3 young Muslims killed by gunman in US

Three young Muslims were killed by a gunman in the US state of North Carolina on Tuesday.

A statement from police in the town of Chapel Hill confirmed they were questioning a suspect over the murder of three people at 5 pm local time.

Local media reported that the victims were 23-year old Deah Shaddy Barakat, his wife Yusor Mohammad, 21, and her sister, Razan Mohammad Abu-Salha, 19.

An American football and basketball fan, Deah was believed to be a dental student at the University of North Carolina and volunteered with a charity providing emergency dental care to children in Palestine.

UNC officials said Deah and Yusor got married less than two months ago, in late December. She had been planning to begin her own dental studies in Chapel Hill this autumn.

WRAL news reported that a 46-year old man, Craig Stephen Hicks, turned himself in to the Chatham County Sheriff’s Office in Pittsboro after the attack.

Craig Stephen Hicks read paralegal studies at Durham county’s Technical Community College. Hicks described himself as an atheist on Facebook and posted regular images and text condemning all religions.

Activists on social media shared pictures of the victims and criticised US media for its lack of coverage of the murder.

The condemnation across social media, included a tweet by Richard Dawkins, who said: “How could any decent person NOT condemn the vile murder of three young US Muslims in Chapel Hill?”

How could any decent person NOT condemn the vile murder of three young US Muslims in Chapel Hill? http://t.co/pdtwnKqYG3

— Richard Dawkins (@RichardDawkins) February 11, 2015

“Muslims only newsworthy when “behind a gun. Not in front it.” Lack of coverage on Chapel Hill murders confirms this,” Khalid Beydoun, a law professor at Barry University in Florida, posted on Twitter.

Similarly Sana Saeed, a producer for AJ Plus, an offshoot of Al Jazeera, posted: “Incredible that major news networks have yet to talk about the #ChapelHillShooting. Absolutely shameful. This is how Islamophobia operates.”

Deah Shaddy Barakat, a dental student who had established a program to help Syrian Refugee Students in Turkey, and his wife Yusor Mohammad were married recently according to the victims’ social media accounts.