The now-deceased 18-year-old Ohio State University student that police say was behind Monday’s campus attack expressed fear in an August interview about practicing his religion in public as a Muslim.
The Lantern, Ohio State University’s campus newspaper, published a brief interview in August with Abdul Razak Ali Artan. The piece was part of the paper’s Humans of Ohio State feature in the Arts & Life section.
Artan identified himself as a third-year student majoring in logistics management.
“I just transferred from Columbus State. We had prayer rooms, like actual rooms where we could go pray because we Muslims have to pray five times a day.
“There’s Fajr, which is early in the morning, at dawn. Then Zuhr during the daytime, then Asr in the evening, like right about now. And then Maghrib, which is like right at sunset and then Isha at night. I wanted to pray Asr. I mean, I’m new here. This is my first day. This place is huge, and I don’t even know where to pray.
“I wanted to pray in the open, but I was scared with everything going on in the media. I’m a Muslim, it’s not what the media portrays me to be. If people look at me, a Muslim praying, I don’t know what they’re going to think, what’s going to happen. But, I don’t blame them. It’s the media that put that picture in their heads so they’re just going to have it and it, it’s going to make them feel uncomfortable. I was kind of scared right now. But I just did it. I relied on God. I went over to the corner and just prayed.”
Artan, according to police, was fatally shot by a campus police officer at about 10 a.m. local time Monday. Police say he drove his car into a crowd of people on campus before exiting the vehicle with a butcher knife and stabbing people.
Officials at the press conference said nine people were injured in the attack. Columbus Police Chief Kim Jacobs said the FBI is looking into whether the attack is linked to terrorism.
