The Council on American-Islamic Relations-Oklahoma Chapter will host a Prayer Vigil for Peace at 6:30 p.m. Sunday at the Islamic Society of Greater Oklahoma City’s mosque, 3815 N St. Clair.
The Council on American-Islamic Relations-Oklahoma Chapter will host a Prayer Vigil for Peace at 6:30 p.m. Sunday at the Islamic Society of Greater Oklahoma City’s mosque, 3815 N St. Clair.
The organization’s leaders said the event is being held because of the recent shooting deaths of three Muslim students in Chapel Hill, N.C.
Craig Stephen Hicks has been charged with first-degree murder in the shootings Tuesday of Deah Shaddy Barakat, 23, his wife, Yusor Mohammad Abu-Salha, 21, and her sister, Razan Mohammad Abu-Salha, 19. The victims were shot at their Chapel Hill apartment.
“Our sincerest condolences and prayers go to the families and friends of Deah Shaddy Barakat, Yusor Abu-Salha, and Razan Abu-Salha,” Veronica Laizure, the council’s civil rights director, said in a news release.
The Associated Press has reported that the fathers of the slain students are calling their shooting deaths a hate crime, believing the victims were targeted because they were Muslim. Many Muslims around the country also are calling for law enforcement officials to prosecute the shooting deaths as a hate crime.
For more information, call Adam Soltani, the council’s executive director, at 248-5853.