Ribuan Orang Hadiri Penembakan Tiga Mahasiswa Muslim di Chapel Hill
Thousands of Mourners Pay Respects at Funeral of Chapel Hill Muslim Shooting
Editor : Ismail Gani
Translator : Novita Cahyadi
Chapel Hill, AS (B2B) - Lebih dari 5.000 orang pada Kamis waktu setempat menghadiri pemakaman tiga mahasiswa muslim yang ditembak di North Caroline pekan ini.
Menurut laman Independent yang dilansir pada Jumat, jumlah pelayat yang sangat banyak menyebabkan seremoni harus dipindahkan dari sebuah masjid ke lapangan atletik Universitas North Carolina.
Sebelum berdoa, mereka melakukan penghormatan terakhir kepada para korban di sebuah bangunan kecil di masjid Islamic Association of Raleigh, yang berlanjut ke seberang jalan dalam lingkungan kampus tersebut.
Deah Shaddy Barakat (23), istrinya Yusor Mohammad Abu-Salha (21) dan adik perempuannya Razan Mohammad Abu-Salha (19) ditemukan tewas pada Selasa di rumah pengantin baru tersebut di dekat kampus.
Barakat adalah mahasiswa kedokteran gigi tahun kedua di kampus tersebut, istrinya juga akan kuliah pada musim gugur mendatang.
Polisi Carolina Utara memperkirakan sebanyak 5.500 orang telah berkumpul untuk mengenang ketiga korban.
Motif pembunuhan masih belum jelas, meskipun ayah dari dua wanita yang terbunuh itu mengklaimnya sebagai "kejahatan kebencian" yang dipicu oleh agama korban.
Para pejabat setempat mengatakan sedang menyelidiki kemungkinan motif kebencian, walaupun mereka menyebutkan bahwa penembakan tersebut dipicu oleh sengketa parkir.
Craig Stephen Hicks (46) yang menggambarkan dirinya sebagai "pembawa senjata" ateis, telah didakwa dengan tiga dakwaan pembunuhan tingkat pertama.
Para tetangga pelaku menggambarkannya sebagai seorang yang pemarah dan konfrontatif. Sementara mantan istirnya mengatakan, dia terobsesi film penembakan tahun 1993 berjudul Falling Down, dan berperilaku "tak ada belas kasihan" terhadap orang lain.
Istrinya yang sekarang, Karen Hicks, mengatakan penembakan tersebut "tak ada hubungan dengan agama atau kepercayaan korban", sebelum mengungkapkan rencana perceraiannya.
Berbicara kepada para pelayat di lapangan dekat masjid di Raleigh, ayah korban Mohammad Abu-Salha mengatakan bahwa keluarga korban tidak ingin balas dendam atau mempedulikan hukuman Hicks.
Ia hanya berusaha memastikan bahwa orang-orang muda di Amerika Serikat tidak akan mengalami kekerasan serupa.
Chapel Hill, USA - Over 5,000 mourners have attended the funeral of three young adults gunned down in North Carolina this week.
The turnout on Thursday was so unexpectedly large that the ceremony had to be moved from a mosque to a nearby university athletics field.
Before the prayer service, loved ones paid their final respects to the victims in a small building at the Islamic Association of Raleigh mosque, where the family has worshipped for years.
The service continued across the street in a field owned by North Carolina State University, where two of the victims had graduated and one was a student.
Deah Shaddy Barakat, 23; his wife, Yusor Mohammad Abu-Salha, 21; and her sister Razan Mohammad Abu-Salha, 19, were found dead Tuesday at the newlywed couple's home near the University of North Carolina's Chapel Hill campus.
Barakat was a second-year dentistry student at the institution where his wife planned to join him in the autumn term.
North Carolina police estimated as many as 5,500 people had gathered to remember the three victims.
The motive behind the murders remains uncertain, although the father of the two slain women said the incident was a “hate crime” spurred by the victims’ religion.
He told The Associated Press on Thursday: "We are definitely certain that our daughters were targeted for their religion."
The newlywed wife's father claimed his daughter "felt that he was hateful and he did not like them, who they were and the way they looked."
Officials have said they are investigating the possibility the crime was hate-motivated, but said the shooting was sparked by a parking dispute.
Craig Stephen Hicks, 46, who has described himself as a "gun toting" atheist, has been charged with three counts of first-degree murder.
Neighbours described Hicks as angry and confrontational, while his ex-wife said he was obsessed with the 1993 shooting-rampage movie Falling Down and showed "no compassion at all" for other people.
His current wife, Karen Hicks, said that her husband “champions the rights of others” and that the killings “had nothing do with religion or the victims' faith”, before issuing another statement saying she plans to divorce him.
Speaking to mourners in a field near a mosque in Raleigh, the women's father, Mohammad Abu-Salha, said the victims' families did not want revenge or care about Hicks' punishment, but rather sought to ensure that other young people in the United States would not suffer similar violence.
Chapel Hill police Chief Chris Blue said on Wednesday: “We understand the concerns about the possibility that this was hate-motivated, and we will exhaust every lead to determine if that is the case.”
