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Erdogan chides Obama's silence on Chapel Hill killings

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Turkish leader criticises US President for his silence after the killings of three Muslim students in North Carolina.

Students with lit candles attended a vigil on the campus of the University of North Carolina after the Chapel Hill killings [Reuters]

by Al Jazeera

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has criticised US President Barack Obama for his silence after the killings of three young Muslims in North Carolina this week.

Speaking alongside Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto during a state visit to Mexico on Thursday, Erdogan said the silence of Obama, Vice President Joe Biden and Secretary of State John Kerry was “telling” and they should take a position following such acts.

“If you stay silent when faced with an incident like this, and don’t make a statement, the world will stay silent towards you,” Erdogan said, in the latest sign relations between him and the White House have become strained.

The three Muslims were shot dead on Tuesday near the University of North Carolina campus in an incident police said was possibly a hate crime.

Police investigation

The White House said on Wednesday it would await the results of the police investigation before commenting.

Newlywed Deah Barakat, 23, a University of North Carolina dental student, his wife Yusor Mohammad, 21, and her sister, Razan Mohammad Abu-Salha, 19, a student at North Carolina State University, were gunned down on Tuesday in a condominium about three kilometres from the UNC campus in Chapel Hill.

Police charged the couple’s neighbour, Craig Stephen Hicks, 46, with murder.

Investigators said initial findings indicated a dispute over parking prompted the shooting but they were looking into whether Hicks was motivated by hatred towards the victims because they were Muslim.

Turkey, a European Union candidate nation and member of the NATO military alliance, is a key US ally in the fight against the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL).

But Erdogan has become increasingly outspoken about what he sees as rising Islamophobia in the West.

Last year, Erdogan said his relations with Obama had become strained and that he no longer spoke directly with him as he was disappointed by a lack of US action over the war in neighbouring Syria.

Erdogan said he instead spoke with Biden over issues such as Iraq.

Despite working together to combat ISIL, differences have arisen between the US and Turkey over how best to tackle the rebels.

Turkey has been an opponent of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, backing rebels fighting to oust him and allowing the political opposition to organise on Turkish soil.

It long lobbied for international intervention in the war.

US authorities investigate motive in Muslim students' killings

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Early investigation appears to point to parking dispute as motive, but Muslim victims’ family want “hate crime” probe.

Family members said the shooter had bothered the students in the past [Getty Images]

Family members said the shooter had bothered the students in the past [Getty Images]

by Al Jazeera

Authorities in the US state of North Carolina are trying to determine whether hate played a role in the shooting deaths of three Muslim students.

Craig Stephen Hicks, 46, was charged with three counts of first-degree murder on Wednesday in the fatal shootings of Deah Shaddy Barakat, 23, his 21-year-old wife, Yusor Mohammad, and her sister, 19-year-old Razan Mohammad Abu-Salha.

Authorities said the preliminary investigation of the shooting in Chapel Hill, North Carolina showed that a long-simmering parking dispute was the motive, but family members insist it was a “hate crime”.

“This was not a dispute over a parking space, this was a hate crime,” Mohammad Abu-Salha, the father of the two slain women, told the News & Observer newspaper . “This man had picked on my daughter and her husband a couple of times before, and he talked with them with his gun in his belt. And they were uncomfortable with him, but they did not know he would go this far.”

Suzanne Barakat, sister of Barakat, appealed to authorities on behalf of her family, saying “we ask that the authorities investigate these senseless and heinous murders as a hate crime”.

Gerod King of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives said that agents were in touch with the US attorney’s office in North Carolina that encompasses Chapel Hill and that investigators had not ruled out a hate crime.

“We understand the concerns about the possibility that this was hate-motivated, and we will exhaust every lead to determine if that is the case,” Chapel Hill police Chief Chris Blue said in an email to reporters.

The cautious wording of the police statement contrasted sharply with the anguished reaction among some American Muslims who viewed the homicides as an outgrowth of anti-Muslim opinions.

Outrage was voiced on social media with the hashtags #MuslimLivesMatter and #CallItTerrorism.

“Based on the brutal nature of this crime … the religious attire of two of the victims, and the rising anti-Muslim rhetoric in American society, we urge state and federal law enforcement authorities to quickly address speculation of a possible bias motive in this case,” Nihad Awad, of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, said in a statement.

Vigils for the victims were being held on Wednesday night in North Carolina and elsewhere around the US.

Barakat and Mohammad were newlyweds who helped the homeless and raised funds to help Syrian refugees in Turkey this summer.

Abu-Salha was visiting them on Tuesday from Raleigh, where she was studying.

Imad Ahmad, who lived in the condo where his friends were killed until Barakat and Mohammad were married in December, said Hicks complained about once a month that the two men were parking in a visitor’s space as well as their assigned spot.

Both Hicks and his neighbours complained to the property managers, who apparently did not intervene.

“They told us to call the police if the guy came and harassed us again,” Ahmad said.

Hicks, who appeared briefly in court on Wednesday, is being held without bond. Police said Hicks turned himself in and was cooperating.

USA: Three Muslim students murdered at North Carolina campus

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Police captures suspect after three Muslim Americans are shot dead at University of North Carolina campus.

Friends and family, and online community condemning the murder shared victims' photos online following the incident [Facebook]

Friends and family, and online community condemning the murder shared victims’ photos online following the incident [Facebook]

by Al Jazeera

Three American students have been shot dead at a residential complex of University of North Carolina and a suspect has been arrested over the incident, according to the local police.

Chapel Hill police told local news outlets that Craig Stephen Hicks, 46, was arrested and charged with killing the three Muslim students. He is being held at the Durham County Jail.

Police said they responded to a report of gunshots at around 5:15pm on Tuesday, and found three people who were pronounced dead at the scene.

The victims were identified as 23-year-old Deah Shaddy Barakat, his 21-year-old wife Yusor Mohammad and 19-year-old Razan Mohammad Abu-Salha, police said.

Police said the investigation was continuing.

Residents told local media that the complex was a peaceful place.

“It’s a very quiet community,” Bethany Boring, who lives in the complex, told television station WRAL.

“It’s a lot of graduate and professional students. You know, professionals’ families.”

Friends and family and the online community shared photos of the victims via social media after the incident.

The hashtag  went viral after the incident was reported, many of the tweets criticising the US and other Western media for not covering the shooting.

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