TEHRAN
Iranian Parliament Speaker Ali Larijani said Sunday that the West did not react strongly enough to the murder of three Muslim-American youths in North Carolina.
On Tuesday, Deah Barakat, 23, his wife Yusor Mohammad Abu-Salha, 21, and her sister Razan Mohammad Abu-Salha, 19, were fatally shot in Chapel Hill, North Carolina.
Authorities said the homicide may have been motivated by "an ongoing neighbor dispute over parking," but the victims' religion, as well as alleged comments the suspect made online, triggered broad speculation that the murders were a hate crime.
"This act again sparked Muslims' anger across the world and the double-standard of the Western officials and media toward the killing of Muslims and non-Muslims is regrettable," Iranian semi-official Fars New Agency quoted Larijani as saying. “They keep mum or show a very weak reaction to the murder of Muslims. Such a double-standard attitude provokes security crises in the world and sparks outrage."
The incident and its handling by the authorities drew international outrage, with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan criticizing the U.S. leadership for not having made any statement about the murders.
"We, politicians, are responsible for everything that happens in our countries and have to show our stance," Erdogan said Thursday during an official visit to Mexico. "If you remain silent when you face an incident like this and do not make a statement, the world will always stay silent toward you."
On Friday, U.S. President Barack Obama denounced the "brutal and outrageous murders," three days after the incident.
"No one in the United States of America should ever be targeted because of who they are, what they look like, or how they worship," he said.
