#MuslimLivesMatter critiques mainstream media over #ChapelHillShooting
Netizens decry lack of attention, perceived double standard in coverage of white assailant’s killing of Muslim students.
Three Muslim-American students were shot and killed at the residence of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, triggering massive discussion of the incident, as well as media coverage of it, using #ChapelHillShooting and #MuslimLivesMatter. The hashtags have respectively been used nearly a quarter of a million times and 85,000 times so far.
46 year old Craig Stephen Hicks was arrested and charged with the killings. Chapel Hill police said an initial investigation suggests “the crime was motivated by an ongoing neighbour dispute over parking,” but the suspect’s anti-religious postings on social media have many speculating the victim’s Muslim identity was at least an additional motivating factor.