Posted on 07/30/2016 9:59:12 PM PDT by TigerClaws
Muslims Expected 100,000 to Attend Anti-Terror Rally in DC – Only a Couple Dozen Show Up
Kristinn Taylor Jul 30th, 2016 11:05 pm 11 Comments Muslims against terror rally DC 07232016 State Dept 2
A rally organized by Muslim groups held on the National Mall in Washington, D.C. on July 23 was planned with the goal of drawing 100,000 attendees. Only dozens showed up according to media reports.
Al Jazeera reported on the planning for the rally for 100,000 that was initially planned as being anti-ISIS but was also billed as anti-Trump.
A group of American Muslims, joined by interfaith leaders, have launched an initiative to get thousands of Americans to take part in a march in Washington DC on July 23, in what they call a stand against bigotry, “extremism”, and gun violence.
The American Muslim March will take place at the National Mall – home to various large-scale historical gatherings – to also condemn “terrorism” and vocally eschew the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL, also known as ISIS), organisers said.
Rally sponsors include more than 20 organisations representing the three monotheistic regions, as well as the Buddhist, Sikh, Hindu, and Bahai communities.
The initiative comes at a time when anti-Muslim sentiment is high, in part driven by the rhetoric of Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump, who has called for the banning of foreign Muslims from the United States.
Trump has made his Muslim ban a centrepiece of his candidacy: he recently reiterated his proposal following an attack on a gay nightclub in Orlando, which left 49 people dead. He also suggested profiling Muslims, citing Israel as an example, and implied that US President Barack Obama was complicit or sympathetic to radicalised Muslims.
Some Muslim groups have been more vocal about terrorism, gun violence and Islamophobia, since a married couple, inspired by ISIL ideology, killed 14 people in San Bernardino, California.
“We were motivated to take action after San Bernardino,” said Khaled al-Mufti, a member of the rally organising committee. “We wanted to denounce ISIS as an ideology that claims to be representative of Islam, but it’s not. That’s not the religion we practise. We want to make it loud and clear to all the world: This is not Islam.”
The rally is being organised by the Islamic Society of Central Florida, and the All Dulles Area Muslim Society (ADAMS) in Washington DC, which recently hosted Secretary of State John Kerry and Hollywood actress and activist Angelina Jolie with Syrian refugees in recognition of World Refugee Day.
For the event, organisers are reaching out to renowned Muslims such as Yousef Islam, previously known as Cat Stevens, retired basketball legend Kareem Abdul Jabbar, and influential Islamic scholar Hamza Yusuf. They are hoping to attract about 100,000 people from the Muslim and immigrant communities and anybody “affected by the recent surge in hostility towards minorities”, Mufti told Al Jazeera.
“The rhetoric going on in the presidential campaigns is creating an atmosphere of bigotry,” he said. “This is not only towards Muslim, but also towards immigrant communities. We therefore wanted to provide a platform for everyone to speak about those issues…”
The Eventbrite page for the rally listed almost as many sponsors as attendees. One of the sponsors, ISNA was named as an unindicted co-conspirator in the 2007 Holy Land Foundation terror funding case, according to Wikipedia.
“In the 2007 Holy Land Foundation terrorist financing case, the United States Department of Justice named ISNA, along with Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), the North American Islamic Trust, as an unindicted co-conspirator and one of a number of “entities who are and/or were members of the US Muslim Brotherhood.”[18][19][20] ISNA, along with NAIT and CAIR, filed motions seeking to be removed from the UCC listing, and the District Judge found that the government had violated the organizations’ rights by listing them as Unindicted Co-Conspirators.[21] Judge Solis, as affirmed by the US Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit, held that the government should not have listed CAIR and ISNA, but that “the government has produced ample evidence to establish the associations of CAIR, ISNA, NAIT, with the Islamic Association for Palestine, and with Hamas”.[22]”
THE RALLY WAS A DUD.
The media tried to blame the attendance failure on the summer heat in Washington.
The Definition has ,
Once again ,
Been Hijacked.
Islam is Not Just Religion.
The only way to get “moderate” muslims to stop supporting the radicals is to make them more afraid of “us” than “them”. Unfortunately, this generation can’t stomach the violence required on such a scale.
Something in the area of 100,000 dead per night of air raids over the ME for a few months is about what it will take. Never going to happen.
Can't argue with you on that one.
It was 8/28, I was there and there were at least 500,000
I was there as well. People come and go at events like this and many of them were seeking shade beneath the trees that line both sides of the reflectiing pool so its hard to get a good feel for how many people attended. Whatever, it was a very large gathering that could easily have been well over 100,000.
That said, 500,000 seems to me to be a big stretch. This would be roughly equivalent to capacity crowds at 10 or 11 baseball stadiums. I seriously doubt you could squeeze that many people into the portion of the National Mall between the Washington Monument and the Lincoln Memorial, which is the general area where the Beck event was held.
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