Parking spat as motive for triple murder? N.C. Muslims don’t buy it

[hrmjustin]

Yonat Shimron

DURHAM, N.C. (RNS) Preliminary police reports describe a long-simmering dispute over parking as the motive for the killings of three Muslim students at a Chapel Hill condominium Tuesday (Feb. 10).

But many Muslims in the Raleigh-Durham community and beyond are not so sure. The triple murders in this usually harmonious university town immediately took on a larger narrative of hate crimes against Muslims and charges of atheists baiting Muslims.

http://www.religionnews.com/2015/02/11/parking-spat-motive-triple-murder-n-c-muslims-dont-buy/

[okasha]

1. I don't buy it, either.

Right now, all that's official is what the killer told the police. The neighbors who have witnessed Hicks' behavior seem to differ. They appear to think that his hatred was directed at these three beautiful young people because they were Muslims-- i.e., Muslims in particular, not believers in general.

There may be some strategy behind authorities' glossing over probable Islamophobia. North Carolina is a death penalty state. The best Hicks can realistically hope for is life in prison without possibility of parole. An enhanced charge including hatred because of religion or skin color could result in a death sentence. And he might well get that anyway, without complicating the case with possible Islamophobia or racism in the jury pool.

I' m in wait-see here. But no, I don't buy the parking-slot fairytale, either.

[hrmjustin]

2. exactly. People there and here have agendas and are trying to say this is nothing but a dispute

over parking. Bull.

Some people are showing their hypocracy.

[okasha]

3. Some peoples' hypocrisy has been on view

for a long time, now. Nothing unexpected in that.

Chapel Hill is a university town, and is likely to be rather more liberal than the state as a whole. UNC has some pretty unorthodox faculty in its Religious Studies dept., eg., James Tabor. So a bigot like Hicks is said to be has rather less room to hide than he would in, say, Boulder City. Or in certain locales on line, for that matter.

[hrmjustin]

4. Agreed! Sad to see so many invested in the parking spot theory.

Common sense argues against this. He can't claim innocense so he wants to avoid the death penalty.

[okasha]

5. Since he surrendered voluntarily,

Hicks is probably acting on advice of counsel, who would no doubt want to minimise anything that could go to premeditation. But I doubt a jury would buy "crime of passion over a parking place"--not with three victims.

[hrmjustin]

6. And an execution style murder.

[el_bryanto]

7. We don't know enough yet; but I can see the parking space as an instigating factor

It's possible that the parking space issue was all there was; that seems unlikely but it's certainly what the Defense will argue.

It's possible that this person sees Muslims as less than human and therefore was willing to use violence in this incident; lots of Americans (both believers and non-believers), unfortunately, share this point of view. This seems plausible to me.

It's also possible that he was motivated by his anti-theism; having seen openly religious people he felt compelled to strike. This is possible; but we don't know enough.

The impossible part is tracing from this disturbed individual to a larger pattern; if there is one, it is probably in the continual harassment and denigration of Muslims in America, of which these folk are well aware. But the dehumanization of Muslims isn't restricted to anti-Theists; plenty of Christians share in this particular pastime.

Bryant

[carolinayellowdog]

8. Islamophobic hatemongers will never allow themselves a second of introspection about consequences

and indeed may double down after a tragedy of this magnitude, seeing themselves as martyrs if anyone even suggests that a climate of Islamophobia might have contributed to the murder of Muslims. But I don't think the good people of Chapel Hill are persuaded by disingenuous "Who, me?!" noise from heartless ideologues, of whatever religious or political persuasion.