- >>
- WORLD
NEW DELHI: Rose Hamid attended a Donald Trump rally in South Carolina and stood quietly for a few minutes, till she was escorted out. The reason for objection? Hamid’s muslim identity.
Hamid said she went to the rally in Rock Hill because she believed that most Trump supporters had never properly interacted with a Muslim. She said she had the “sincere belief” that that "if people get to know each other one on one, they will stop being afraid of each other."
She was wearing a white hijab and turquoise t-shirt that read, “Salam, I come in peace.” On her left shoulder, she wore a yellow star.
According to Hamid, initially quite a few people were fairly nice to her. The people sitting next to her shared her popcorn and she spoke with many attendees. However, when Trump launched into his trademark anti-Muslim rhetoric, the crowd’s mood quickly changed.
Trump spoke about Syrian refugees, saying that the 4 million people displaced by the conflict in the country are “probably ISIS” (an acronym used to refer to the Islamic State). Hamid stood up and Trump kept going, with the crowd chanting “Trump! Trump! Trump!” Soon after, security came and escorted Hamid out of the venue.
"The ugliness really came out fast and that's really scary," Hamid told CNN in a phone interview after she was ejected.”My goal was to show people that Muslims are not that scary,” Hamid said.
“The crowd got this hateful crowd mentality when I was being escorted,” Hamid says, adding that the incident was very telling of what hateful rhetoric does to crowd mentality, as people who had been quite kind to her moments before joined the anti-Muslim chanting.
This demonstrates how when you start dehumanising the other it can turn people into very hateful, ugly people," she said. "It needs to be known."
Hamid is the co-founder and president of Muslim Women of the Carolinas and writes a column for the Charlotte Observer.
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.
Since then, Donald Trump has come under the scanner with groups urging that he apologise to Hamid. The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) said that Hamid’s eviction sent a "chilling message to American Muslims". CAIR said that in addition to apologising, Trump should "make a clear statement that American Muslims are welcome as fellow citizens and as participants in the nation's political process".
The Trump campaign has thus far not commented on the incident.
