All lives matter
Three Muslim students were shot dead in North Carolina a few days ago. Craig Stephen Hicks has been charged on three accounts with first-degree murder. Those dead are Deah Barakat, 23, his wife Yusor Mohammad Abu-Salha, 21, and her sister Razan Mohammad Abu-Salha, 19. Although an idea has been put forth that the killings may have been due to a dispute over parking as suggested by Chapel Hill Police in a report by The Guardian, to my lawyer mind it seems very strange that, if true, Hicks would choose not to kill one person responsible allegedly in a dispute but all three of the family. The second question this theory raises in my mind is why did he have a loaded weapon on his person in the first place? Third, why were the victims shot in the head which is as cold blooded as it gets? “To have him come in here and shoot three different innocent people in their heads — I don’t know what kind of person that is,” said Namee Barakat, the father of the male victim, Deah Shaddy Barakat.” (NYT, February 11, 20015)
However, the police had not confirmed that the shots were in the head. The same report states the victims were shot inside the apartment. “One 911 caller, at 5:11pm Tuesday, said she had heard five to 10 shots and “kids screaming”. Another, calling a minute later, said she had heard about eight shots and multiple people screaming, then a pause, and then three more shots. The victims were shot inside an apartment, according to one of the calls, and family members said the police told them they had been shot in the head.”
Todd Shea, a musician and humanitarian, founded Comprehensive Disaster Response Services (CDRS) to help the affected people of the northern region in 2005. This organisation and Shea’s personal efforts went a long way in helping the internally displaced persons. He wrote on his Facebook status on February 12, 2015, and I reproduce with his permission:
“’When his son-in-law lived alone in the condominium complex, the family never had any problems. But once his daughter moved in wearing a headscarf, that clearly identified her as Muslim, the trouble started, Abu-Salha said.’
“Daddy, I think he hates us for who we are,” Abu-Salha said his daughter Yusor Mohammad told him.
“I don’t need any media or police or prosecutors or politicians or experts to tell me what to think and how to think and convince me whether or not this was a hate crime. The above information is all I need to come to my conclusion. These are the eyewitness statements of the compassionate, selfless and exemplary Human Beings who looked into the eyes of a terrorist who eagerly and publicly espoused a radical atheist ideology. These are the eyewitness testimonies of the Human Beings who felt the unmistakable burn of the laser-like hatred, derision and disdain this disgusting man held in his heart for anyone who believes that a higher power created us all.
“I trust their impressions a million times more than I would trust anyone else’s. Apparently Craig Stephen Hicks had disputes and run-ins with other neighbours, but it’s quite revealing that in the time and the place he picked to strike with bullets, the neighbours he aimed and fired his prized weapon at were three Muslims — three of the kindest, most gentle and full of life Human Beings one could ever have the good fortune to know and love. Their only ‘offense’ was that they were easily identifiable as the believers he so radically opposed in his incessant online rants against.
“This climate of hate and acute division — which produces the various incarnations of Demons such as Craig Stephen Hicks in our World — is being fueled… the only way to defeat them is with a revolution. Not a violent one, but a revolution of the heart — a transformation of Humanity where ALL good people who want a peaceful future for everyone’s children say NO to the sociopathic policies we allow our so-called elite to pursue and NO to hate and say YES to teaching their children empathy and not to hate ANYONE because of the colour of their skin or who they love or how they dress or where they are from or what higher power they believe in or don’t believe in. And we need to build a World for our children where money and political power and indifferent ruthlessness towards fellow Human Beings are not the most influential aspects ruling over our systems of life, justice, health, education and opportunity.
We all need to be more like Yusor, Deah and Razan and their Family. We all need to be more like Kayla Mueller and her Family. Then together we would make it out of the darkness of these dark times.”
Yahoo News states, “The killings are fuelling outrage among people who blame anti-Muslim rhetoric for hate crimes. A Muslim advocacy organisation pressed authorities to investigate possible religious bias. Many posted social media updates with the hashtags #MuslimLivesMatter.” (February 13, 2015)
Norman Baker, Minister of State for Crime Prevention, has written a beautiful document titled “Challenge it, Report it, Stop it”, a government’s hate crime action plan. The ‘ministerial foreword’ states, “Addressing anti-Muslim hatred remains a central theme and our dialogue with local communities is already underway through the roll out of a number of regional roadshows.” Well done, Minister! Acceptance of the malaise is the first step towards its remedy. (Norman Baker is a British politician who has been a Member of Parliament for Lewes in East Sussex)
“What is extremely important in a world bombarded with hate material spewed on a regular basis by media, both mainstream and non-mainstream, is an immediate assurance by the country head to address the concerns of the community wounded. Now this is the truly sad part. If Obama has not spoken because the investigation is not yet concluded, this stance is at variance with the stance taken at the Fergusan killings, way before any investigation were completed. An excerpt of his address is reproduced, “Ours is a nation of laws: of citizens who live under them and for the citizens who enforce them. So, to a community in Ferguson that is rightly hurting and looking for answers, let me call once again for us to seek some understanding rather than simply holler at each other. Let’s seek to heal rather than to wound each other.
“As Americans, we’ve got to use this moment to seek out our shared humanity that’s been laid bare by this moment. The potential of a young man and the sorrows of parents, the frustrations of a community, the ideals that we hold as one united American family.” (WSJ, August 18, 2014)
What Obama sought to do then was to reassure the affected community of the continued support of his government to apply justice and fairness. This is what was expected from the leader of a superpower that is the United States of America. Yet this expectation was met with silence — until he received flak from “the likes of Turkey’s Recep Tayyip Erdogan for his ‘silence’ on the Chapel Hill shootings”, reports a local newspaper on February 14th, 2014. Belated, the statement from the White House read, “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.”
In the meanwhile, soon after the incident, the campus of UNC, a local plaza, was flooded with thousands to express solidarity with the family. Remembrances were offered by those who knew those slain. One ended her speech with, “Muslim lives matter. All lives matter.”
I borrow the title of my piece from the speech.
