A gunman shot and killed three Muslim students near the University of North Carolina on Tuesday evening. The alleged shooter — 46-year-old Craig Stephen Hicks of Chapel Hill — had posted social media with extreme left-wing anti-religious messages. Hicks’ combination of left-wing politics and militant atheism seem to place him squarely within the so-called Atheism Plus (Atheism+) movement.

All three victims were shot in the head in the Finley Forest complex, close to the University of North Carolina. The three people killed are Deah Shaddy Barakat — a 23-year-old, second-year dental student at the university — along with his wife Yusor Mohammed (21) and her sister Razan Mohammad Abu-Salha (19).

Hicks was arrested and charged with three counts of first-degree murder. Authorities say he is cooperating with investigators, and the incident is said to be motivated by an ongoing neighbor dispute over parking. But is this a case of a man just snapping over a parking spot?

Muslim activists and others are demanding the killer be investigated on hate crime charges, based on his affiliations and online presence.

The Durham County District Attorney said that it’s too early to say if it’s a hate crime or not, saying he isn’t “ruling anything out or ruling anything in.”

According to Hicks’ Facebook page, he is an avowed Atheist. On the page, he makes several statements against certain religions, including asking the question “why radical Christians and radical Muslims are so opposed to each others’ influence when they agree about so many ideological issues.” Early media narratives that Hicks was motivated by right-wing Christianity can be conclusively regarded as an error.

While police aren’t ready to call this a hate crime yet, personally I am. All you have to do is look at the support that Hicks is receiving online since the shootings including a Facebook “tribute” page that has numerous hateful messages such as a meme that reads, “It’s simple. We kill all the Muslims.”

If it was a Muslim who had killed three others, the mainstream media would be calling him a terrorist. But since he’s a left-wing atheist, he is being treated differently. He shouldn’t be.

Click through the gallery below to see pictures of Craig Hicks and those that he is alleged to have murdered. We will follow up with more information about this story as it unfolds.





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Craig Stephen Hicks

Deah Shaddy Barakat and His Wife Yusor Mohammed

Deah Shaddy Barakat and Razan Mohammad Abu-Salha

Three Muslims Killed

From Craig Hicks' Facebook

Anti-Theism

Craig Hicks on Atheism

UPDATE: The father of the women killed is calling the triple-homicide a hate crime.