/h] In the aftermath of the shocking murders of three Muslim students, Deah Shaddy Barakat, 23, his wife, Yusor Mohammad, 21 and her sister, Razan Mohammad Abu-Salha, 19, in North Carolina, vigils and social media symbols of solidarity abound. We’ve changed our profile pictures, created trending hashtags and joined prayer services, all trying frantically to process this latest act of senseless violence.
But as the country came together to mourn the loss of these precious young people, two of them newlyweds, it took no time for the “War Of The Narratives” to emerge around one central question: Were these killings hate crimes?
[h=6]More[/h]Chapel Hill Killings Had 12 Guns in Home NBC News'We Want Justice': ISIS Captive Recalls Slave Trade Horrors NBC News
According to the victim’s family, the motivation was clear and it had to do with the family’s Muslim faith. Abu-Salha’s father has quoted his daughter as saying about the killer, “Honest to God, he hates us for what we are and how we look.”
But new information is also emerging minute by minute that suggests that the suspect, who has been charged with three counts of murder, had a constant, general angry nature and “parking obsession”, leading some to believe that this really was merely a “parking dispute gone horribly wrong.”
The FBI has also begun an investigation and as we wait to see what they uncover, it’s worth looking at the context that informs the thinking of those who have taken to the virtual streets to make the connection between the deaths of these students and the way they looked, what they wore, and what they believed.
The context that informs this assumption has nothing to do with the nuances of official investigations and everything to do with history, lived experiences and common sense. Many of us understand that hatred and bias, like God, work in mysterious ways.
Witness Scenes from the Vigil for Chapel Hill's Shooting Victims
Chris Keane—Reuters
1 of 6
We can’t help but wonder: Did their otherness provoke an exaggerated and disproportionate sense of anger over an otherwise minor dispute? Was it their headscarves (hijab) that drew a killer’s attention to them in the first place? Did their Arab names invite an elevated volume, an antagonistic tone, overly aggressive body language?
For those of us who proudly wear our “otherness” on our skin, our bodies, our hair, the questions of bias and motive—why was she so rude to me? why did they speak to me that way? why is he being to angry? why is this unfair and unjust thing happening to me?—are a harrowing constant. Is this action, this situation, a direct response to who I am? The answer, as shown throughout history, is too often a resounding yes.
With that context in mind, the immediate assumption by many that this was a hate crime cannot be written off as a “rush to judgment” by a social media driven, protest hungry culture. It must be viewed as what it is: An obvious, contextualized, intelligent and reflexive positioning born of decades of exclusion and hatred. And for post-9/11 American Muslims living in an American Sniper obsessed culture, it would be ludicrous to think any other way.
I wish it weren’t so. I want to someday live in a world where when a senseless thing like this happens, thinking that bias was the cause seems as absurd as a parking dispute. I want to live in a world where we all feel the safety, community and love that 19-year-old Abu-Salha felt when she told public radio in an interview last summer: “It doesn’t matter where you come from. There’s so many different people from so many different places of different backgrounds and religions. But here we’re all one — one culture.”
But until that day, crimes that look, smell and feel like hate will continue to be called hate by those who regularly experience hate. And for those who don’t understand that experience, a simple suggestion:
As investigators work to solve the crime, do something to solve the hate. Actively work to change the unwelcoming, dangerous and prejudiced society that Muslim Americans – and many others – live and die in every single day. That will be an honor to these victims. That will be an honor to us all.
