RNA - While election protests have happened at home and across the U.S., a gathering of a different kind took place Friday.
Dozens of demonstrators set up Friday afternoon outside Austin's Nueces Mosque. They said they're willing to do whatever it takes to protect their fellow Americans.
Many held signs saying "Love Conquers Hate" and "We Are One."
"It doesn't matter who you are or where you're from," Erin Ham said. "We will help you feel safe."
The Mosque's Imam said the support is very welcomed during a divisive political climate.
"It is very uplifting for us to know that we have some many wonderful neighbors," Imam Mohamed-Umer Esmail said. "(We are) just neighbors looking out for each other, regardless of color, regardless of religion, regardless of background."
Ham held a sign that offered free hugs. She also wore a safety pin as a symbol to strangers that she's willing to offer emotional support.
"There are a lot of various groups--not just Muslims--that are very scared and very worried about our future," Ham said. "I wanted to let them know that there are people out there, who--even they don't believe what they believe--stand with them and support them."
Esmail said he is most worried about children hearing hateful speech that's accompanied the 2016 election.
"When you hear the rhetoric coming from the parents, children are going to pick up on it and then they are going to take it to school," he said. "They are going to think it's OK."
The Imam says several members of the interfaith community have reached out to him this week, offering their support.
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