WASHINGTON: Police in Portland, Oregon, arrested a man on Saturday for killing two men who tried to stop him from abusing two young women who looked Muslim.

Police said the incident happened on a commuter train on Friday afternoon when the suspect, Jeremy Joseph Christian, 35, saw the two women, one of them wearing a scarf. One of the girls’ parents later told the Oregonian newspaper that they were teenagers, one black and one Muslim.

A spokesman for the Portland police department, Sergeant Pete Simpson, told reporters the victims were among a group of passengers who tried to stop the suspect from “yelling” at the two girls.

“He was yelling and ranting and raving a lot of different things, including what would be characterised as hate speech or biased language,” Sgt Simpson said.

“In the midst of his ranting and raving, some people approached him, (and asked him to stop) yelling at the two young women. They were attacked viciously by the suspect, resulting in the two deaths and one injury.”

Destinee Hudson, who was with the Muslim girl, told her mother Dyjuana Hudson, that the suspect was saying “Muslims should die because they’ve been killing Christians for years.”

Some passengers got up and asked the suspect to stop harassing the two girls, but he took out a knife and started attacking the passengers, Destinee said. The two girls panicked and ran out as soon as the train stopped, leaving behind their handbags and cell phones. Destinee had also recorded part of the dispute on her cell phone but left it in the train as well, which later helped the police identify the man.

The suspect too ran from the rush-hour train into the Hollywood neighbourhood. Other passengers chased him from a distance and called 911.

Police said one of the victims died at the scene, the other died in hospital. The third victim was now in a stable condition.

Harris Zafar, a Portland Muslim and the author of the book “Demystifying Islam,” told the Oregonian newspaper that as a Muslim, he found the incident unnerving. “This could have been one of the many women in our mosque and the greater Portland area,” he said.

The Muslim author, who is also a regular commentator on US television channels, said he was inspired by the men who “had nothing to gain by putting themselves in harm’s way. My heart goes out to the families of those individuals, who are also now lost in grief.”

Published in Dawn, May 28th, 2017