AhlulBayt News Agency (ABNA): Members of the Islamic Center of San Francisco reported an Islamophobic incident during the Eid al-Adha prayers on Monday.
A man walking two dogs at San Francisco’s McLaren Park verbally attacked a Muslim group gathering for a communal prayer Monday morning for the annual Eid al-Adha holiday, members of the Islamic Center of San Francisco told SFGATE.
“Your religion is full of hate,” the man is heard saying at the start of a video provided by Islamic Center board member Shahbaz Shaikh.
The man went on to throw out more racist remarks as 50 or so people were getting together in the northern part of the park at 1150 Wayland St., where tarps and prayer carpets were spread across the grass, Shaikh said. This occurred at around 8:30 a.m. Monday, before the morning prayer that brought together some 200 people, he said.
The San Francisco Police Department said that it responded to a report of a person making “verbal threats to a group” at 9:25 a.m. Monday in the area of where the prayer was being held. “This is an active and open investigation,” Paulina Henderson, a spokesperson for the department, said.
Shaikh told SFGATE that he has been a member of the center’s congregation for all 34 years of his life and that his father served as a board member before him. He said he has never experienced hatred like he did Monday.
“We were shocked because we were just conversing amongst ourselves, and he just came up to us and started shouting this abuse,” he said. “We felt very unsafe. We didn’t know this person. It was shocking the way he was so casual with his racism and xenophobia.”
Elvin V., who declined to provide his full last name out of concern for the safety of his family, said he has been a practicing Muslim for 14 years. He was equally surprised by this act of verbal aggression. “What he said is pretty much a script,” said Elvin. “If you watch other Islamophobes on YouTube, it’s the same thing. They say the same thing.”
Elvin said he has prayed outdoors all over the city and in various neighborhoods when he’s unable to make it to the mosque. “This is the first time I’ve witnessed hate speech,” he said.
Muslims around the world celebrate Eid al-Adha, or Feast of the Sacrifice, which marks the story in the Quran of the Prophet Ibrahim (Abraham) sacrificing his son, Ismail. “It shares parallels to the biblical event, an event of sacrifice and being grateful for God’s blessings and coming together as a community,” Shaikh said.
The center held a picnic with kids’ activities after the prayer Monday afternoon.
Opened in the 1950s, the Islamic Center of San Francisco is the third-oldest mosque in California, according to Shaikh. “We had permit to be at the park,” he wrote in an email. “We have never experienced this level of aggression, racism, hatred before.”
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