Grief filled the room of Burney Center as the Muslim Student Association at University of North Carolina Wilmington held a night of remembrance for the three students killed near the University of North Carolina Chapel Hill in their home on Feb. 10.

The Muslim Student Association at UNCW organized the event to bring the student body together to mourn the lost lives of Deah Shaddy Barakat, Yusor Mohammad Abu-Salha, and Razan Mohammad Abu-Salha.

“It was great to see everybody come out and support,” a relative of the victims that attends UNCW, Saba Amiri said.

Different religions packed the room to celebrate the short lives of these three UNC system students, who are now being called “The Three Winners”. There were many Muslims in attendance wearing Hijabs as well as many Catholics with ash marks fresh on their foreheads from Ash Wednesday.

“I really would just like people to know that the three winners did not die in vain. It brought members of the community together from all different backgrounds and religions everywhere and they left a legacy,” the President of UNCW’s Catholic Campus Ministry, Christine Mominee said. “They will continue to change lives and hearts.”

There was a bitter sweet feeling in the room as pictures of The Three Winners at their happiest moments scrolled across the screen behind the stage as each speaker prepared to speak.

 “I feel like when things like this happen and we all come together as a group and a community the only thing that can breed from this is acceptance,” the President of the Muslim Student Association at UNCW, Nada Merghani said. 

Each of the speakers brought to light a new perspective, especially Yousef Abu-Salha, the two girls’, Razan and Yusor’s, brother. He addressed the crowd via Skype to talk about type of people the victims were and the lives they led.

He spoke mostly about who the victims were as people. He explained how excited Razan was to have been accepted into North Carolina State University College of Design and spoke on how Yusor had recently been naturalized as an American citizen.

Yousef informed the audience of how each of the victims spent an extensive amount of time serving the community. He wants all three of them to be remembered for their servants’ hearts along with the much good they did while they were here on Earth.

In Yousef’s closing remarks to the crowd he said, “People are saying that these three are the faces of Islam in the west and that’s really flattering. But, these three were simply American students trying to live out the American Dream.”