COLCHESTER — Tens of Vermonters of different faiths gathered last Friday to attend the weekly Muslim congregational prayer, in a show of solidarity with the Islamic Society of Vermont, which received a hate mail.
“This was classic hate mail. The person was so brave that they chose to remain anonymous,” Farhad Khan, president of the Islamic society, referring to the original letter received Dec. 1, told Vermont Digger on Sunday, December 18.
“It’s overwhelming, though, that when anything hateful happens we have such an outpouring of love.”
More than 100 mosques across the US received hate mails in late November. The letters called the behaviors of Muslim people un-American, repeating the vows to prevent Muslims from entering the US.
With the arrival of the letter, members have since been advised to be extra cautious and aware. Khan also told members the same thing he told his 8-year-old daughter.
“We will not panic or be afraid,” he said.
“These are trying times, but we’ve been through them before.”
Rejecting these messages, members of 36 other congregations from towns across Vermont joined the Islamic Society of Vermont in its weekly Friday prayer session in Colchester.
Vermont Interfaith Action, a coalition of more than 40 congregations that promotes religious tolerance, organized the “Prayer in Solidarity.”
Solidarity
Imam Islam Hassan, in black, leads the regular Friday afternoon prayer session at the Islamic Society of Vermont in Colchester. Photo by Emily Greenberg/VTDigger
During the sermon, Islam Hassan, the imam, spoke about the Islamic law of charity and about showing hospitality to those who are wayfaring and displaced, like the refugees of Syria.
“Our rule as Muslims is to open our doors to them,” Hassan said.
“Every day you open your window and you see the sunshine. You don’t see a rocket come through your window.”
“That’s our American way and society: to help,” Sefik Gosto, who has lived in Vermont for 19 years, said.
“Even with the new (Trump) administration, there’s something good that will come out of that. Just like this one letter, which brought something good.”
In the weeks following the letter’s arrival, more than 270 messages of love and support for its recipients were written and delivered to the Islamic Society of Vermont.
Members from different congregations around Vermont wrote the letters, “in hopes to drown out the one,” said the Rev. Mara Dowdall of the First Unitarian Universalist Society in Burlington.
Dowdall was one of the guest speakers at Friday’s observance, joined by the Rev. Earl Kooperkamp, of the Episcopal Church of the Good Shepherd in Barre, and John Blatt, congregation president of Ohavi Zedek Synagogue in Burlington.
The Islamic Society of Vermont began in the early 1990s, and its five founding members practiced in basements, hotels and churches.
They bought the Colchester building and transformed it into a place of worship in 1999. Since its inception, the organization has grown to more than 2,000 members.