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Despite police statement to contrary, Muslim Student Association calls teen’s killing ‘hate crime’

The UC-Berkeley Muslim Student Association held a vigil this past Tuesday for a (Muslim) teenager killed on June 18 in what they’re calling a “hate crime.”

Nabra Hassanen and friends were heading home from their local Virginia mosque when they were confronted by motorist Darwin Martinez Torres. Torres allegedly assaulted Hassanen, ultimately killing her.

Law enforcement officials charged Torres, an illegal immigrant, with murder. They call the incident one of “road rage” and say there’s no evidence by which to call it a hate crime.

The Berkeley MSA isn’t buying that, however. Chapter President Sarah Bellal said “Hopefully in recognizing who [Hassanen] was, we can also recognize the realities of racism, misogyny and Islamophobia and their intersections.”

More from The Daily Californian:

Participants at the vigil […] said they believe that the incident was a hate crime.

At the vigil, three members of the Muslim community spoke in front of the crowd. [Hani] Hussein talked about the dangers of being Black, Muslim and a woman in the United States. Other speakers said everyone must stick together as a community in the face of tragedy. In addition, there was a song performed for Hassanen.

After the speeches, people in the crowd came together to light candles and placed them on the steps in front of Sproul Hall.

Emily Gottreich, a professor in the campus history department, alleged in an email she believes while this incident may have been instigated because of road rage, it is clearly an anti-Muslim and anti-female hate crime.

“Islamophobia (along with other forms of racism) has been latent in the US for a long time,” Gottreich said in an email. “Muslims are being targeted simply for practicing their religion during the holiest month of the year for them. It is unacceptable.”

Despite the all-too predictable Berkeley postmodernist academese about “intersectionality,” Ms. Hassanen’s family and local (Virginia) religious leaders have expressed support for the investigation.

Read the full article.

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