Thousands attend slain Muslim teen’s funeral

Nabra Hassanen remembered at the service as an example of kindness and openness

STERLING, VA.— About 5,000 mourners attended Wednesday’s funeral of a Muslim girl whose beating death, blamed by police on a motorist’s road rage, has some people in her community fearing for their safety.

Nabra Hassanen, 17, was remembered as an example of kindness and openness during the services.

“There is nothing like losing a child, especially in the way that we lost Nabra,” said Imam Mohamed Magid, the religious leader of the All Dulles Area Muslim Society.

He stood before Hassanen’s coffin, covered by a black shroud decorated with quotes from the Qur’an.

Police said Hassanen was bludgeoned with a baseball bat early Sunday by a motorist who drove up to about 15 Muslim teenagers as they walked or bicycled along a road. Police said the driver became enraged after exchanging words with a boy in the group.

A Hassanen family spokesperson said the girls in the group were wearing Muslim head scarves and robes.

Magid acknowledged that the slaying has people grieving and fearful, but he praised the many people who turned out “in a fever” to search for the teen before police discovered her body Sunday afternoon.

Fairfax County police said Darwin Martinez Torres chased the youngsters with a baseball bat, catching up with Hassanen and beating her after her friends had scattered. Then, they say, he put her in his car, assaulted her again and dumped her body in a pond.

An overflow area at the funeral was itself overflowing with people who came to show their solidarity. The crowd overwhelmed traffic and cars jammed into neighbourhood streets more than a mile away to park.

Most mourners were Muslim, but Christians and Jews attended as well. The Adams Center, one of the largest mosques in the country, has a long history of interfaith outreach and activism, and Adams board chair Rizwan Jaka said there has been “just a tremendous outpouring of support” from people of all faiths.

Lena Masri, national litigation director for the Council on AmericanIslamic Relations (CAIR), said in a statement that CAIR is representing Hassanen’s family and “will monitor the development of the investigation to ensure a thorough examination of any possible bias aspects of the case.”

Police said they are continuing to investigate, but so far they have found no evidence pointing to a hate crime by Martinez Torres, a 22-yearold from El Salvador suspected of being in the U.S. illegally. He’s being held without bail on a second-degree murder charge.