Pflugerville Community Comes Together to Support Vandalized Mosque
On Monday, members of the Islamic Center of Pflugerville found a torn apart Quran at the front entrance, blocking their way inside. That vandalism appalled members of the community, including non-Muslims like Cortney Smith.
"I cried and cried, it just tore my heart that even in a small town something like that could happen," Smith said.
So, the community decided to show its support for the mosque. Starting with a post on Facebook, a "National Night Out" like event took on momentum that came to be called "Pflugerville Supports our Muslim Neighbors." Church leaders were thinking maybe 60 or 70 people would come, but just after 4:30 p.m. Saturday there were around 200 people outside the mosque.
"It was wonderful to see how many people showed up, they just kept coming and coming, it was wonderful," Smith said.
Smith is a Christian and along with her church she brought over tables to hold the spread of cookies and Middle Eastern cuisine.
"There was stuff I'd never tried before so it was good to try that," Smith said.
Smith said it was good to get to know the Muslim community including people like Eman Ghanen and her son Hesham Elhamaky.
"It's good to see the Muslims and non-Muslims standing together," Ghanen said.
The mother and son both go to the mosque at University of Texas in Austin. Elhamaky said he's experienced prejudice himself since the Paris attacks.
"Just because I'm a Muslim doesn't mean I'm ISIL and I don't like how people just make fun of you just because you're Muslim," Elhamaky said.
Ghanen said the way to combat that is by talking with people. Both her and her Imam at the mosque at UT Umer Esmail say they have forgiven the people who vandalized the Pflugerville mosque.
"Of course we've forgiven, that's part of it," Ghanen said.
Esmail said it has been tough seeing all the negativity online towards the Muslim community.
"But when we see a crowd like this, an event like this it uplifts our spirits," Esmail said.
Esmail also said Muslims are positive and will continue to be positive. That's because they plan on having more events like the one on Saturday with an open house possibly in January.
"This is just the beginning of a longer term relationship with the rest of the community," Esmail said.
Smith also wanted to know more about her Muslim community members. She picked up a Quran to take home.
"Yeah I've never read it honestly, they had them sitting out so I'd read it and learn some more about their faith," Smith said.
Source: Keyetv
