![\"Report](\"https:\/\/commons.mtholyoke.edu\/multiculturalmoho\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/37\/2015\/05\/Report-Photo.jpeg\")
<\/a><\/p>\nThree thick, white, glaring candles centered on the wooden table of Abbey Interfaith Sanctuary. More than 70 students holding long and thin candles circled around, with sacred flames illuminating the sorrowful faces. Farima Afaq, a senior from Afghanistan, performed recitation of Quran. She was in black from dress to shoes, and wore a silver patterned hijab (headscarf.) Trembling, she sang with the rhyme of Arabic: \u201cBismillaah ar-Rahman ar-Raheem,\u201d which translates in English to \u201cIn the name of God, the infinitely Compassionate and Merciful.<\/p>\n
On February 14 at 3 p.m., the Muslim Community of Mount Holyoke College held a prayer vigil in memory of the three young, promising American Muslims. On February 10, Muslim students Deah Shaddy Barakat, Yusor Mohamad Abu-Salha, and Razan Mohammad Abu-Salha were shot dead near University of North Carolina Chapel Hill. Local police insist that evidence indicated the crime was only motivated by a dispute over parking. But aware that the killer, Hicks, is a White American and ardent critic of religion, many in the American Muslim community condemned it to be vicious, anti-Muslim hate crime.<\/p>\n
Nearly 639 miles from the crime scene, the vigil at Mount Holyoke was clouded by the same anguish. Muslims experience this as a real threat to them and to their place within America. Umme Lena, a junior wearing hijab, struggled to decide if she should be so identifiable as a Muslim. She read a Facebook post to the community in the vigil, in which a Muslim girl recounted how wearing a hijab had made her more vulnerable of being discriminated in waves of political upheavals where Muslims were targeted. Lena resonated with this sentiment. \u201cI\u2019m scared especially since I\u2019m a hijabi (headscarf),\u201d she said, \u201cand it shows that I practice Islam.\u201d<\/p>\n
Muslims\u2019 anxiety is not baseless. America\u2019s anti-Muslim sentiment has indeed been increasing in recent years. In July 2014, a poll<\/a> released by the Arab American Institute showed that America\u2019s favorable attitudes toward Arabs and Muslims was declining: from 43% in 2010 to 32% in 2014 for Arabs; and from 35% in 2010 to 27% for Muslims.<\/p>\n One explanation for this declining of favor is that vast terrorist activities are conducted by Muslims. This time, the Chapel Hill shootings are in the wake of Charlie Hebdo<\/i> assassinations in Paris and the fights with ISIS, in which Islamic terrorists killed American and European captives. Frequent and extensive news covers terrorist fights in the name of Islam has led the public to relate Islam to terrorism.<\/p>\n Muslims condemn the media for labeling them as terrorists. They argue that it is unfair, and that many in the media and in the American public in general have ignored the fact that the most of those killed by ISIS were Muslims. Aiza Malik, a Pakistan student at Mount Holyoke who attended the vigil, has experienced first hand such intra-Muslim violence as well as anti-Muslim rhetoric in America. In December 2014, in her hometown, 132 Muslim children were shot dead by the Taliban. \u201cISIS and [the] Taliban did a lot of things to the Muslims, but if you look at the Media, it\u2019s like what they are targeting is the West but not the Muslims,\u201d she said. \u201cIt\u2019s easier to make the Muslims \u2018terrorists,\u2019 instead of a community of people who have a lot of normativity.\u201d<\/p>\n Muslims acknowledged that because of this negative stereotype and other factors, they are discriminated by the mainstream society of America. A 2011 Pew poll shows, out of a Muslim population of 2.6 million in 2010, about 156,000 Muslims had been victims of hate crimes.<\/p>\n But before the Chapel Hill shooting, most of these hate crimes were not brought up to light. Two thirds of the\u00a0hate crimes went unreported, according to the Justice Department.\u00a0This is not only because hate crimes are tough to push through the legal system, but also because Muslims faced discrimination even in the legal process, including massive\u00a0surveillance,\u00a0deportation, questioning and other harassment by local and federal law enforcement, according to the Washington Post. These together discouraged Muslims from reporting their sufferings.<\/p>\n The Chapel Hill shooting has its significance in bringing Muslims\u2019 sufferings to public eyes. This time Muslims were violated to their utmost capacity. \u201cI\u2019m used to\u2026being possibly discriminated against\u2026to some extent,\u201d said Malik. \u201cBut this is the ultimate thing you can lose, your life, right?\u201d Thus Muslims raged throughout the social media collectively, demanding for their rights. The Twitter hash tag #ChapelHillShooting appeared over 900,000 times and trended in the United States, the United Kingdom, Egypt, Saudi Arabia and several other countries. The hash tag #MuslimLivesMatter was used over 100,000 times, according to BBC.<\/p>\n Hours after the attacks, waves of mainstream media including The New York Times, The Guardian, BBC,<\/i> and newspapers in France, Germany, India, and Israel etc. raced to cover the attack. The news spread extensively through social medias awakened awareness internationally.<\/p>\n The US government, currently striving to make American Muslims their allies in fighting ISIS, moved toward protection of American Muslims by pushing the investigation forward. In addition to the ongoing investigation by local authorities, the FBI also opened an inquiry to determine whether federal laws were violated. Obama ensured Muslims their inviolable rights in the US: \u201cNo one in the United States of America should ever be targeted because of who they are, what they look like, or how they worship.\u201c<\/p>\n In light of eliminating anti-Muslim sentiments, Mount Holyoke\u2019s Muslim Community received lots of support from Jewish and Christian groups and Sikh, Hindu, and Atheist individuals during the vigil. A girl who was taking an Arabic Class came and said: \u201cI come [to] show them that I\u2019m in a community with them, they are important to me, their identity is important to me, and I value that, that\u2019s part of our friendship.\u201d<\/p>\n In the vigil, Mount Holyoke Muslim Chaplain Elizaveta Lozovaya made a speech, in which she expressed the grief shared by the Muslim community and encouraged them to stay strong: \u201cwe were in pain, we felt the whole range of emotions: fear, anger, deep sadness. For us, Muslims, the fact that those killed were of our religion should bring us closer to our faith, to the enlightening of its teachings that highlight the sanctity of life and that condemn killing.\u201d Quoting the Quran, she said, \u2018Whoever kills a soul \u2013 it is if he had slain mankind entirely.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n The Chaplain then implored the gathering to respond to this hatred with words and actions of reconciliation and love. \u201cMay peace and blessing be upon all of us,\u201d she ended her speech with a prayer.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Mount Holyoke Muslim Community Held Prayer Vigil for Victims in Chapel Hill Shooting March 3, 2015 Shell Lin Three thick, white, glaring candles centered on the wooden table of Abbey Interfaith Sanctuary. More than 70 students holding long and thin candles circled around, with sacred flames illuminating the sorrowful faces. Farima Afaq, a senior from … Continue reading Shell<\/span>