Anniversary of the Chapel Hill Shooting

Floor Speech

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Mr. ELLISON. Mr. Speaker, today marks one year since three young Americans were killed for their faith. On February 10th, 2015, Deah Barakat, Yusor Abu-Salha, and Razan Abu-Salha were murdered in Chapel Hill, North Carolina. They were shot and killed because they were Muslim. Yusor was a graduate of North Carolina State University and planned on enrolling at the UNC Chapel Hill School of Dentistry, where her husband, Deah, was studying to become a dentist. Razan, Yusor's sister, was a student at NCSU as well. She was only 19 years old. These murders break my heart. They should be heartbreaking to every American. The tragedy in Chapel Hill shows us the stark reality of anti-Muslim bigotry: hate speech and scapegoating has real life consequences. Children are bullied in schools, houses of worship are vandalized, and people are killed for the way they dress or how they pray. Candidates for public office, public officials, and leaders are spewing hatred against American Muslims, calling for Muslim refugees to be banned from entering the country, or for Muslims living here-- including some that were born and raised as American--should carry ID cards or register their names in a database. This type of rhetoric is why our young children are afraid to go to school and why people are being killed because of how they look or how they pray. After the murder, some people in the press argued that it was over a parking dispute. I'm reminded of what Deah's brother, Farris, said: ``I can only accept Deah, Yusor, and Razan's murders as being over a parking dispute, if Rosa Parks's struggle was over a bus seat.''

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