SUBSCRIBE TO OUR FREE NEWSLETTER
Daily news & progressive opinion—funded by the people, not the corporations—delivered straight to your inbox.
5
#000000
#FFFFFF
5
#000000
#FFFFFF
Community Mourns Loss as Muslim Teen Killed by Attacker Near Virginia Mosque
Though police say murder is not being investigated as a hate crime, family and friends heart-broken after gruesome attack
Jun 19, 2017
Amid concerns that a steady stream of anti-Muslim rhetoric from President Donald Trump has fostered an increased atmosphere of hate and a spike in Islamophobic attacks, police in Fairfax County, Virginia say they believe the female body found in a pond Sunday afternoon is that of a 17-year-old Muslim teenager who was assaulted and disappeared hours earlier while walking with a group of friends.
Outlets differed somewhat on the events leading up to the attack, but according to the Fairfax Times, the victim went missing just after 4am on Sunday "after leaving an overnight prayer event at the All Dulles Area Muslim Society in Sterling."
On Sunday several outlets reported that police were investigating whether there was a "possible hate-crime motivation," but the Fairfax County Police Department issued a tweet Monday morning saying the case is "NOT" being investigated as a hate crime.
Twenty-two-year-old Darwin Martinez Torres of Sterling, Va. was arrested Sunday in connection with the murder, the police announced. NBC Washington reports that he appeared in court Monday and has been charged with murder.
Police have not yet released the name of the victim, but she has been identified by community members and relatives as Nabra Hassanen from the town of Reston. At roughly 4am, NBC Washington writes, she
and her friends were headed to an all-night prayer session at the All Dulles Area Muslim Society (ADAMS) Center after getting food when they got into a dispute with a man in a car. The man got out of his car, assaulted the victim, and she became separated from her friends.
A press statement from the ADAMS Center adds:
Community members came across the group and directed them to ADAMS Center. Immediately thereafter, the ADAMS' personnel notified both Loudon County and Fairfax County authorities who immediately began an extensive search to locate the missing girl.
"We call on law enforcement to investigate and determine the motive of this crime and prosecute to the full extent of the law," the center said.
The Washington Post reports on a heartbreaking scene Sunday night in Nabra's apartment, where, absent its normal laughter, sobs of 30 women were heard, including that of her mother, Gazzar. "I lost my daughter, my first reason for happiness," Gazzar said on the phone in Arabic to her brother and sister in her native Egypt.
Nabra, the news outlet reports, "didn't typically wear traditional Muslim clothes," but on Sunday morning was wearing an abaya, an outer garment worn by some Muslim women, that she borrowed from her mother.
The Post continues:
The night before, Gazzar had cooked a feast for Nabra, the oldest of her four daughters, who wanted to host a big iftar break-the-fast dinner for all her friends from ADAMS and South Lakes High School, where she just finished 10th grade.
The iftar was packed--Nabra was always popular and sociable. And when it ended, a friend's mom drove some of the teens to ADAMS for the midnight prayers that mark the last 10 days of Ramadan.
A crowdfunding page has been set up to help the family. As of this writing, it has raised $153,966, surpassing its $150,000 goal.
The attack occurred as a man in London plowed his van into a group Muslim worshipers outside a mosque, killing at least one person and injuring at least ten others.
An Urgent Message From Our Co-Founder
Dear Common Dreams reader, It’s been nearly 30 years since I co-founded Common Dreams with my late wife, Lina Newhouser. We had the radical notion that journalism should serve the public good, not corporate profits. It was clear to us from the outset what it would take to build such a project. No paid advertisements. No corporate sponsors. No millionaire publisher telling us what to think or do. Many people said we wouldn't last a year, but we proved those doubters wrong. Together with a tremendous team of journalists and dedicated staff, we built an independent media outlet free from the constraints of profits and corporate control. Our mission has always been simple: To inform. To inspire. To ignite change for the common good. Building Common Dreams was not easy. Our survival was never guaranteed. When you take on the most powerful forces—Wall Street greed, fossil fuel industry destruction, Big Tech lobbyists, and uber-rich oligarchs who have spent billions upon billions rigging the economy and democracy in their favor—the only bulwark you have is supporters who believe in your work. But here’s the urgent message from me today. It's never been this bad out there. And it's never been this hard to keep us going. At the very moment Common Dreams is most needed, the threats we face are intensifying. We need your support now more than ever. We don't accept corporate advertising and never will. We don't have a paywall because we don't think people should be blocked from critical news based on their ability to pay. Everything we do is funded by the donations of readers like you. When everyone does the little they can afford, we are strong. But if that support retreats or dries up, so do we. Will you donate now to make sure Common Dreams not only survives but thrives? —Craig Brown, Co-founder |
Our work is licensed under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0). Feel free to republish and share widely.
Amid concerns that a steady stream of anti-Muslim rhetoric from President Donald Trump has fostered an increased atmosphere of hate and a spike in Islamophobic attacks, police in Fairfax County, Virginia say they believe the female body found in a pond Sunday afternoon is that of a 17-year-old Muslim teenager who was assaulted and disappeared hours earlier while walking with a group of friends.
Outlets differed somewhat on the events leading up to the attack, but according to the Fairfax Times, the victim went missing just after 4am on Sunday "after leaving an overnight prayer event at the All Dulles Area Muslim Society in Sterling."
On Sunday several outlets reported that police were investigating whether there was a "possible hate-crime motivation," but the Fairfax County Police Department issued a tweet Monday morning saying the case is "NOT" being investigated as a hate crime.
