Chapel Hill Shooting: An Isolated Incident or Evidence of a New Wave of Islamophobia?

On February 10, 2015, a young, newlywed Muslim­American couple’s home was invaded by neighbor Craig Hicks. With his firearm, he proceeded to murder the couple, Deah Barakat and Yusor Abu­Salha, along with her sister, Razan Abu­Salha. Not only were they three ambitious students and no doubt some of North Carolina’s brightest, they were also activists concerned with both domestic and global humanitarian issues. The day following the shooting, Twitter lit up. Thousands of tweets poured into the mentions of major media outlets, asking why the shooting was not being covered. Only after a whole day of Twitter users attempting to hold the American media accountable did CNN and MSNBC invite Deah’s older sister, Dr. Suzanne Barakat onto their programs to inquire about their families and what they knew about the victims’ relationship to their neighbor. Dr. Barakat echoed the Muslim community’s concern about the shooting being described as the conclusion of a parking dispute, rather than a hate crime.

In later interviews, Yusor and Razan’s father, Dr. Mohammad Abu­Salha expressed that Hicks only seemed to have a problem with his neighbors after Yusor moved into her husband’s home, her Muslim identity apparent because she wore the hijab. While I only speak for myself and not the entire Muslim community, there have been countless sentiments shared about the shooting on social media, many of which expressing fears that they, too, could be in harm’s way just for being visibly Muslim. Many American Muslim women have asked themselves if they should continue wearing the hijab in case it threatened their safety due to Islamophobia. No one should have to forsake their religious traditions, especially an expression of modesty such as wearing the hijab, because they don’t feel safe in a country that prides itself on having freedom of religion. The frustration with the “parking dispute” label and the fear that the Muslim­American community feels has only deepened in the past month, for more innocent American Muslims have been killed since the events of Chapel Hill, and their stories have also been absent from American media. Abdisamad Sheikh­Hussein was hit by a car and run over as he was leaving a mosque in Kansas City. Ahmed al­Jumaili was killed 20 days after arriving in the United States. He was taking pictures of snowfall in Dallas when 4 men with a rifle shot him and fled the scene. Mukhtar Ahmed was shot multiple times through his passenger door after dropping his daughter off to school in Louisville. There was no apparent relationship between him and his shooter, Christopher L. McCullum. Since these killings were not carried out in the name of jihad, they haven’t been labeled as acts of terrorism. And since the victims were Muslim, the major media outlets don’t seem to think the news worthy of sharing with the American public.

Why do hate crimes against Muslims seem to be on the rise? Well, let’s look at Twitter again and how many of its users responded following the release of Oscar nominee, American Sniper, a movie that depicts the life of Navy SEAL Chris Kyle. While I can’t say that the movie itself has anything to do with the killings, it certainly depicts a grossly limited view of Muslims and has elicited a frightening response on social media. The hashtag #KillAllMuslims began the day following the movie’s release attached to tweets like, “Great f***ing movie and now I really want to kill some f***ing ragheads.” In Chris Kyle’s own autobiography he wrote, “Everyone I shot was evil. I had good cause on every shot. They all deserved to die,” and, “My only regret is that I didn’t kill more.” I find this incredibly disturbing knowing that over 120,000 of the casualties of the War in Iraq and the subsequent occupation were civilian noncombatants. Unfortunately, this new wave of Islamophobia does not seem to be a uniquely American issue. Since the attack on Charlie Hebdo, there have been more than two dozen attacks on mosques in France. The places of worship have been subject to firebombs, grenades, gunfire, and the heads of pigs left on their doorsteps. Countless individual incidents of Islamophobia are believed to have gone unreported as well.

In December, about 18,000 people gathered in Dresden, Germany in an Anti­Islam protest, citing their concern with the “Islamicization of the West”. However, I think that Shari’a Law imposed in the West is infinitely less likely than an innocent Muslim getting gunned down in a place that they are trying to make their home. This is a global pattern that needs to be discussed for what it really is: the right to life in a time of massive misunderstanding about Islam and Muslims. The Muslim Student Association at Cal State Long Beach has doubled its efforts to reach out to the wider campus community in order to combat that misunderstanding.