Anti-Islam rallies across USA making Muslims wary

Luke Skywalker · Oct 9, 2015

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[h=4]Anti-Islam rallies across USA making Muslims wary[/h]Some worry because at least some organizers are encouraging protesters to bring their guns.

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A DC mosque prepares for the possibility of large and disruptive protests this weekend. Masjid Muhammed discussed the anti-Islam protests with the FBI late last week.

Anti-Islam protesters gather outside a mosque May 29, 2015, in Phoenix.(Photo: Michael Schennum, The Arizona Republic)

Organizers are planning about 20 anti-Muslim rallies this weekend across the USA, putting officials at many mosques on high alert and prompting many community leaders to urge Muslims to take precautions in case demonstrations turn violent.
The goal of the Global Rally for Humanity, which is asking supporters to create a Facebook page for each protest planned, is to gather a group in front of every mosque in the country —*in part to counter a Nation of Islam rally in the District of Columbia to commemorate the 20th anniversary of the Million Man March. The number of mosques in the United States*has risen from about 1,200 in 2000 to 2,100 five years ago, according to a study from the Hartford Institute for Religion Research titled The American Mosque 2011.
Though the group's Facebook page lists no contacts, the Chicago-based Center for New Community*identified Phoenix activist*Jon Ritzheimer as the architect of the plan, and he has posted several videos on YouTube promoting the protest, according to the Montgomery-Ala.-based Southern Poverty Law Center. In May, when Ritzheimer staged a heavily armed protest outside the Islamic Community Center of Phoenix, he had said he wanted to see similar rallies nationwide.
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"We’ve never had this many events targeting mosques in this kind of national way," Heidi Beirich, director of the Intelligence Project at the Southern Poverty Law Center, said in a conference call earlier this week. "This is widespread in a way that these things have not been before."
The*demonstrations underscore a*growing anti-Islam movement in the U.S., which has been exacerbated by rhetoric on the presidential campaign trail and the refugee crisis in Europe, she said.
"In one of their emails, they said they were going to bring 3,000 people to Washington, D.C., in front of our mosque, and they instructed them to bring their weapons," said Ibrahim Mumin, director of community relations for Masjid Muhammad mosque. "Well, we consider that kind of a threat."
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Officials at the Washington-based Council on American-Islamic Relations, the country's largest Muslim advocacy group, are urging Muslims to request police presence Friday and Saturday at their houses of worship to deter any violence and are asking them to take video of any protesters without provoking them.
More than a dozen Muslim organizations announced Friday that they are launching a voter-registration campaign with an initial goal of signing up 20,000 new voters the Super Tuesday presidential primaries March 1. The voter-registration events will take place at mosques and Islamic community centers nationwide and will be open to the non-Muslim public, Council on American-Islamic Relations officials said.
Though almost three dozen anti-Islam events were planned in cities across the country, several have been canceled, said*Kalia Abiade,*advocacy director at Center for New Community. Others have restricted access to their Facebook pages.
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Global Rally for Humanity's*national Facebook page had about 2,000 "likes" as of late Friday afternoon. And individual rally pages had fewer than 100 people who said they would be attending local events.
In Dearborn, Mich., where more than 40% of the population is of Arab descent, rally organizers originally were planning to protest outside the Islamic Center of America but were not able to get permits. They now plan to rally near Dearborn's City Hall.
"As we have learned from experience in the past, the best way for the average person in our community to handle these incidents is to ignore them," Dearborn Mayor Jack O'Reilly wrote Friday on the city's website. "The demonstration is not really a forum for honest dialogue, and anything that intensifies emotions will only intensify conflict."
USA TODAY
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Dearborn has seen several anti-Islam protests in the past five years. Its annual Arab Festival was canceled in*the past two years because tensions with*anti-Islam groups resulted in higher insurance costs. In lawsuits, some Christian groups have accused the city of not respecting free-speech rights.
In Florence, Ky., police Capt. Tom Grau said his department will treat the rally "like any other protest."
On Saturday, police will meet*with those gathering outside the Islamic Center of Northern Kentucky, and*officers will tell the demonstrators what they can and can't do. Then*Florence Police will provide extra patrols.
USA TODAY
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In Phoenix,*Usama Shami, president of the Islamic Community Center of Phoenix, said typically his mosque has*no activities planned on Saturday mornings.
During prayer services Friday, community leaders planned to make an*announcement to say a demonstration is planned and they should remain vigilant, he said.
"When you have angry people with guns, you always worry that a loose cannon will do harm," Shami*said.
USATODAY.COM
Number of U.S. mosques up 74% since 2000

In the Dallas area, Alia Salem of CAIR's Dallas-Fort Worth chapter*said her group*has alerted mosques and police in the area to the protests but credits those of all faiths for supporting area Muslims during times of trial.
"Despite all of these attempts to unnerve the Muslim community and make them fearful and afraid, it never ends up amounting to anything except we become closer," she said.
Contributing: Daniel González and*EJ Montini, The Arizona Republic; Garrett W. Haake, WUSA-TV, Washington; Terry DeMio, The Cincinnati Enquirer; and Jobin Panicker, WFAA-TV, Dallas-Fort Worth.*
[h=3]Rallies where plans are public[/h]Organizers in nine cities had posted invitations to their rallies on Facebook as of Friday afternoon. People in at least 10 other cities —*Amarillo, Corpus Christi and Dallas, Texas; Danville, Va.; Fort Pierce, Fla.; Grand Junction, Colo.; Huntsville, Ala.; Phoenix; Racine, Wis.; Spring Hill, Fla.*—*have set up pages but either*restricted access to invited individuals or canceled their events.
•*Atlanta: 35 say they're going of almost*400 invited
•*Charleston, S.C.: 36 going of >275 invited
•*Dearborn, Mich.: 65 going of >850 invited
•*Ellicott City, Md.: 22 going of >900 invited
•*Florence, Ky.: 25 going of >500 invited
•*Louisville, Ky.: 41 going of >500 invited
•*Medford, Ore.: 17 going of >450 invited
•*Murfreesboro, Tenn.: 35 going of >135 invited
•*Ocala, Fla.: 31 going of >200 invited
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Anti-Islam rallies across USA making Muslims wary

Luke Skywalker

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