Mustapha Kharbouch endured per week of dying threats and racist assaults after on-line influencers falsely linked the Palestinian pupil to the Brown University mass capturing that killed two college students and injured a number of others on December 13.

The Brown University pupil turned the goal of a vicious smear marketing campaign when far-right social media customers baselessly accused him of being the gunman who opened hearth throughout finals week.

Kharbouch stated he wakened Tuesday morning to “unfounded, vile, Islamophobic, and anti-Palestinian accusations” flooding his social media accounts.

“Instead of grieving with my community in the aftermath of the horrible shooting, I received non-stop death threats and hate speech,” Kharbouch said in a statement released through his legal team at Muslim Advocates.

The false accusations unfold quickly throughout social media platforms earlier than regulation enforcement recognized the precise shooter. Police later confirmed that Claudio Manuel Neves Valente, a 48-year-old Portuguese nationwide and former Brown physics pupil, carried out the lethal assault.

Valente died by suicide from a self-inflicted gunshot wound days before authorities discovered his body in a storage unit in Salem, New Hampshire. An post-mortem confirmed he died on Tuesday, the identical day the web harassment marketing campaign towards Kharbouch intensified.

Kharbouch’s authorized group responded to regulation enforcement inquiries about his whereabouts in the course of the capturing earlier than the actual perpetrator was recognized. The attorneys stated the baseless assaults possible distracted police from pursuing reputable leads of their investigation.

“Racism against Palestinians is at the core of these baseless attacks,” the authorized group said. “Bad faith actors moved to pin the shooting on Mustapha, on the mere basis of his being Palestinian.”

Brown University eliminated a number of webpages that referenced Kharbouch as a precautionary security measure after he was doxxed on-line. The college calls this an ordinary protocol when people face focused harassment.

The incident highlights the damaging penalties of anti-Palestinian racism that has escalated throughout school campuses.

Kharbouch’s legal professionals referenced earlier hate crimes, together with the homicide of a 6-year-old Palestinian boy, Wadea al-Fayoume, in Chicago and the capturing of three Palestinian-American college students in Vermont in 2023.

“I refuse to be silenced by anyone who comes after me for my identity and advocacy for Palestinians,” Kharbouch stated. “Even in this nightmare, I have been flooded with incredible messages of support from friends, faculty, staff, and strangers alike.”

The Brown capturing marked one of many deadliest campus assaults in recent times. Valente fired 44 bullets from a 9mm handgun in the course of the December 13 rampage that terrorized college students throughout examination interval.

Authorities consider Valente additionally killed an MIT professor in a separate incident. The motive for each assaults stays underneath investigation because the Brown neighborhood continues processing the tragedy.

Kharbouch described the ordeal as “an unimaginable nightmare” however vowed to proceed his Palestinian advocacy work regardless of the threats. His case demonstrates how rapidly misinformation can unfold and endanger harmless folks throughout disaster conditions.

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