President Rouhani Condemns “Brutal” Murder of 3 US Muslims
TEHRAN (Tasnim) – Iranian President Hassan Rouhani on Sunday denounced as gruesome and shocking the shooting death of three young Muslims in the US, and urged a global campaign against hate crimes.
“The brutal (shocking) assassination of three young Muslim students in the United States of America is condemned and is another display of the serious threat of spread of violence and extremism in our era,” the Iranian president said in a message on Sunday.
He also described as “very worrying” the initial reports suggesting that anti-religious and anti-Islamic motives were behind the death of the three in North Carolina.
President Rouhani stressed that any damage to people's lives and human dignity, either in the name of religion or in the anti-religious moves, contradicts the fundamentals of moral principles and teachings of divine religions.
He further called on the world scholars, artists, clerics, civil societies and government to launch a campaign against violence, cultural causes of the anti-religious moves and hate crimes.
President Rouhani further noted that the US officials are expected to protect the rights of all citizens, including Muslims.
Three days after death of the young Muslims, US President Barack Obama on Friday described the incident as "brutal and outrageous murders" and said no one in the US should be targeted for their religion.
Newlywed Deah Shaddy Barakat, 23, a University of North Carolina dental student, his wife, Yusor Mohammad Abu-Salha, 21, and her sister, Razan Mohammad Abu-Salha, 19, a student at North Carolina State University, were killed in a condominium about two miles (three km) from the UNC campus.
The families had called on Obama to insist that federal authorities investigate whether the murder suspect, 46-year-old paralegal student Craig Stephen Hicks, was motivated by hatred toward the victims because they were Muslim.
