Multicultural students across campus came together for a common cause.

Students from the Muslim Student Association gathered Wednesday afternoon to honor the three young East African men who were killed in an execution style in Indiana last week.

“If you look at every single media article about this, their religion is constantly mentioned, and this is something that, given the current politics now, this is on the rise and this is scary,” said Rabeka Ali, president of the Muslim Student Association. “This is something we should care about.”

As part of the vigil, supporters stood with signs on the steps of Todd Hall. Four students gave speeches and read poetry, including ASWSU presidential candidate Victoria-Pearl Young, WSU student Pheshay Locke, University of Idaho student and the president of the University of Idaho Muslim Student Association, Youset Bayomy.

“They didn’t have voices and we should stand up and be the voices for them,” Rabeka said about the victims.

Fadumo Ali, president for the Somali Student Association, said the vigil was meant to bring awareness to the deaths, which have not seen much media coverage. She added the vigil brought together different cultural communities at WSU.

“We are all going to unite together, their religion is irrelevant, their ethnicity is irrelevant, their background is irrelevant,” said Fadumo. “Whatever they are affiliated with, we are here to stand together, people from all the communities, and to show that stuff like this happening around the world is not OK and should not be accepted.”

Rabeka added the vigil has had a positive impact on students. Not only does it shed light on the three victims, but also urges students to stand up to racism.

“It’s kind of ironic that everyone up here knows about it except for me. I was completely unaware of what was going on and it’s always important to educate yourself on what’s going on in our society,” said Sam Horowitz, a junior political science and communication major. “In order to create movements and real meaningful change, we have to have people who are unaware get educated on things that are going on around us.”

Rabeka said the deaths are adding to the overall negative feelings for Muslims.

“A lot of people are assuming off of their appearances that it is gang-related,” she said. “We are basically just trying to educate the WSU Pullman community of the difficulties Muslims are facing now and what can happen when hate for Muslims is perpetually spread.”