San Francisco Faith Ring Protects Muslims
“We’re saying right now we’re standing up against Islamophobia in our community," Rabbi Daniel Goldblatt, founder of the Interfaith Council of San Ramon Valley, told the crowd, San Francisco Chronicle reported on Friday, March 27.
"We are all in this human enterprise together."
Organized by local interfaith groups, the human chain was attended by more than 200 people who circled San Ramon Valley Islamic Center.
Chanting “circle for the planet, circle for each soul. For the children of our children, keep the circle whole", participants stood shoulder to shoulder with locked arms to protest against the increasing Islamophobia in US.
“We’re recognizing that there is a whole community that lives in fear of violence against them,” said the Rev. Will McGarvey, executive director of the Interfaith Council of Contra Costa County, one of the organizers of the event.
After Friday prayer, people gathered inside the mosque to listen to speeches by Muslims, Jews and Christians about religious coexistence by highlighting similarities between faiths.
The solidarity ring comes a few weeks after the fatal shooting of a three Muslims in Chapel Hill.
With the recent murder of three young Muslim students in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, the burning of an Islamic Center in Houston, Texas, which authorities ruled as arson, and the numerous reports of personal harassment, Muslims feel they are targeted in the States.
Deah Shaddy Barakat, 23 his wife Yusor Mohammad Abu-Salha, 21 and her sister Razan Mohammad Abu-Salha, 19, were found dead at a condominium complex off campus.
The gunman, identified by the Independent as 46-year-old Craig Stephen Hicks, reportedly turned himself into police.
Shocked by the heinous crime, world Muslims mourned the three young American Muslims in North Carolina, pouring into social media to send messages of solidarity to the victims’ families.
Twitter users started to employ the hashtag "#MuslimLivesMatter," to comment on how the mainstream media ignored the news of the murder which did not make national headlines.
