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Candlelight Vigil on Thursday, June 22 Against Hate for Murdered Black Muslim Teenager Nabra Hassanen


murdered Muslim teenager Nabra Hassanen
Nabra Hassanen. Source: cnn.com

CHICAGO—(ENEWSPF)—June 22, 2017. A candlelight vigil against hat for murdered black Muslim teenager Nabra Hassanen will be held on Thursday, June 22 at 6 p.m. at the Federal Plaza, 50 West Adams Street in downtown Chicago.

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Only days after 17 year old Black Egyptian Muslim girl Nabra Hassanen was beaten to death, and a day after a memorial in her honor was set on fire in Washington, D.C., Chicagoans will hold a candlelight vigil to stand in solidarity with her family and community against hate, and to call on Fairfax County, Virginia, officials to investigate her brutal murder as a hate crime.

Nabra’s murder comes in the context of a Trump presidency that has normalized racist and anti-immigrant discourse.  Bigots have become emboldened to regularly attack Muslims, Arabs, and immigrants across the country, and Black people continue to face police and other state violence against their communities.

“The murder of our young sister Nabra has horrified our community,” said Bassem Kawar of the Chicago chapter of the Campaign to TAKE ON HATE, a project of the National Network for Arab American Communities in Dearborn, Michigan. “She is dead because she was Black, Arab, and Muslim, and her killing is the responsibility not only of the man who killed her, but of politicians, law enforcement agencies, and media that continue to de-value the lives of people like her and us.”

Arab, Muslim, Black, Latino, Asian, women’s, faith-based, and other organizations from across Chicagoland are mobilizing hundreds of people for this vigil, and are also demanding that Virginia authorities, who are claiming that the murder was a “road rage” incident, investigate it as a hate crime. A petition calling for a hate crime investigation has already secured tens of thousands of signatures.

#JusticeforNabra #TakeOnHateChi

Organized by: The Campaign to TAKE ON HATE – Chicago. Endorsed by Arab American Action Network; Arab American Family Services; ANAKBAYAN – Chicago; ANSWER – Chicago; Asian Americans Advancing Justice – Chicago;  Chicago Alliance Against Racist and Political Repression; Chicagoland Shura Council – CSC and the United Organizations of CMECCA/LDI, Ephraim Bahar Cultural Center, Masjid Al-Taqwa and Progressive Legacy Leadership Association; Council of Islamic Organizations of Greater Chicago; HEART Women & Girls; Inner-City Muslim Action Network; Jewish Voice for Peace – Chicago; MPower Change; Muftah; National Alliance for Filipino Concerns; Organized Communities Against Deportations; Alliance of Filipinos for Immigrant Rights and Empowerment (AFIRE); Women’s March – Illinois

Source:  #JusticeforNabra


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