[Original English Text of Tasnim News interview with Minaret of Freedom Institute President Imad-ad-Dean Ahmad]
Q. What is your own personal take on the Chapel Hill killings? Do you believe the initial police suspicion that it was rooted simply in a parking dispute?
A. While it may be true that the trigger for the murders was parking dispute, the suggestion that the perpetrator would have similarly killed anyone with whom he had a dispute over parking is a hard pill to swallow. It seems more likely that the dehumanization of the victims played a role. Otherwise why would the killer murder all three family members? Besides, the father of the Abu Salha sisters said that is daughter had told him before the murder that her neighbor “had picked on my daughter and her husband a couple of times before, and he talked with them with his gun in his belt. And they were uncomfortable with him, but they did not know he would go this far.â€
Q. Can you notice any difference between the media responses to the Charlie Hebdo attack and the three murders in Chapel Hill?
A. There are differences, some of which may be justified by the fact that the Charlie Hebdo was clearly an act of terrorism while the murder in North Carolina was accompanied by no political demands and seems to have been an act of brutal violence whether bigoted or not.
Q. What do you think are the causes for the recent increase in violent Islamophobia in America?
A. The demonization of Muslims by media outlets like Fox News, by politicians like Bobby Jindell, and by the organized Islamophobia industry have redirected the anger Americans feel at the atrocities of the likes of ISIL and the killers of Charlie Hebdo staff against innocent American Muslims.
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