Photo Essay: Vigil for Slain Chapel Hill Muslim Students

While the media lit up with arguments over whether or not Craig Hicks's execution-style killing of three young Arabs was a hate crime, the UNC community gathered to commemorate the lives of the slain. 

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This editor's note has been corrected to accurately state the academic affiliations of the slain students.

On February 10, Yusor Mohammad Abu-Salha was in her apartment in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, with her husband, Deah Shaddy Barakat, and her sister, Razan Mohammad Abu-Salha, when a man came in and shot the three of them, execution-style. The newlywed couple was in their early 20s; Razan Abu-Salha was 19. Barakat was a student at the University of North Carolina School of Dentistry, where his wife, Yusor, was recently accepted for admission. Razan Abu-Salha attended North Carolina State University. Neighbor Craig Hicks was subsequently charged with the murders.

Law enforcement officials said that Hicks's actions stemmed from a parking dispute; Barakat's father and many others called it a hate crime motivated by the murderer's contempt for either his targets' Islamic faith, or against Muslims, period.

Family and friends of Barakat and the Abu-Salbas gathered on the university grounds on February 11 for a candlelight vigil to commemorate their lives; they were joined by thousands from among the university and Muslim communities. Jenny Warburg chronicled the outpouring.

--The Editors

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