About 75 undergraduates and community members gathered on the Main Green Friday to mourn three Muslim students at the University of North Carolina who were murdered Feb. 11.
Deah Barakat, Yusor Mohammad and Razan Mohammad Abu-Salha were fatally shot in their apartment by a neighbor.
Vigil attendees stood solemn-faced in a semicircle in front of the Faunce House steps, cupping their hands to shield the flames of slim white candles from a biting breeze as Adrian Wood-Smith, associate University chaplain for Muslim students, addressed the crowd.
The vigil marked an opportunity for students to process the “pain we feel in our hearts” after last week’s incident, Wood-Smith told the crowd.
The event, organized by the Muslim Students Association and the South Asian Students Association, centered on commemorating the lives of the deceased and facilitating a healing process for Brown community members who were particularly struck by the murders.
“I held it as a vigil because I think their lives needed to be honored,” said Aditya Kumar ’17, one of the event organizers.
The shootings exemplified how “it can be scary or difficult for people who identify as Muslim” to live in the United States, where Islamophobia is a “very real and structured form of oppression,” Kumar said.
“I didn’t want to make it an event about Islamophobia,” he added. “It was most important to honor their lives and memorialize them.”
After a few words recognizing the tragedy and honoring the victims, Wood-Smith called for a moment of silence, which culminated in a quiet, candle-lit march toward Manning Chapel. As the first of the participants entered Manning, the long, winding line of mourners stretched back to the steps.
Noting the frigid temperature, Kumar said he was “very pleasantly surprised” to see how many community members participated in the event and kept their candles lit despite the wind.
Seated in pews before an altar adorned with white bouquets, participants listened as Kumar shared details about the “happy, loving, caring individuals” whose lives were cut short last Wednesday.
Online sources such as the victims’ Facebook pages reflect that the three victims “were devoted to family and charitable work,” the New York Times reported Feb. 11.
“All three students were committed to helping their communities,” Kumar said.
After Abid Haseeb ’16, another event organizer, led a prayer, Wood-Smith closed out the ceremony. He thanked community members for attending and invited those who were interested to stay for further discussion.
“Though it is a tragic event, it’s something that brings us together,” Wood-Smith said.
“There weren’t just Muslims there or just people who you would’ve been stereotypically expecting,” Haseeb told The Herald after the event. “There were people from all different walks of life.”
“It means a lot to me that the peers who I see on a weekly basis do openly and vocally show support for both Muslims and America,” he added.
But beyond Friday’s gathering, discussion of the shootings may be more limited than some would hope, Kumar said.
“I saw more on my (Facebook) newsfeed about Drake’s new album than the shootings,” he said. “The biggest issue I would see with some of these discussions is they’re not always taking place.”
