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Community Opens Its Hearts to the Muslim Community
Sojourner’s Truth Staff
“We are here for a moment
of encouragement,” said Rev. Cedric Brock, pastor of Mt.
Nebo Baptist Church and president of the Interdenominational
Ministerial Alliance (IMA) as he opened an event featuring
an outpouring of support for the Toledo-area Muslim
community.
The IMA-sponsored event
also brought together community leaders and elected
officials to express their support for fellow citizens and
their anguish over attempts by the current presidential
administration to ban Muslim entry to the country.
“The mere presence of
[everyone here] is the proof that we live in the best part
of this great country,” said S. Maseeh Rehman, welcoming the
crowd of about 50 people to the Grape Leaf Diner at the
corner of Angola and McCord. “Home is not where you are
born, home is where you belong.”
Anticipating the U.S.
Ninth Circuit Court’s striking down the travel ban last
Friday that the administration had ordered for travelers
from seven predominantly Muslim countries, Rehman called the
ban unconstitutional and counterproductive.
“With your help, with your
love, we can fight this discrimination,” he told an
appreciative audience.
Several of the speakers
were pointed in their disparaging remarks about the current
administration and its attempts to enforce a Muslim ban.
“How could we fail?” asked Lucas County Commissioner Tina
Skeldon Wozniak. “I say as we look around the room – I stand
with you and it’s not too much when we are working together.
The current [administration’s] policies are between
ignorance and cruelty.”
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