Press Release: February 15, 2015

Interfaith Vigil Honors Chapel Hill Victims

IONA participated in an interfaith vigil for the three young Muslim students, Deah Barakat, Yusor Abu-Salha, and Razan Abu-Salha, who were killed, execution style, in their apartment in Chapel Hill, NC, on February 10 in an apparent hate crime.

The vigil was organized by the national Take on Hate campaign, the Michigan Muslim Community Council (MMCC) and CAIR-MI. The DeRoy auditorium at Wayne State campus was almost full with students and community members.

Imam Almasmari from the Muslim Unity Center opened up the vigil with a recitation from the Holy Quran. Many leaders from the Muslim, Jewish, Christian, and Sikh community expressed their grief as they prayed for the victims and their families. The theme was mainly the need to organize and stand up against not just the wave of Islamophobia, but also injustices against blacks, Hispanics and all other minorities and immigrants.

Interfaith Vigil Honors Chapel Hill Victims Ameer Mustapha Elturk of IONA gave the concluding remarks and prayer. After expressing his sorrow and grief over what had happened to the young bright Muslim students at Chapel Hill, he shared a couple of verses from the Holy Quran that explain,