A makeshift memorial for Deah the victims in the University of North Carolina School of Dentistry, Feb. 11, 2015. Photo: Reuters

DEARBORN — Deah Barakat, Yusor Abu-Salha and Razan Abu-Salha were model citizens — students, activists, volunteers. An evil neighbor invaded their home and shot all three of them in the head. Their friends and family say they were executed for who they were — Muslim Americans.

The suspected hate crime in Chapel Hill, North Carolina shook the community. A year later, Muslims across the United States are still experiencing the pain of the tragedy. They say the murders made them feel like they and their loved ones could become targets of deadly prejudice.

Chapel Hill proved that Islamophobia is real and dangerous, activists say, adding that the mainstream media’s initial disregard of the crime demonstrate their disregard for Muslim American lives.

Jameel Syed, who recited the Muslim call for prayers across all 50 states last year, met Barakat’s father during his trip.

“Losing a child is never easy under any circumstances; losing a child under those circumstances is something that leaves a very heavy imprint,” he said.

Syed lauded the way the victims’ family responded to the tragic situation.

“They didn’t want retribution,” he said. “They didn’t want revenge. They didn’t want to retaliate. They didn’t harbor hate against all Americans or all Christians or all Caucasians. What they did is they took this opportunity to create peace and build bridges and to shed light on the beauty of Islam.”

Syed said the grieving family put the values of Islam above their own human emotions.

He added that the larger Muslim community came together to provide a support system for the family.

Syed said Muslims can push against bigotry in two ways — civic advocacy and showing real Islamic values by being the best citizens they can on a daily basis.

Dearborn Councilman Mike Sareini introduced a resolution expressing sympathy for the family of the Chapel Hill victims last year.

He said it was important to send a message against bigotry, especially after an assault at a Dearborn Kroger, where the victim said he was attacked because of his religion. But for Sareini it was also personal.

“It affected me directly because I had children in college just like those young adults,” the councilman said. “So it really hit home with me.”

President Obama has referenced the Chapel Hill murders twice while addressing Islamophobia, but some say if it were not for social media the incident would have never made it to the national spotlights.

U.S. mainstream media largely ignored the murders for the first few hours. Initial stories in national outlets did not mention the possibility of a hate crime.

Instead, circumstantial motives were cited to explain the shooter’s actions.

“Man charged in death of 3 near University of North Carolina,” read the headline of the initial New York Times report on the murders.

Meanwhile, hashtags like #MuslimLivesMatter, #ChapelHillShootings and #OurThreeWinners were becoming top trends on Twitter.

“They attributed the entire incident to bad parking decisions,” Syed said of the mainstream media.

He added that it was Muslim Americans and social justice activists on Twitter who “forced the hand of the media” to report on the matter properly.

Local Muslim activist Shaffwan Ahmed echoed Syed’s comments.

“Social media gave power back to the people,” he said.

Ahmed said outlets like Twitter opened a line of communication between traditional media outlets and their audience, allowing people to critique the news while consuming it in real time.

He said mainstream media outlet failed in their dutiful task to report the facts from Chapel Hill.

“The coverage was very late, very slow,” Ahmed said. “It took forever to happen. We had accounts from the relatives and the family and they started to share the news from social media; and it started spreading piece by piece.”

He said he was angered but unsurprised by the (lack of) reporting, because the mainstream media have always ignored issues that affect minority communities.

“If it were the other way around, the media would be all over it, like vultures, attacking the Muslim faith,” he said.

He said Muslim activists and organizations became the reporters of the community.

Ahmed also said the murders “hit home really hard.”

“My family practices; my siblings and mother all wear the hijab, so our faith is identifiable,” he said. “I am the oldest in my family, so I have always had that sense of being protective.”

He added that the tragedy woke up a lot of people who would normally laugh off Islamophobia.

“Islamophobia is not just a word,” Ahmed said, adding that people should not take it lightly.

He said the shooter’s misguided views of Islam, which were fueled by Islamophobic rhetoric, had distorted his perception of his neighbors, who were great people.

“He knew nothing about them,” Ahmed said of the shooter. “And he used that to justify their murder.”

Ahmed called for solidarity to condemn all forms of hatred.

Mirna Haidar, an advocacy trainer with the Arab American Association of New York, helped organize an event to commemorate the victims with the Take on Hate Campaign, Muslim American Society of New York and Students for Justice in Palestine.

“For the one-year anniversary, we wanted to come together as a community,” she said. “Not only remember their deaths and purpose in life, but also heal together.”

Haidar, an immigrant from Lebanon, said she was traumatized by the murders.

“For someone who fled violence, it’s a bit triggering that someone who shares my identity was executed like that, in supposedly the ‘Land of the Free,'” she said.

Haidar called on fellow Americans to speak out against hate. She said the year-old tragedy highlights how dangerous bigotry can be.

“Stop fueling hatred messages,” Haidar said addressing those who promote Islamophobia. “Stop misrepresenting us. Stop labeling us. Stop surveilling us. Stop scrutinizing us. Stop terrorizing us.”

Haidar said there is a direct correlation between anti-Muslim rhetoric by politicians and hate crimes targeting the community.

“And the proof of that is when [Donald] Trump started getting that media platform, I received immediately an increase of 400 percent of cases that could be labeled as Islamophobic hate crime,” she said.

Steve Spreitzer, president of the Michigan Roundtable for Diversity and Inclusion, said all Americans have a responsibility in fighting Islamophobia and preventing hate crimes.

Spreitzer cited research saying silence of bystanders encourages bullying.

He said most Americans do not know Muslims through personal interactions, adding that those who know what Islam is all about should reject and correct bigoted comments against Muslims.

“We call it interrupting behavior; you say that is actually not true,” Spreitzer said. “We need to develop the courage to stand up against tides of what appears to be a majority of people who are anti-Muslim, when in reality, it’s a loud minority.”