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In Wake Of Anti-Semitic Vandalism, A 'Tiny Ripple Of Hope' Emerges

Two Muslim activists, Linda Sarsour and Tarek El-Messidi, teamed up to raise funds to repair the damage, writes Peter Guthrie. Pictured: Damaged headstones are seen at Mount Carmel cemetery Monday, Feb. 27, 2017, in Philadelphia. More than 100 headstones have been vandalized at the Jewish cemetery in Philadelphia, damage discovered less than a week after similar vandalism in Missouri, authorities said. (Jacqueline Larma/AP)
Two Muslim activists, Linda Sarsour and Tarek El-Messidi, teamed up to raise funds to repair the damage, writes Peter Guthrie. Pictured: Damaged headstones are seen at Mount Carmel cemetery Monday, Feb. 27, 2017, in Philadelphia. More than 100 headstones have been vandalized at the Jewish cemetery in Philadelphia, damage discovered less than a week after similar vandalism in Missouri, authorities said. (Jacqueline Larma/AP)

Last weekend, more than 100 overturned headstones were discovered at a Jewish cemetery in Philadelphia, the Mount Carmel. Days earlier, vandals toppled more than 180 headstones in a 124-year-old Jewish cemetery outside St. Louis, Missouri. Since January — as of this writing — at least 97 bomb threats have been made against Jewish community centers across the country and in Canada.

American civic life seems to be descending into a very dark place, indeed. But there is a “tiny ripple of hope,” to borrow from Robert Kennedy's famous speech to South Africa’s Union of Students in 1966. In that address, Kennedy said:

"It is from numberless diverse acts of courage and belief that human history is shaped. Each time a man stands up for an ideal, or acts to improve the lot of others, or strikes out against injustice, he sends forth a tiny ripple of hope, and crossing each other from a million different centers of energy and daring those ripples build a current which can sweep down the mightiest walls of oppression and resistance."

The recent tiny ripple of hope came forth in the form of two Muslim activists, Linda Sarsour and Tarek El-Messidi, who teamed up to raise funds to repair the damage in the St. Louis cemetery. Sarsour, a Brooklyn-born, Palestinian-American, is with MPower Change, a “grassroots movement rooted in diverse Muslim communities throughout the United States who are working together to build social, spiritual, racial, and economic justice for all people.” El-Messidi’s interfaith organization, CelebrateMercy, aims to educate people about the Prophet Muhammad’s teachings and “to dispel many stereotypes and misconceptions about Islam.”

"Through this campaign we hope to send a united message from the Jewish and Muslim communities that there is no place for this type of hate, desecration and violence in America.”

Linda Sarsour and Tarek El-Messidi

One of those misconceptions is the idea that there is no difference between Muslim Americans and radical Islamic terrorists. “We are tired of being grouped along with the crazies,” El-Messidi has said. “They scare us just as much as any American. We need the administration to talk about the three million Muslim Americans who just want to pursue life, liberty, and happiness just like everyone else here in America.”

Sarsour and El-Messidi's fundraising campaign also has a broader goal: "Through this campaign," the website reads, "we hope to send a united message from the Jewish and Muslim communities that there is no place for this type of hate, desecration and violence in America.”

Volunteers from the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community survey damaged headstones at Mount Carmel cemetery Monday Feb. 27, 2017 in Philadelphia. More than 100 headstones have been vandalized at the Jewish cemetery in Philadelphia, damage discovered less than a week after similar vandalism in Missouri, authorities said. (Jacqueline Larma/AP)
Volunteers from the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community survey damaged headstones at Mount Carmel cemetery Monday Feb. 27, 2017 in Philadelphia. More than 100 headstones have been vandalized at the Jewish cemetery in Philadelphia, damage discovered less than a week after similar vandalism in Missouri, authorities said. (Jacqueline Larma/AP)

To date, Sarsour and El-Messidi have raised more than $154,000, with more than two-thirds of the donations coming from Muslim Americans. Any money left over will be used, according El-Messidi, to restore the cemetery in Philadelphia and to fight other expressions of anti-Semitism.

Sarsour and El-Messidi are not alone. Following the vandalism in the Jewish cemetery in Philadelphia, members of that city's branch of Ahmadiyya Muslim Community USA visited the cemetery and helped in the repair efforts. “This attack is not just an attack on our Jewish brothers and sisters but on our common community,” said Salaam Bhatti, a spokesman for the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community. “We believe we need to be protecting our fellow humans from this extremism.”

Over the past 18 months, Muslim Americans have experienced a barrage of hateful rhetoric from both the man who now serves as their president and from many of his supporters. Yet, when faced with bigotry and ignorance from their nation’s leader and his most vocal followers, these Americans have not responded with anger or violence. Instead, they have reached out to help their fellow citizens. Far from being a threat, they are the epitome of what an American should be. They are the light in the darkness.

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Headshot of Peter Guthrie

Peter Guthrie Cognoscenti contributor
Peter Guthrie, LICSW, is a writer and psychotherapist in private practice. An English teacher in a former life, he also worked for many years in college counseling.

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