Many citizens across the country are still reeling from the murders of three young Muslims that occurred two weeks ago at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
On the evening of Feb. 10, Deah Shaddy Barakat, his wife, Yusor Mohammad Abu-Salha, and her sister, Razan Mohammad Abu-Salha, were shot by a neighbor in their home. Craig Hicks has since been indicted by a grand jury for three counts of first degree murder, and the entire incident has sparked a nationwide debate regarding racial and religious intolerance.
Mohammed Abu-Salha, the father of the slain women, said his daughters had called Hicks “hateful” on more than one occasion in an interview with a local news station. Though some are quick to attribute the motives of the murders to a long-standing parking dispute, others believe this is another case of hate-motivated Islamophobic violence.
Within the MSU community, the incident has called relevance the safety of minorities on all campuses, whether big or small.
Paulette Granberry Russell, director of the Office for Inclusion and Intercultural Initiatives, believes it should be hard for any student not to feel affected by these murders.
“We are an extremely diverse campus. That is the beauty of this place,” Granberry Russell said. “To live with a concern that what makes me different, makes me a target for harm, is not how anyone should live.”
While she notes that the murders are not officially ascribed to a hate crime, the mere possibility that someone could do horrific harm to someone simply on the basis of difference is a tragedy.
The tragedy has resonated within the Muslim community at MSU and brought the anti-discrimination policies in place to more attention.
“As it stands now, many Muslims in this country feel that they are stuck between a rock and a hard place,” said Mohammad Khalil, director of the Muslim studies program. “On the one hand, they regularly read and hear about Muslim radicals engaging in horrific, embarrassing acts. And on the other hand, they regularly read and hear about fellow Americans promoting ignorant, embarrassingly simplistic conceptions of Islam and other traditions.”
While the MSU anti-discrimination rules are clearly defined, students believe these policies are just one step in the right direction.
Neuroscience sophomore Momin Samad is a first generation American Muslim, an intercultural aide in Akers Hall and a multi-racial unity living experience student leader in East Neighborhood. These experiences have made Samad more sensitive to culturally biased and discriminatory comments on campus.
“So many times I’ll hear comments around campus about this or that ‘international student’ or something incredibly demeaning toward ‘those Asians,’ and it’s upsetting because (we), as individuals and students, have to work toward having a school where that should not be tolerated,” Samad wrote in an email.
In order to discourage discrimination on campus, the Office for Inclusion and Intercultural Initiatives has worked with Residence Education and Housing Services to develop a handbook with the purpose of promoting tolerance and acceptance of all cultures.
“It’s not only up to MSU officials to come up with anti-discrimination policies or laws but us as students to create a culture on campus that is way more accepting of various different ethnicities, races and religion,” Samad said.
