Donations pour in after Chapel Hill shooting

Muslims across America and abroad have generated hundreds of thousands of dollars and thousands of pounds of food to aid those in need since the shooting deaths of three young Muslims in Chapel Hill rocked the Muslim community worldwide.

Initially, police said the homicide was motivated by a parking dispute, but many have claimed that the triple homicide of university students Deah Barakat, Yusor Abu-Salha and Razan Abu-Salha, which occurred in the Finley Forest apartment complex in Chapel Hill on Feb. 10, was motivated by religious hate.

“These were jewels in our community,” said Yasser Khan, national group coordinator for the Feed Their Legacy food drive campaign. “We know that the way we should respond to evil is with good.”

The Chapel Hill shooting tragedy stirred action in Muslim communities across the country to honor the three students’ community service mission, Khan said. He said the Feed Their Legacy campaign began as a nationwide, grassroots effort to pay tribute to Deah, Yusor and Razan.

Khan said there are at least 237 Feed Their Legacy food drives happening in at least 30 states nationwide. He said the drives have collected at least 65,668 cans of food thus far.

“One of the things Deah talked about was that one of his dreams was to have unity within the Muslim communities,” he said.

“We thought that this was a great way of collaborating and being able to work together.”

But Khan said many non-Muslim faith communities and nonprofit organizations have pitched in as well.

“We don’t want it to be just about the Muslim community — we want our Christian and Jewish and Buddhist and other friends to also participate,” he said.

“This is what all religions teach, to worship God and take care of your neighbors.”

Laurie Reinhardt-Plotnik, associate vice chancellor for development at North Carolina State University, said the school’s Our Three Winners scholarship fund in honor of Deah, Yusor and Razan has raised more than $102,000 in gifts from more than 500 individual donors in 30 states and six countries.

She said many contributions have come from faculty, staff and students at N.C. State.

“This tragedy cuts across all walks of life,” she said. “A lot of people contribute to this fund who have never given to the university before — who have no prior affiliation with N.C. State.”

And it’s not only the scholarship generating money.

Oussama Mezoui, vice president of programs for United Muslim Relief, said the official Our Three Winners endowment has raised more than $850,000 for education and service projects to aid those in need.

He said the funds have not yet been distributed but that the trust’s fund management committee will decide yearly which causes and programs will receive funding.

“The families want to keep it broad and non-specific,” he said.

“Whether it is a student struggling to fund their studies, an American citizen who faces illness without healthcare coverage or international refugees facing an array of challenges, the endowment hopes to provide a source of assistance and comfort.”

Khadiga Konsouh, community service chairwoman for the Muslim Students Association at UNC, said the association has been busy in the weeks since the three students were killed.

She said members participate in monthly food drives for homeless Durham residents and most recently donated more than 500 pounds of food to Urban Ministries of Durham.

Konsouh said the MSA helped plan the vigil for the three students, collaborated with Duke University’s MSA on service projects, created an Islamophobia teaching series and helped MSA members get in touch with psychological services on campus since the tragedy.

“A lot of my friends were really close friends with Razan, Yusor and Deah, so they got impacted in a big way,” she said.

“Once it happened, I tried to focus on getting the things we had to get done.”

Khan said a big part of the success of activism across the country has been the participation of the three students’ families.

“They’ve been very supportive in encouraging some of the local food drive leaders,” he said.

“They’ve handled this tragedy with such grace. They’re grieving, but they’ve really helped the national Muslim community with our grief.”

Khan said he hopes the Feed Their Legacy campaign, which ends Saturday, will become a yearly project to carry on the legacy of the three students.

“The beauty of it is that local communities are benefiting,” he said.

“It’s nice to be able to participate in something that takes something bad and turns it into something good.”

city@dailytarheel.com