After an initial bout of fake news, the media, to its credit, correctly reported the fact that Craig Stephen Hicks, the man who shot 3 Muslim neighbors over a parking dispute in Chapel Hill, was a mentally unstable nutjob obsessed with parking spaces.
The Obama administration attempted to keep the lie alive that he was an Islamophobe who shot his neighbors because he hates Islam.
The facts though are non-controversial enough that they make up a sizable Wikipedia entry.
Hicks posted on Facebook comments and images that were critical of all religions and religious violence, and his profile read “Atheists for Equality”. He was critical of Christian opponents of the Park51 project, stating: “Seems an overwhelming majority of Christians in this country feel that the Muslims are using the Ground Zero mosque plans to ‘mark their conquest’ … bunch of hypocrites, everywhere I’ve been in this country there are churches marking the Christian conquest of this country from the Native Americans.” He also posted, “I hate Islam just as much as Christianity, but they have the right to worship in this country just as much as any others do,” and also opined on the same page that it would be OK if we had a Muslim president. Hicks had set a banner image on his page to one stating: “I don’t deny you your right to believe whatever you’d like; but I have the right to point out it’s ignorant and dangerous for as long as your baseless superstitions keep killing people.” In another Facebook post, Hicks stated: “I give your religion as much respect as your religion gives me … there’s nothing complicated about it, and I have every right to insult a religion that goes out of its way to insult, to judge, and to condemn me as an inadequate human being—which your religion does with self-righteous gusto.” His wife described Hicks as a champion of individual’s rights, and said “This incident had nothing to do with religion or the victims’ faith but was related to a longstanding parking dispute that my husband had with the neighbors.” Neighbors confirmed that Hicks had frequently complained about parking and noise issues for years, and would confront residents while armed
Hicks was a militant atheist, but had no special animus toward Islam. And appeared to like it more than Christianity.
He did have issues with parking.
Craig Hicks Was Threat With ‘Equal Opportunity Anger,’ Neighbors Say – Huffington Post
Craig Hicks, 46, was always irritated about noise and parking in the condominium complex where he allegedly shot and killed Deah Shaddy Barakat, Barakat’s wife, Yusor Abu-Salha, and her sister, Razan Abu-Salha on Tuesday. Neighbors say they felt uncomfortable around him, especially when he regularly approached with a gun holstered to his belt, according to the New York Times.
“I have seen and heard him be very unfriendly to a lot of people in this community,” Samantha Maness, another resident of the Finley Forest development, told the Times. She said that Hicks displayed an “equal opportunity anger” and that he made “everyone feel uncomfortable and unsafe.”
He was emphatic about enforcing the complex’s parking regulations and griped when he thought Maness made too much noise with friends.
The consensus has been that Hicks harassed everybody.
The father of the two sisters he shot has repeatedly claimed that it was Islamophobia. I’m not going to judge his motives for doing so. Losing two daughters has to be a horrifically painful experience. But Democrats have repeatedly given him a platform to make these claims.
And this time they chose to give him a national platform.
“Three beautiful young Americans were brutally murdered, and there is no question in our minds that this tragedy was born of bigotry and hate,” Dr. Mohammad Abu-Salha told a U.S. Congressional committee Tuesday, according to a live video feed.
Abu-Salha spoke during a hearing on “Hate Crimes and the Rise of White Nationalism.”
Craig Stephen Hicks was charged in connection with the shooting, which happened after a reported parking dispute The News & Observer has reported.
“I ask you, I truly plead to you not to let another family go through this because our government would not act to protect all Americans,” Abu-Salha said during the hearing
There is zero evidence that Hicks was a white nationalist. There is zero evidence that bigotry was a motive. There are reams of evidence that he was obsessed with parking and that he threatened a variety of neighbors of various backgrounds over that.
Democrats are pandering by falsely keeping this claim alive.
Leave a Reply