EDISON — Members of a township mosque recently took part in a nationwide effort to honor the memories of the three Muslim students who were murdered in North Carolina in February.
After the fatal shootings of Deah Barakat, Yusor Abu-Salha and Razan Abu- Salha at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Muslims across the country mobilized to collect food for food pantries through the FeedTheirLegacy campaign.
Barakat’s last Facebook post, a picture showing him feeding the homeless in Durham, North Carolina, inspired the nationwide charity effort.
“One month later, while we still grieve the sudden loss of our family, the silver lining in this tragedy is a response like FeedTheirLegacy,” said Yousef Abu-Salha, brother of Yusor and Razan. “It comforts us tremendously to see that a photo of Deah feeding 75 people has inspired a movement that will feed [so many].”
The campaign, which asks American Muslims to respond to hate with kindness, went viral, resulting in 90,000 meals through 275 food drives in 33 states.
At Masjid Al-Wali in Edison, members collected canned food for the Muslim Community Soup Kitchen in Plainfield. In four days, the mosque took in 457 cans of food to donate, according to Ambreen Effendi, coordinator of the drive in Edison. Members of the Masjid Al-Wali community delivered the food on March 29, she said.
Three weeks after the launch of the website at www.feedtheirlegacy.com, food drives reported 85,000 cans collected by 275 mosques and student groups in 33 states, Effendi said.
The cans and money collected to date are equivalent to at least 95,000 meals — enough to feed the entire homeless population of North Carolina eight times over, according to organizers. The campaign’s goal was to collect 100,000 cans by the end of March. At last count, the campaign had garnered more than 172,000 cans of food.
The victims’ families have urged all American Muslims to focus on the victims’ legacies of community service rather than on their murders.
“While we mourn the loss of three young and extraordinary American Muslims, and the brutal way they were killed, the Quran instructs us to respond to evil with good,” and Tarek El-Messidi, national coordinator of FeedTheirLegacy. “With extremists like ISIS dominating headlines daily, we want America to see that it’s Muslims like Deah, Yusor and Razan who truly represent us. They were killed by a neighbor, but we’ll respond by feeding our neighbors. By doing so, we feed their legacy of serving others.”