Twenty-two-year-old Darwin Martinez Torres of Sterling, Va. was arrested Sunday in connection with the murder, the police announced. NBC Washington reports that he appeared in court Monday and has been charged with murder.
Police have not yet released the name of the victim, but she has been identified by community members and relatives as Nabra Hassanen from the town of Reston. At roughly 4am, NBC Washington writes, she
and her friends were headed to an all-night prayer session at the All Dulles Area Muslim Society (ADAMS) Center after getting food when they got into a dispute with a man in a car. The man got out of his car, assaulted the victim, and she became separated from her friends.
A press statement from the ADAMS Center adds:
Community members came across the group and directed them to ADAMS Center. Immediately thereafter, the ADAMS' personnel notified both Loudon County and Fairfax County authorities who immediately began an extensive search to locate the missing girl.
"We call on law enforcement to investigate and determine the motive of this crime and prosecute to the full extent of the law," the center said.
The Washington Post reports on a heartbreaking scene Sunday night in Nabra's apartment, where, absent its normal laughter, sobs of 30 women were heard, including that of her mother, Gazzar. "I lost my daughter, my first reason for happiness," Gazzar said on the phone in Arabic to her brother and sister in her native Egypt.
Nabra, the news outlet reports, "didn't typically wear traditional Muslim clothes," but on Sunday morning was wearing an abaya, an outer garment worn by some Muslim women, that she borrowed from her mother.
The Post continues:
The night before, Gazzar had cooked a feast for Nabra, the oldest of her four daughters, who wanted to host a big iftar break-the-fast dinner for all her friends from ADAMS and South Lakes High School, where she just finished 10th grade.
The iftar was packed--Nabra was always popular and sociable. And when it ended, a friend's mom drove some of the teens to ADAMS for the midnight prayers that mark the last 10 days of Ramadan.
A crowdfunding page has been set up to help the family. As of this writing, it has raised $153,966, surpassing its $150,000 goal.
The attack occurred as a man in London plowed his van into a group Muslim worshipers outside a mosque, killing at least one person and injuring at least ten others.
Amid concerns that a steady stream of anti-Muslim rhetoric from President Donald Trump has fostered an increased atmosphere of hate and a spike in Islamophobic attacks, police in Fairfax County, Virginia say they believe the female body found in a pond Sunday afternoon is that of a 17-year-old Muslim teenager who was assaulted and disappeared hours earlier while walking with a group of friends.
Outlets differed somewhat on the events leading up to the attack, but according to the Fairfax Times, the victim went missing just after 4am on Sunday "after leaving an overnight prayer event at the All Dulles Area Muslim Society in Sterling."
On Sunday several outlets reported that police were investigating whether there was a "possible hate-crime motivation," but the Fairfax County Police Department issued a tweet Monday morning saying the case is "NOT" being investigated as a hate crime.
Twenty-two-year-old Darwin Martinez Torres of Sterling, Va. was arrested Sunday in connection with the murder, the police announced. NBC Washington reports that he appeared in court Monday and has been charged with murder.
Police have not yet released the name of the victim, but she has been identified by community members and relatives as Nabra Hassanen from the town of Reston. At roughly 4am, NBC Washington writes, she
and her friends were headed to an all-night prayer session at the All Dulles Area Muslim Society (ADAMS) Center after getting food when they got into a dispute with a man in a car. The man got out of his car, assaulted the victim, and she became separated from her friends.
A press statement from the ADAMS Center adds:
Community members came across the group and directed them to ADAMS Center. Immediately thereafter, the ADAMS' personnel notified both Loudon County and Fairfax County authorities who immediately began an extensive search to locate the missing girl.
"We call on law enforcement to investigate and determine the motive of this crime and prosecute to the full extent of the law," the center said.
The Washington Post reports on a heartbreaking scene Sunday night in Nabra's apartment, where, absent its normal laughter, sobs of 30 women were heard, including that of her mother, Gazzar. "I lost my daughter, my first reason for happiness," Gazzar said on the phone in Arabic to her brother and sister in her native Egypt.
Nabra, the news outlet reports, "didn't typically wear traditional Muslim clothes," but on Sunday morning was wearing an abaya, an outer garment worn by some Muslim women, that she borrowed from her mother.
The Post continues:
The night before, Gazzar had cooked a feast for Nabra, the oldest of her four daughters, who wanted to host a big iftar break-the-fast dinner for all her friends from ADAMS and South Lakes High School, where she just finished 10th grade.
The iftar was packed--Nabra was always popular and sociable. And when it ended, a friend's mom drove some of the teens to ADAMS for the midnight prayers that mark the last 10 days of Ramadan.
A crowdfunding page has been set up to help the family. As of this writing, it has raised $153,966, surpassing its $150,000 goal.
The attack occurred as a man in London plowed his van into a group Muslim worshipers outside a mosque, killing at least one person and injuring at least ten others.
We've had enough. The 1% own and operate the corporate media. They are doing everything they can to defend the status quo, squash dissent and protect the wealthy and the powerful. The Common Dreams media model is different. We cover the news that matters to the 99%. Our mission? To inform. To inspire. To ignite change for the common good. How? Nonprofit. Independent. Reader-supported. Free to read. Free to republish. Free to share. With no advertising. No paywalls. No selling of your data. Thousands of small donations fund our newsroom and allow us to continue publishing. Can you chip in? We can't do it without you. Thank you.