海角大神

US officials say the motivation for the shootings聽Tuesday聽of three young Muslim-Americans by a self-avowed atheist in North Carolina remains unclear. But growing numbers of Muslims around the world are weighing in with suspicions that the murders were an American hate crime and, perhaps, as the Palestinian foreign ministry suggested聽on Saturday, even an act of terrorism.

The killings of聽Deah Shaddy Barakat, 23, his wife Yusor Mohammad, 21, and her 19-year-old sister Razan Abu-Salha聽shook the greater Raleigh metro area, a former Southern backwater turned international destination for students and high-tech workers.

More deeply, the shootings came amid a backdrop of political tension in the US, highlighted last month at Duke University in Durham, N.C., just a few miles from where the shootings took place, when university officials, amid complaints and threats, cancelled a plan to amplify the聽Friday Islamic call to prayer through the university鈥檚 iconic clock tower.

To be sure, Europe has had even deeper struggles with Muslims as some countries have banned the kind of head gear, the hijab that the two women killed聽Tuesday聽were wearing.

But the Pew Research Center has found that US attitudes, too, have chilled toward Muslims in general, largely because of growing terror threats overseas, Pentagon reports of radicalized American Muslims flooding to Syria, simplistic media portrayals of Muslims, and simmering concerns by a sliver of Americans about a conspiracy to establish Sharia law in US courts.

尝补迟别听贵谤颈诲补测, President Obama made his first statement about the murders, after Turkish Prime Minster聽Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who has previously warned of growing Islamophobia in the West,聽called US leaders out for their 鈥渟ilence鈥� over the killings.

"No one in the United States of America should ever be targeted because of who they are, what they look like, or how they worship," Obama said in a written statement.

The victims were buried聽Thursday. The accused shooter, Craig Stephen Hicks, a 40-something concealed weapons carrier and self-appointed condo complex watchman, turned himself in, and is facing three first degree murder charges, crimes heinous enough to be punishable by death in North Carolina. The Federal Bureau of Investigation has opened a probe into the shootings as well, to determine whether the murders were inspired by religious bias, which could add hate crime penalties.

Through the hashtag #muslimlivesmatter, condolences and suspicions have flown across the globe via social media.聽On Saturday, the Palestine Foreign Ministry weighed in, urging US authorities to investigate the shootings as a hate crime.

According to the state-run , the ministry called Mr. Hicks 鈥渁n American extremist and hateful racist,鈥� and added that the shootings amount to 鈥渁 serious indication of the growth of racism and religious extremism, which is a direct threat to the lives of hundreds of thousands of American citizens who follow the Islamic faith.鈥�

Accusations of terrorism against Muslims in America and further demands for Palestinian investigators to join the Chapel Hill Police Department in their probe may seem ironic to some since the Palestinian Authority counts Hamas, a US State Department-labeled terrorist organization, as a 鈥済overning partner.鈥�

Moreover, while hate crimes against Muslims increased by 50 percent in 2011, the vast majority of proven hate crimes in the US every year are committed against blacks, gays, and Jews, according to the FBI.聽

But the undercurrent of the Palestinian response 鈥� that Americans should be careful not to use a double standard when dealing with crimes against Muslims 鈥� seemed to be reflected more broadly.

"If it, for example, was a Muslim man who executed three 海角大神s, white American students who were young and beautiful and had just gotten married 鈥� what would the reaction be?" Steve Sosebee, who heads the Palestine Children's Relief Fund, told USA Today.

The shootings have also brought to the fore representations of Muslims in American media and films. Some have suggested Clint Eastwood鈥檚 鈥淎merican Sniper,鈥� about the life and death of the American Navy SEAL sniper Chris Kyle, inspired anti-Muslim sentiments online. And there are reports of a spike in sympathy for Mr. Hicks and his act on US social media sites.

鈥淣o one could reasonably suggest that western news and entertainment media organizations should ignore negative portrayals of Muslims altogether,鈥� , an assistant professor in the Department of Communications at the University of North Alabama, on AlJazeera.com.聽鈥淚t is not unreasonable, however, to ask for contextualized accounts, fairer portrayals, critical examinations of the root causes of terrorism, an increase in Muslim voices, and news coverage that does more to separate ordinary Muslims from groups like al-Qaeda and ISIL.鈥�

Chapel Hill authorities have not yet determined whether a hate crime took place, but there鈥檚 evidence, according to the New York Times, that Mr. Hicks, a self-avowed atheist who has criticized a variety of religions, displayed 鈥渆qual opportunity anger鈥� against other residents, often in disputes over parking and noise. Police have said Hicks had had an ongoing spat with the three victims over their use of visitor parking spaces.

But whether the Muslim garb worn by the female victims played a role in moving Hicks from menace to murder may be difficult to ferret out. Nevertheless, there鈥檚 growing international suspicion that creeping Islamophobia in the US may have somehow fueled the murders on Summerwalk Circle, the Chapel Hill street where Hicks roamed, the Times said, as a 鈥渟elf-appointed watchman.鈥�

The bottom line among many Muslims in the US and abroad is that 鈥渢he tragedy should mark a turning point in the uneasy national conversation about Islam,鈥� writes Aamer Madhani, in USA Today.