Silent Muslim protester removed from campaign rally
GOP frontrunner Donald Trump said Syrian refugees are “probably” ISIS during a campaign rally in South Carolina that was quickly disrupted by protesters, including a Muslim woman wearing a traditional head covering.
Refugees from Syria “could be ISIS … and by the way, it is turning out that they probably are ISIS,” said Trump at a Winthrop University rally in Rock Hill, South Carolina. “There’s so many men, they’re so young, they are very strong. Where are the women? Where are the children?”
During his speech, a woman wearing a traditional hijab stood in silent protest and was swiftly escorted by police, along with a few other anti-Trump hecklers, NBC News reported. Some Trump supporters jeered and booed the woman, who was identified as 56-year-old Rose Hamid. She was wearing a T-shirt that read “Salam, I come in peace.”
Other protesters wore yellow eight-pointed stars with the words “Muslim” and “Stop Islamophobia” written on them, symbolizing the Nazis’ treatment of the Jews during the Holocaust (where the Jews were forced to wear six-pointed stars).
Women in headscarves have protested silently at two previous Trump rallies, but were not removed.
In December, Trump caused an uproar when he called for a temporary ban on all Muslims entering the US, including Muslim American citizens, tourists and those trying to enter the country on visas.
Trump described his proposal as “very salient, very important, and probably not politically correct.”
Despite Hamid’s silence, Trump supporters around her began chanting Trump’s name, jeering and pointing at her and Marty Rosenbluth, the man alongside her who stood up as well. Members of the crowd roared as the pair was escorted out of the rally, booing and shouting at them to “get out,” reported CNN.
One person shouted, “You have a bomb, you have a bomb,” Hamid said. “The ugliness really came out fast and that’s really scary.”
She also said she did not plan to shout or disrupt the event, but simply wanted to give Trump and his supporters a real idea of how Muslims are, through the silent protest.
“I figured that most Trump supporters probably never met a Muslim so I figured that I’d give them the opportunity to meet one,” she told CNN before the rally on Jan. 8. “I really don’t plan to say anything. I don’t want to be disrespectful but if he says something that I feel needs answering I might–we’ll just see what strikes me.”
Major Steven Thompson of the Rock Hill Police Department told CNN Hamid was kicked out of the event because the campaign told him beforehand that “anybody who made any kind of disturbance” should be escorted out.
The Trump campaign did not immediately respond to a request for comment asking why Hamid was escorted out of the venue.
“There is hatred against us that is unbelievable,” Trump said, immediately after the disturbance. “It’s their hatred, it’s not our hatred.”
Within hours, leading Muslim advocacy group, the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), condemned Hamid’s removal from the rally, and called on Trump to apologize publicly.
“The image of a Muslim woman being abused and ejected from a political rally sends a chilling message to American Muslims and to all those who value our nation’s traditions of religious diversity and civic participation,” CAIR National Executive Director Nihad Awad said in a statement. “Donald Trump should issue a public apology to the Muslim woman kicked out of his rally and make a clear statement that American Muslims are welcome as fellow citizens and as participants in the nation’s political process.”
In his rally proposal, which are viewed by many as anti-Muslim, Trump also lashed out at President Barack Obama and Democratic front-runner Hillary Clinton.
“In Los Angeles, in California, you had the two people, the two wackos that came in,” he said, referencing the radicalized Muslim couple in San Bernardino, who killed 14 people during a shooting rampage. “How about that? Came in on a what, a marriage visa?”
One of the perpetrators, Syed Rizwan Farook, was born in the US, while his wife, Tashfeen Malik, immigrated through a marriage license.
“And we have a president, we have a president that doesn’t even want to talk about what’s really happening,” he added. “We have a president that wants to kill the second amendment…We have Hillary Clinton who wants to destroy and take your guns away from you, by the way. She wants to take your guns away.”
Despite her chaotic early exit, Hamid was able to speak with the Trump supporters sitting around her in the stands, several of whom held her hand and said “sorry” as she was forced to leave the venue.
“The people around me who I had an opportunity to talk with were very sweet,” she commented, remaining optimistic. “The people I did not make contact with, the people who Trump influenced were really nasty.”
“This demonstrates how when you start dehumanizing the other it can turn people into very hateful, ugly people. It needs to be known.”
