RNA - Jihad Shawwa learned about the Durham City Council resolution condemning violence and hate speech against Muslims and canceled everything he had planned to come say thank you.
“Durham has the name of city of medicine,” said Shawwa, 64, of Raleigh. “Durham is Bull City. And now I will call Durham, city of justice, city of love, city of tolerance.”
The City Council adopted the resolution Monday night condemning “all hateful speech and violent action” directed at the more than 3 million Muslims in the U.S. and the estimated 2,000 living in Durham. Muslims and Muslim Americans have been “the explicit target of hateful and dangerous rhetoric by one of the presidential candidates,” the resolution states.
“In the face of this inflammatory hate speech, Durham’s Muslim communities are using the teachings of Islam to promote peace, justice and service, and their institutions are continuing to play an essential role providing charitable and humanitarian services,” the resolution states. “We, as elected representatives of the people, have a special responsibility to speak up in the face of hateful speech, violence or discrimination against any of our constituents.”
Last year the Carrboro Board of Aldermen passed a resolution welcoming Syrian refugees with open arms, despite more than half the nation’s governors, including Gov. Pat McCrory, telling President Obama they oppose such admission.
In Chapel Hill, then Mayor Mark Kleinschmidt issued a statement “to my Muslim friends and the whole community,” in which he said the town wold not allow acts of terrorism to be wrongly connected to an entire group of people.
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