President Obama waded into the controversy surrounding the fatal shootings of three Muslim students in North Carolina, suggesting they may have been killed at least in part because of their religion.
The FBI has launched an investigation to determine whether the victims were targeted because of their race or religion, which would be a violation of federal hate crimes.
“No one in the United States of America should ever be targeted because of who they are, what they look like, or how they worship,” Obama said in a statement. “Michelle and I offer our condolences to the victims’ loved ones.”
“As we saw at the overwhelming presence at the funeral of these young Americans, we are all one American family,” he said.
Obama also quoted a recent statement from one of the now-deceased victims, 21-year-old Yusor Mohammad Abu-Salha, who said that growing up in America had been such a “blessing.”
“It doesn’t matter where you come from,” Abu-Salha recently said, according to Obama’s account. “There’s so many different people from so many different places of different backgrounds and religions — but here, we’re all one.”
The victims, Abu-Salha, her husband Deah Shaddy Barakat, a 23-year-old dental student; and her sister, Razan Mohammad Abu-Salha, 19, of Raleigh, were buried Thursday following a funeral that drew 5,000 mourners.
Police have charged Craig Stephen Hicks, 46, a neighbor in their apartment complex, with three counts of first-degree murder. Police believe the killings stemmed from a long-standing dispute over parking at the apartment complex.
Relatives of the victims are convinced that Hicks allegedly targeted the three because they were Muslim.
On social media sites, Hicks identified himself as a “devout atheist” and spoke out against Christian “hypocrisy.” He referred to himself as a “gun-toting liberal” on Facebook, and his ex-wife says he was obsessed with Falling Down, a movie about a man who snaps and goes on a shooting spree.
He also bragged about his purchase of a featherweight gun in January. On his Facebook page, he posted a photo of it with this comment: “Yes, that is 1 pound 5.1 ounces for my loaded 38 revolver, its holster, and five extra rounds in a speedloader.”
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Thursday urged Obama to take a strong stand and condemn the slayings.
“Why are you still keeping silent?” he asked during a speech in Mexico, stressing that he has been waiting for Obama to weigh in on the incident, which he called an “act of cruelty.”
“An international fight against terrorism is a must,” Erdogan continued. “Both anti-Semitism and Islamophobia are crimes against humanity.”
