Loading ...Toledo groups join together for peace rally
BY TK BARGER
A crowd that peaked at about 75 people gathered at One Government Center Friday afternoon to take part in a “Universal Rally for Peace” organized by the United Muslim Association of Toledo.
“There have been killings in France, there have been killings in Turkey, there have been killings in Lebanon, in Yemen. There has been a big surge in violence, in terrorism, in killings more recently,” Dr. Maseeh Rehman, the association’s president, said in an interview before the rally, which was planned before the mass shooting Wednesday in San Bernardino, Calif.
“I have always condemned [violence]. We have always stood against it,” Dr. Rehman said. “I thought it was a good time to get all like-minded people together and present it as a problem which is not just affecting one group of people; it is affecting, universally, everybody.”
Speakers noted that hundreds of mass killings of four or more people have happened in the U.S. this year, but very few by Muslims.
Thirteen organizations joined with the United Muslims to hold the rally. In addition to Islamic entities, Bodies Before Borders, Multifaith Council of Northwest Ohio, Northwest Ohio Peace Coalition, and the Welcome Toledo-Lucas County government initiative showed support.
Among the 14 speakers were county commissioners, city council members, and Mayor Paula Hicks-Hudson. Participants not only called for an end to terrorism but advocated welcome for immigrants.
“It was so important for me to be here not only in the role as the mayor, but also as a person who believes that we have to be welcoming,” the mayor said. “It is not acceptable in the city of Toledo to turn our backs on those who come to us homeless, who come to us hungry, who come to us looking for shelter and peace. We cannot do that, and I will not stand here and say that that is something that is part of what I am and what this city is.”
Councilman-elect Peter Ujvagi spoke of being a refugee immigrant himself, and said, “There is no question that there is a crisis in the world, but the worst thing we can do as Americans, whether we’re Hungarian-Americans or Arab-Americans or Italian-Americans or African-Americans, or whoever we may be, is to turn our backs.”
“There are generations of relationships here in this town,” Lucas County Commissioner Pete Gerken said to acknowledge Dr. Rehman’s statement that Muslims began moving to Toledo about 100 years ago. “A few people cannot take that from us.”
Among attendees was Shane Lakatos of Toledo, a founder of Social Services for the Arab Community who was in Beirut Nov. 12 when a suicide bombing by Islamic State in Iraq and Syria affiliates killed 43 people and injured 239.
Maysoon Otaibi of Perrysburg and Amira Kadri of Oregon, meanwhile, held signs reading “No Glory in Innocent Death” and “Think Peace Choose Peace.”
“The world is so messed up, that violence,” Mrs. Otaibi said. “Every night I go to bed praying that it’s going to be a better day. And sometimes when I wake up I’m afraid to turn on the TV or the news.”
Nadeem Salem, of the Network of Arab American Professionals-Toledo, said the rally could be the start of something bigger, perhaps a national rally in Washington — “a Million Muslim March but with all of our friends” from other faiths or no faith at all.
“Unfortunately, this stuff is happening so often and so much,” he said. “You’ve got to just stand up and proclaim as loud as you can that this is just not us; we’re against this. We’re against this with everybody else.”
Source: www.toledoblade.com