Late last week, 3 young Muslim-Americans were murdered execution style by their neighbor over what mass media would like us to accept as a dispute ‘over parking’. Ignoring the fact that the killer, Craig Stephen Hicks, a self proclaimed ‘anti-theist’ had openly expressed a dark dislike for any kind of organized religion and had previous confronted his victims while carrying and displaying his gun. I’m not sure if this speaks more to the deprecating mentality around America’s gun culture or that cold-blooded acts of terror against visible minorities, especially Muslims, is now socially and politically meaningless.

It is undoubtedly true that should the perpetrator of this crime had been a Muslim, the media coverage that would have followed would have been quite different. Adamant at establishing a link between the perpetrator’s crime and his religion, the media often emphasises that the root of the issue is ‘Islamic extremism’ committed by a religious fanatic, who was obviously inspired by violent jihad. However, given that the crime was committed by a white man, we’re consciously steered away from a similar thought process. The crime wasn’t committed by an anti-religious fanatic who had previously taunted the women he shot in the head for dressing according to Islamic traditions – this was merely a disgruntled citizen who took the dispute over a parking spot a little too far. Craig Hicks, fueled by his atheistic view that all organized religions were a malice, executed three innocent young Muslims in their homes and managed to not only terrorize their friends, families, and neighborhood but an entire community of Americans who call the USA their home.

As Muslims who live in this society, being faced with this double standard that perpetrates our mass media on a daily basis eventually takes it’s toll, both to our mental state and our outlook on the world we are living in. It is frustrating and at a more intimate level, heartbreaking, knowing that Muslim lives (whether in the West or worldwide) are not deemed to be of equal value as the lives of non-Muslims. Staff at Charlie Hebdo, murdered in cold blood in their offices while they worked for a magazine that claimed to ‘stand for free speech’ by Islamic extremists seem to have a higher value than three Muslim students who practiced freedom of expression by showcasing their culture even as they assimilated into American culture.

The only comfort I’ve found is in the humbling experience of reading about the three victims and how much they have achieved in their short lives. Passionate about their communities and the homeless, extending aid to Syrian refugees by establishing a dental program to working for Habitat for Humanity, Deah Shaddy Barakat, his twenty-one-year-old wife, Yusor Mohamad Abu-Salha, and her younger sister Razan Mohammad Abu-Salha, are shining examples of what true humanitarians look like in an increasingly individualistic world. Their family’s response to the tragedy, being one of love and peace and lacking any sort of sentiments of revenge, carries on their legacy. Hate has no religion.