VOA慢速英语2015 Hate Crime Not Ruled Out in Muslim Students' Death

AS IT IS 2015-02-13 Hate Crime Not Ruled Out in Muslim Students' Death

On Tuesday evening, a man shot and killed three Muslim students in the U.S. city of Chapel¹ Hill, North Carolina. Many American Muslims said the students’ deaths did not get widespread news coverage² because of their Islamic religious beliefs.

Police officials arrested their neighbor Craig Stephen Hicks. Mr. Hicks is 46-year-old and he has been charged with first-degree murder. They said the victims were 23-year-old Deah Shaddy Barakat, his 21-year-old wife, Yusor Abu-Salha and her 19-year-old sister, Razan Abu-Salha.

Mr. Barakat was a student at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. His wife planned on joining him at the school later this year.  Her sister, Razan Abu-Salha was a student at North Carolina State University in Raleigh, North Carolina.

About 2,000 people gathered Wednesday night on the campus of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill to pay tribute to the victims. The triple homicide surprised many in the university town. People who knew the three victims said they were young and happy. Some said news reports on the deaths were minimized because the victims were Muslims.

According to the Associated Press, Mr. Hicks described himself as a “gun toting” atheist³. Several news organizations also reported anti-religious Facebook posts from Mr. Hicks. Recently, one of his posts included a photo of a gun.

Police officials indicated that the incident was a dispute over parking and continued to investigate the possibility of a hate crime . 

Mohammad Abu-Salha is the father of the two women killed. He said that Mr. Hicks came into contact with his daughter and her husband a few times carrying a gun. He believed the shootings to be a hate crime.

Ibrahim Hooper is a civil rights activist⁴ from the Council on American-Islamic Relations. He had this to say: “if a Muslim had been the perpetrator in this, it would have made international headlines.”

A campaign on Twitter is doing just that. Supporters are using the hashtag #MuslimLivesMatter to bring attention to the shooting deaths of the three students. Many others write that “#Muslims only newsworthy behind the gun, not in front.”

Shafi Khan is one of the founders⁵ of United Muslim Relief in Alexandria, Virginia. He said that the three shooting victims “did more in their college years to leave a legacy⁶ than other people do in their entire lifetime.”

Words in this Story

hate crime – n. any crime, such as assault or murder, motivated by hostility⁷ to the victim as a member of a group based on color, religious beliefs, gender⁸, or sexual orientation⁹

homicide – n. the act of killing¹⁰ another person 

minimize – v.  to treat or describe something as smaller or less important than it is

perpetrator – n. a person who does something that is illegal or wrong

1 chapel   

n.小教堂，殡仪馆

参考例句：

• The nimble hero,skipped into a chapel that stood near.敏捷的英雄跳进近旁的一座小教堂里。
• She was on the peak that Sunday afternoon when she played in chapel.那个星期天的下午，她在小教堂的演出，可以说是登峰造极。

2 coverage   

n.报导，保险范围，保险额，范围，覆盖

参考例句：

• There's little coverage of foreign news in the newspaper.报纸上几乎没有国外新闻报道。
• This is an insurance policy with extensive coverage.这是一项承保范围广泛的保险。

3 atheist   

n.无神论者

参考例句：

• She was an atheist but now she says she's seen the light.她本来是个无神论者，可是现在她说自己的信仰改变了。
• He is admittedly an atheist.他被公认是位无神论者。

4 activist   

n.活动分子，积极分子

参考例句：

• He's been a trade union activist for many years.多年来他一直是工会的积极分子。
• He is a social activist in our factory.他是我厂的社会活动积极分子。

5 founders   

n.创始人( founder的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• He was one of the founders of the university's medical faculty. 他是该大学医学院的创建人之一。 来自辞典例句
• The founders of our religion made this a cornerstone of morality. 我们宗教的创始人把这看作是道德的基石。 来自辞典例句

6 legacy   

n.遗产，遗赠；先人(或过去)留下的东西

参考例句：

• They are the most precious cultural legacy our forefathers left.它们是我们祖先留下来的最宝贵的文化遗产。
• He thinks the legacy is a gift from the Gods.他认为这笔遗产是天赐之物。

7 hostility   

n.敌对，敌意；抵制［pl.］交战，战争

参考例句：

• There is open hostility between the two leaders.两位领导人表现出公开的敌意。
• His hostility to your plan is well known.他对你的计划所持的敌意是众所周知的。

8 gender   

n.（生理上的）性，（名词、代词等的）性

参考例句：

• French differs from English in having gender for all nouns.法语不同于英语，所有的名词都有性。
• Women are sometimes denied opportunities solely because of their gender.妇女有时仅仅因为性别而无法获得种种机会。

9 orientation   

n.方向，目标；熟悉，适应，情况介绍

参考例句：

• Children need some orientation when they go to school.小孩子上学时需要适应。
• The traveller found his orientation with the aid of a good map.旅行者借助一幅好地图得知自己的方向。

10 killing   

n.巨额利润；突然赚大钱，发大财

参考例句：

• Investors are set to make a killing from the sell-off.投资者准备清仓以便大赚一笔。
• Last week my brother made a killing on Wall Street.上个周我兄弟在华尔街赚了一大笔。