Protesters denounce shooting of Muslims in US as ‘terrorist act’

AMMAN — Scores of women and children on Saturday denounced the triple murder of an Arab family in the town in of Chapel Hill in North Carolina.

The protesters, who gathered near Al Kalouti Mosque in Amman’s Rabiah neighbourhood, described the crime as a terrorist act, the Jordan News Agency, Petra, reported. 

Syrian-American Deah Barakat and his wife, Yusor Abu-Salha, along with her sister, Razan, were shot in the head at their apartment last Tuesday.

The two sisters were Jordanian, according to the Foreign Ministry.

The protesters stressed their rejection of terrorism in all its forms, regardless of its perpetrators.

The victims’ neighbour, Craig Stephen Hicks, was charged with three counts of murder after turning himself in and claiming he shot the three in a “dispute for parking space”.

Also on Saturday, the Jordan Medical Association (JMA) held a sit-in outside the Professional Associations Complex in Shmeisani in protest against the killing of the two Jordanians, according to Petra. 

JMA President Hashem Abu Hassan noted that the crime is not that different from the attack on the Charlie Hebdo staff, but it did not receive the same attention. 

He called on the international media to be “fair” to Arabs and Muslims when dealing with crimes and terrorism against them. 

On Thursday, Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Ashraf Khasawneh said in a statement that the ministry was closely following up on the murder investigation, through the Kingdom’s embassy in Washington.

The embassy contacted US officials in this regard, he said, voicing confidence that justice will take its course and the perpetrator will be held accountable for the crime.

Khasawneh also urged all Jordanians in the US to exercise caution under these circumstances.