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 But when Zouhri, 22, left home for school on Wednesday, a day
after three of her Muslim friends were gunned down near the
University of North Carolina in a shooting authorities are
investigating as a hate crime, her father's warning for her to be
careful took on a sobering new reality, she said.
"The way he said it was very much like, 'I'm actually worried
something could happen to you,'" the senior global studies major
recalled outside a room at the university where Muslim students
gathered for afternoon prayers.
Several Muslim students who attend the university said they have
always felt safe and accepted in Chapel Hill, a college town about
30 miles (48 km) from Raleigh that is known for basketball and
affordable higher education.
But the triple slaying at a condominium complex about two miles (3
km) from campus Tuesday evening fractured their sense of security,
Zouhri said, describing it as "a punch in the gut when you didn't
step into a boxing ring".
 The three victims, a newlywed couple and an undergraduate student
with close ties to two universities in the vicinity, came from two
of the most prominent Muslim families in the Raleigh area, friends
said.
Deah Shaddy Barakat, 23, was a University of North Carolina dental
student, his wife Yusor Mohammad, 21, was preparing to start at the
dentistry school in the fall, and her sister, Razan Mohammad
Abu-Salha, 19, was a sophomore at nearby North Carolina State
University, where the couple were both alumni.
Friends grappled not only with the loss of three people known for
their kindness, vigor and charity work, but with how their deaths
might affect everyday life for local Muslims in the future.
"It's not actually as safe and progressive a community as we thought
it was," said Sofia Dard, a 21-year-old senior majoring in
psychology. "It's just that extra edge of caution that we're going
to have to incorporate in our lives now."
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Craig Stephen Hicks, 46, a full-time paralegal student who posted
anti-religious messages on Facebook, has been charged with three
counts of murder. Authorities said the killing, sparked perhaps by a
parking dispute, did not appear to be part of a targeted campaign
against Muslims in North Carolina.
Manzoor Cheema, co-founder of the Raleigh-based Muslims for Social
Justice, linked the shootings to what he called a “rising tide of
Islamophobia” in the state and region.
Last month, Duke University in Durham scrapped a plan to have the
Muslim call to prayer emanate from its chapel after fierce
opposition from Christian critics, including evangelist Franklin
Graham, who said on Facebook that “followers of Islam are raping,
butchering, and beheading Christians, Jews, and anyone who doesn't
submit to their Sharia Islamic law.”
“We are seeing multiple cases of attacks against Muslims in North
Carolina that are very troubling,” Cheema said. “I hope this
terrible tragedy will be a turning point that brings the reality
home that if we keep demonizing Muslims and equating their religion
to terrorism, it will lead to more attacks.”
(Additional reporting by Marti Maguire in Raleigh; Editing by
Cynthia Johnston; Editing by Ken Wills)
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