Rutgers Students Hold Vigil for Three Muslim Students Murdered in Chapel Hill

NEWARK, NJ — As the sun set and the billows of the wind grew stronger and louder, Rutgers University-Newark students began assembling outside on the Norman Samuels plaza earlier this evening, immediately before the entrance of the Paul Robeson Campus Center. The mood was dismal and the winds were decorated with sorrowful tears. Cupping their reddened hands around the flare of their candles, students stood still, relishing in their thoughts. Inside, students warmly observed through the glass walls; outside, between the grieving screeches of the winds, approximately 200 students somberly remembered Deah Barakat and Yusor and Razan Abu-Salha, three college students who were murdered in their North Carolina home on Tuesday evening.

“They were so relatable,” said Amanda Nassar, a first year student studying journalism. “They were college students just like us. They were athletes, artists, active members of their communities. Deah, Yusor, and Razan could have been any of us—they could have been me.”

In solidarity with their families, Muslim as well as non-Muslim Rutgers University-Newark students organized a candle light vigil. The vigil began with a sobering Quran recitation and was followed by spoken words by Rutgers University-Newark student Nermine Ghazy, Professor Alsiadi, Chair of the US-Middle East program, and Sheikh Yasir Fahmy, a community leader at the Islamic Center of Passaic County.

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“There is a disease that pervades our society today,” Fahmy addressed the crowd. “There is a culture of fear, hatred, and rampant individualism. We have to collectively come together and revive the Prophet’s ethic of mercy, love, and compassion. It’s not just Muslims who are dying. Countless innocent people in this country and aboard are dying—we need to come together.”

Sonyia Yar, a Muslim student studying at Rutgers University-Newark, described the incident as a great loss to the community and was deeply saddened by the events.

Mehul Vora, an electrical engineering student at Rutgers University-Newark, told AlQuds Alarabi that although he is not Muslim, he came out to pay his respects to the students who were killed and to support the community.

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“It’s a global issue,” Sakura Ando, the president of the Nursing Student Governing Association, told AlQuds Alarabi. “As a hyphenated American, I believe it is our duty to come together for each other. We’re not globally American, we make America together. It doesn’t matter religion or race.”

“When human life is taken, we all hurt,” Nick Leeper, a senior majoring in history and education, said. “It’s not just a specific group.”

Deah, a 23-year old Syrian-American, was a second year student studying at the dentistry school of the University of North Carolina. He and Yusor had just danced together at their wedding on December 27th. Deah was known by his community for his bigheartedness and dedication to community service. Indeed, before he died, he had started a YouCaring campaign through Syrian Dental Relief to raise money for Syrian refugees.

Abdullah Dorgham, Deah’s childhood friend, said that Deah would always strive to help anyone and everyone.

“He was the man I wish I could be,” Dorgham told AlQuds Alarabi.

Deah and Abdullah’s parents moved to America at around the same time. The young men went to Al-Eman school together and hung out at each other’s houses.

“Deah’s parents would refer to me as ‘oh ya abni’, and my parents would do the same,” Abdullah told AlQuds Alarabi. “We felt so close to each other. At times, people would think my twin brother, Mohammed, myself, and Deah, were triplets.”

“Both, the Abu-Salha family and the Barakat family, are incredibly strong,” Deah said. “Deah’s brother, Yusuf, was the one comforting me throughout the burial.”

At the burial, Abdullah recalled an experience he and Deah had endured together.

“When we were teenagers, Deah and I buried one of our friends together,” Abdullah said. “It’s hard to believe that only six weeks ago, I was dancing at Deah’s wedding, and today, I bury him.”

Deah, Yusor, and Razan were like the rain: wherever they went, they left a positive impact.

In the summer, Yusor, Deah’s wife, had voluntarily traveled to Kilis, Turkey to practice and educate Syrian refugees on dental hygiene. She had studied human biology at the North Carolina State University and graduated last year. She was scheduled to follow her husband and begin her dental studies at the School of Dentistry at the University of North Carolina in the fall.

Razan, Yusor’s younger sister, who was only 19, was studying architecture and environmental design at North Carolina State University. She was visiting the newly wed couple when she, too, was murdered. Like her sister and brother-in-law, Razan was active in her community, volunteering with Global Deaf Muslims, which advocates for equal access to Islam for the deaf and hard of hearing.

At the family press conference on Wednesday, Suzanne Barakat, Deah’s older sister, described Deah, Yusor, and Razan as “gems of their community.”

“Six weeks ago I cried tears of joy at my baby’s brother’s wedding. Today we are crying tears of unimagined pain,” Suzanne told reporters. “We are still in a state of shock and we will never be able to make sense of this horrendous tragedy.”

The perpetrator, Craig Stephen Hicks, 46, described himself as a “gun-toting” atheist. He frequently posted several complaints about Muslims, especially. According to past testimonies by Yusor and Deah, Hicks would constantly quarrel with them about parking spots while flashing a gun on his hips.

While Hicks’s current wife, who later told police she planned on divorcing him, says that the murder was triggered by parking disputes, patterns in the media portrayal of Islam and society’s treatment of Muslims say otherwise.

Media scholar Jack Shaheen examined 100 years of Hollywood film representations of Arabs and Muslims and found that 900 films portrayed Arabs and Muslims as “brutal, heartless, uncivilized religious fanatics and money-mad cultural ‘others’ bent on terrorizing civilized Westerners.”

“In much of the western news discourse, the implication always seems clear; western societies should be suspicious of Muslims—all Muslims,” wrote Dr. Mohamad Elmasry, an assistant professor at the University of North Alabama. “Analysts claiming that "Islam is the problem" are given prominent platforms on news talk shows, while expert Muslim voices are systematically ignored.”

Until the probable cause hearing occurs, which is scheduled for March 4th, the Barakat and Abu-Salha families ask everyone to keep them in their prayers and to live the legacy of their murdered not by becoming vengeful but by fighting hatred and bigotry with love.

Published by The Observer