KSA, Qatar protest killings of 3 American Muslim college students as a “heinous terrorist” act

RIYADH/DOHA: Saudi Arabia on Sunday denounced the killing in North Carolina of three American Muslim college students as a “heinous terrorist” act, while thousands took to the streets in Qatar in protest. A statement carried by the official Saudi Press Agency (SPA) called for an end to incitement against Muslims.

It also condemned as a “terrorist” act the recent attacks that killed two people in Denmark, one at a panel discussion that included an artist who caricatured the Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) and the other outside a synagogue.

In Doha, Qatar, several thousand people marched in solidarity with the families of the North Carolina victims. The marchers appealed for protection against hate crimes for the tens of thousands of young Arabs studying in the United States on scholarships funded by governments of the Gulf.

Deah Barakat, 23; his wife, Yusor Abu-Salha, 21; and her sister, Razan Abu-Salha, 19, were killed on Tuesday by their neighbor Craig Hicks, 46, an avowed atheist who was a vocal critic of all religions. Family members say all three were shot in the head at the newlywed couple’s home, though police aren’t saying exactly how the three victims died.

Families of the victims believe the attack was religiously motivated. Some have accused Western media and politicians of not responding quickly enough to the deaths of the three students, saying there is a double standard when Muslims are the victims of violence. The victims’ relatives are pressing for hate-crime charges against Hicks, and the FBI is now involved and investigating possible motives. Local police initially said a parking dispute sparked the murders and the US attorney for the region described it as “an isolated incident.”

However, the day after the attack, the pre-eminent institute of Islamic learning in the Sunni Muslim world, Al-Azhar, described the murders as a “cowardly terrorist act.”

Al-Azhar, which is based in Cairo, said it was deeply concerned that the killings appeared to have been prompted by “racism and Islamophobia.”

Similarly, the 57-nation Organization of Islamic Cooperation, the world’s largest bloc of Muslim countries, said the murders heightened international concerns about “rising anti-Muslim sentiments and Islamophobic acts” in the United States. Families of the victims believe the attack was religiously motivated. Some have accused Western media and politicians of not responding quickly enough to the deaths of the three students, saying there is a double standard when Muslims are the victims of violence.

Hicks has been charged with three counts of murder. Sunday’s march in Doha was organized by a foundation chaired by Sheikha Moza bint Nasser Al-Masnad — the mother of Qatar’s emir. At the end of the march, participants heard a pre-recorded video message from Deah’s brother and sister, Suzanne and Farris Barakat. In the video, Farris said it was “amazing” that “the people of Qatar were thinking about us and the family.”