Another weekend was almost about to become mired in simultaneous protests, counter-protests and clashing cultures in North Texas until one pro-Islam group abruptly canceled their demonstration where a Tea Party group decided to rally in Irving.
The Muslim support group “We are America” originally planned to hold a “peace rally” at 2 p.m. today at the site of the Irving City Hall held “12 Days of Christmas” themed annual holiday celebration. According to the city’s website, festivities include a parade, the lighting of the Christmas tree, a holiday stage show, music, food vendors, a visit from Santa Claus, and a fireworks display.
However, “We are America” event organizers, Accion America, claimed they faced threats of intimidation by hate groups and just days ago, on Dec. 2, they scrubbed today’s event. They posted this verbatim “important update” on their Facebook page :
“Due the threat of further acts of intimidation by hate groups. We have decided to join the Dec 12. Peace Rally at the Irving Islamic Center.
Please, save the date and join us on December 12 to speak out against hatred and intorelance [sic].”
The event meme depicts a Middle Eastern looking woman cloaked in the American flag, wrapped around her like a hijab, the traditional Islamic head scarf. “We are America” rescheduled for next Saturday, Dec. 12, at the Irving Islamic Center.
The group that will rally today in Irving, however, is the Texas chapter of Overpasses for America, a grassroots constitutionally conservative gathering of North Texans recognized to most as Tea Party patriots on Texas freeway and tollway overpasses that hold American flags and homemade signs with messages that speak to defending freedoms and liberties. Their event today is “Don’t Mess with Texas: Taking a stand for the City of Irving” at Irving City Hall.
Overpasses Texas Director Valerie Villareal told Breitbart Texas the group wanted to show support and appreciation for Irving law enforcement and Mayor Beth Van Duyne, who was the recipient of troubling online threats. Van Duyne remains under fire from liberal news media and leftwing activist groups that fanned the flames of Islamophobia following the Sept. 14 arrest of “Clock Boy” Ahmed Mohamed. Although no charges were filed, Irving police detained the teen for bringing into school a homemade clock project that was mistaken for a bomb.
Although Accion America canceled its counter-rally against Overpasses and preached on its Facebook page that Irving must not allow hate, racism or intolerance to rule, the social action group’s president Carlos Quintanilla staged a protest against Donald Trump on Sept. 16, two days before his Dallas appearance at the American Airlines Center where 20,000 supporters came out to cheer Trump on. The Washington Post reported Quintanilla insisted Trump insulted Hispanics by using the term “anchor baby,” and offended more by talking about building a wall on the U.S. – Mexico border or discussing the deportation of millions of illegal immigrants in the country. Many of Quintanilla’s anti-Trump sentiments mirrored those of Univision’s Jorge Ramos, who, in August, protested when Trump did not pick him to speak at a press conference in Iowa. Quintanilla did not like how Ramos was treated.
“We are America” will join United Against Racism | Hate at the Irving Islamic Center on Dec. 12 for a rally that originally was arranged in response to the Ku Klux Klan’s Texas Rebel Knight’s protest planned for next Saturday at the Irving mosque. However, the white supremacist group since dropped out. As of press time, United Against Racism’s Facebook page still advertised the KKK as attending. According to the klansmen’s website, they rescheduled their mosque rally for May 2016, claiming the change of plans was the result of “restricted area allowed to us for protest.”
One of United Against Racism’s sponsors, Streets Organizing for Liberation (SOL), promises the event will be “all Anti-KKK, Anti-Nazism, Anti-Fascist, Anti-Racist and Anti-Hate Activists.” Facebook demonstration page “host” Ramon Mejia, a Dallas native, Dallas school district teacher and SOL organizing committee member, is a former marine. He said in his younger life he mixed with the wrong crowd. In 2008, Mejia converted to Islam. SOL describes itself as an “organization of Left community and labor organizers who are guided by a vision for a decolonized, socialistic future.”
Other United Against Racism rally sponsors include the Council on American-Islamic Relations-DFW chapter (CAIR), the Dallas County Democratic Party, Dallas MoveOn Council, Muslims for Social Justice, several local churches and synagogues, and activists groups as event sponsors.
The Bureau of American Islamic Relations (BAIR), which created an open carry stir by protesting outside the Irving mosque with visible long barrel firearms will not be at the Irving mosque next Saturday. As Breitbart Texas reported, they will, instead, bring their “Rally for U.S. Law and Sovereignty” protest to the suburban Dallas mosque in Richardson. It is also posted on their Facebook page.
Follow Merrill Hope on Twitter @OutOfTheBoxMom.
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