Let’s be real. People don’t die over parking spots.
Craig Stephen Hicks was arrested on Tuesday over the deaths of Deah Shaddy Barakat, 23, Yusor Mohammad, 21, and Razan Mohammad Abu-Salha, 19. Chapel Hill police have said that an ongoing dispute over a parking place may have been a contributing factor. But while that may be true, the evidence suggests that Hicks had an underlying animosity towards the victims because of their beliefs.
On his Facebook page, Hicks reportedly showed his support for “anti-theism,” the active opposition of religious belief. As Reza Aslan explained in a recent essay, anti-theists often view “religion as an insidious force that must be rooted from society — forcibly if necessary.” The lead photo on Hicks’ page talked about how he wanted “religion to go away,” and in a 2012 post, he quoted heavily from biologist and so-called “New Atheist” Richard Dawkins.
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