By
EDITOR’S
NOTE: Steve’s original
article in Rhode Island’s Future is loaded with photos and videos – video clips
as well as full coverage of the entire event. I wanted to make sure our
Charlestown audience knew about this article because of the overtly bigoted
remarks made against refugees by local state Senator
Elaine Morgan and curmudgeon Jim
Mageau. - WC
Hundreds of people carrying signs of acceptance and support for
refugees and immigrants filled the State House today in response to an
anti-Syrian refugee rally sponsored by the Boston based and Orwellian named Americans for Peace and Tolerance(APT) and featuring former
Michigan Congressman Pete Hoekstra. Russell Taub, a Republican candidate seeking US
Representative David Cicilline‘s seat,
introduced the event.
State Representative Mike Chippendale, originally advertised
to be part of the event, made one of the smartest moves of his political career
by distancing himself as far as possible from this mess.
Things
did not go well for the anti-Syrian refugee camp.
As Charles Jacobs of APT spoke, he was several times
interrupted by those in attendance. He was called repeatedly on his racist and
inflammatory speech. I wrote about Jacobs’ problematic and bigoted past here.
Jacobs pressed on through his speech, if for no other reason
than to have posted this fake news story about the event
here. (Note that the story says nothing about the crowd assembled
against Jacobs, that the picture used gives the impression that the crowd was
there in support of his message and that the piece gives the impression that
the crowd could hear and cared about his message.)
Jacobs
became visibly flustered and several times argued with the crowd, turning the
event into a call and response. Jacobs claims to represent the interests of
American Jews, but the Jewish people who I spoke with at the event all told me
that Jacobs is a bigot who does not in any way represent them.
Tired of what she called Hoekstra’s lies, Sterk Zaza, a Syrian immigrant, stood and asked Hoekstra,
“Are you better than me?” Hoekstra never answered.
The counter protest and the pro-Syrian refugee event held
afterwards were organized in part by the RI State Council of Churches,
the Dorcas Institute, the Refugee Dream Center,
members and families in the Syrian community, Quaker Friends, CAIR-MA, the Standing on the Side of Love
committees of several Unitarian Universalist churches, and perhaps 200 students
from various organizations at Brown University.
After
the failed and frankly embarrassing anti-refugee event was over, Hoekstra
and Jacobs left the State House and the pro-Syrian rally began. John Jacobs from
the the Massachusetts chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR-MA) introduced the speakers.
First up was State Senator Josh Miller.
Rabbi Howard Voss-Altman spoke
next. Rabbi Voss-Altman said that he stood before the crowd as “a proud
descendant of Jewish refugees who came here,” to America.
Omar Bah of the Refugee Dream Center came to
America after being hunted, imprisoned and tortured in his home country.
“What America stands for is love, is openness and its welcoming spirit…”
Businessman Youssef Bahralom is
a gemologist and “very proud to be a Syriana and an American at the same time…”
RI State Representative Aaron Regunberg talked
of being descended from a Jewish grandfather who escaped the Nazis. He was
saddened to learn that the United States did not open its borders to Jewish
refugees out of ignorance and bigotry:
“It’s up to all of us here to make sure this
time around,” said Regunberg, “the story has a different ending. This time,
instead of succumbing to our basest instincts, Rhode Island stands up for its
most fundamental values.”
Reverend Donald Anderson of
the RI Council of Churches, said, “Unfortunately there are those among us who
would turn their backs on our tradition of welcoming all faith traditions. But
we must not let those who would prey upon fear and prejudice to snuff out the
flame of religious freedom that makes our state and country so special.”
Sterk Zaza said she went to school in Syria, and contrary to the words
of Charles Jacobs, “I was not taught to hate Jews. I was not taught to hate
Christians. I have walked the streets of streets of Syraia and I have shaken
the hands of Jews, of Christians, of Shia, of Sunni… and the man who was
standing here, telling all these lies, couldn’t even answer me and tell me why
he was any different than I am.”
Steve Ahlquist is an award-winning journalist,
writer, artist and founding member of the Humanists of Rhode Island, a
non-profit group dedicated to reason, compassion, optimism, courage and action.
The views expressed are his own and not necessarily those of any organization
of which he is a member. atomicsteve@gmail.com
and Twitter: @SteveAhlquist