Muslim Woman Removed From Trump Rally After Protesting “Hateful Rhetoric”

A Muslim woman was kicked out of a rally for Donald Trump on Friday night after a silent protest against Trump’s anti-Muslim rhetoric. CNN reports that Rose Hamid, a 56-year-old flight attendant, came to the Rock Hill, SC, rally wearing a hijab and a T-shirt that read, “Salam, I come in peace.” Sitting in the stands directly behind Trump, she stood up during Trump’s speech when he implied that Syrian refugees were affiliated with ISIS. Video of the event shows Hamid being peacefully escorted out by a security guard. In an interview with CNN after the incident, she said that she had attended with the intent to show Trump supporters that Muslims are not scary. “I have this sincere belief that if people get to know each other one-on-one, they’ll stop being afraid of each other,” she said. She told CNN that many of the people she met at the rally were “lovely” and described sharing popcorn with the woman next to her. But after her protest, the mood of the crowd changed. “It was very nice people all around me, people I had conversations with. But then...the crowd got this hateful crowd mentality as I was being escorted [out]. It was really quite telling and a vivid example of what happens when you start using this hateful rhetoric.” Certain members of the crowd shouted hateful things to her as she left. One man yelled, “Get out! Do you have a bomb?” She responded, “No! Do you have a bomb?” According to a reporter on the scene, Hamid was not kicked out for being Muslim, but rather for being part of a larger group protest. NBC’s Katy Tur tweeted that Hamid was part of a group of protesters. Variations of this silent protest have been spotted at previous events.

Photos of the incident show Hamid and a man standing together, both wearing eight-pointed yellow stars with the word “Muslim” written inside. Hamid wasn’t the only one whose protest was poorly received, though. The Donald doesn’t take kindly to criticism of his policies or his taste in music.