Saudi Arabia slams ‘terrorist’ murder of American Muslims students

The shooting death of three American Muslim university students in North Carolina has been condemned by Saudi Arabia as a “heinous terrorist” act.

The Arab country also condemned Saturday’s deadly attack in Denmark that left two people dead and five policemen injured.

“The kingdom of Saudi Arabia followed with strong sorrow the heinous terrorist and criminal incidents that occurred lately in the Danish capital Copenhagen and in the US state of North Carolina that resulted in the death and injuring of innocent,” the Saudi Press Agency said in a statement on Sunday.

“The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia offers its condolences to the families of terrorism victims and wishes the wounded speedy recovery,” it added.

The statement came after a gunman killed three of his American Muslim neighbors in an apartment near the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill last week.

Craig Stephen Hicks, 46, shot dead Shaddy Barakat, 23, his wife Yusor Mohammad Abu-Salha, 21, and her sister, Razan Mohammad Abu-Salha, 19 in their home on Tuesday afternoon.

Families of the three victims, who were shot in the head, say they were executed for their religion, Islam, and want Hicks to be charged with a hate crime.

The fatal shootings have caused outrage among Muslims all over the world. Many claim the crimes would have gained more attention if the attacker had been a Muslim and the victims were non-Muslim whites.

On Saturday, the Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC), an international Islamic organization based in Saudi Arabia, also condemned the “gruesome” murders of the three students and voiced concern over rising Islamophobia in the United States.

US President Barack Obama on Friday called the deaths “brutal and outrageous murders” and said no one should be targeted for their religion in America.