[et_pb_section bb_built=”1″ _builder_version=”3.0.91″ custom_padding=”0px|0px|0px|0px” next_background_color=”#000000″][et_pb_row custom_padding=”0px|0px|0px|0px” _builder_version=”3.20.1″ background_size=”initial” background_position=”top_left” background_repeat=”repeat”][et_pb_column type=”4_4″][\/et_pb_column][\/et_pb_row][\/et_pb_section][et_pb_section bb_built=”1″ _builder_version=”3.0.92″ custom_padding=”2px|0px|37.9062px|0px” prev_background_color=”#000000″][et_pb_row custom_padding=”0px|0px|18.9531px|0px” custom_margin=”10px|||” _builder_version=”3.0.92″][et_pb_column type=”2_3″][et_pb_text admin_label=”News Story” _builder_version=”3.20.1″ custom_margin=”0px||0px|”]<\/p>\n
A powerful and melodic call of prayer filled the Noor-Ul-Huda mosque in Columbia Friday, signaling the beginning of the evening service. While the words are the same as usual, they seemed to carry an even greater weight as the terrorist attack on two New Zealand mosques remained in the forefront of everyone\u2019s minds.<\/p>\n
As Columbia\u2019s Muslim community mourns and remembers the 50 lives lost in the deadly March 15th attack in Christchurch, they recognize the importance of continuing to keep their doors wide open to the community.<\/p>\n
“We have to make sure that we are welcoming to our neighbors and as you can see here, we\u2019ve established that in the Columbia area,” Mark Hill said, a board officer for the mosque on Fairfield Road.<\/p>\n
Almeera Lateer, \u00a0president of the Muslim Student Association at USC, agrees with this sentiment, but thinks those outside the Muslim faith need to reach out as well.<\/p>\n
\u201cI feel like not only is it our jobs as Muslims to go out into the community and ask, or kind of relay, we are a very peaceful religion, peaceful people,” Lateef said, “<\/b>but I think also it is a two-way street where people from neighboring communities, different beliefs, and faiths should come up to us and make it a point to get to know what Muslims truly believe and what type of people we are.<\/p>\n With the rise of hate crimes like the New Zealand attack, experts say a strong interfaith and well-informed community is even more important than ever. In the U.S., hate crimes have risen for the third consecutive year. The FBI reported over 7,000 hate crimes in 2017, and 273 of those were anti-Muslim. In South Carolina, hate crimes statistics are low, but the state does not have any hate crime laws in place, leading to limited data.<\/p>\n Adrian Bird, president of Interfaith Partners of South Carolina, thinks while the New Zealand shooting should have our attention, we need to focus on these everyday incidents of hate and prejudice.<\/p>\n \u201cIn the everyday range of things, what do we do about the student walking (who is) wearing a hijab and has hot coffee thrown at her\u2026 insults thrown at her? How do we challenge the prejudice and the day to day hate that is a part of our reality?,” Bird said.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n [\/et_pb_text][\/et_pb_column][et_pb_column type=”1_3″][\/et_pb_column][\/et_pb_row][\/et_pb_section]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" [et_pb_section bb_built=”1″ _builder_version=”3.0.91″ custom_padding=”0px|0px|0px|0px” next_background_color=”#000000″][et_pb_row custom_padding=”0px|0px|0px|0px” _builder_version=”3.20.1″ background_size=”initial” background_position=”top_left” background_repeat=”repeat”][et_pb_column type=”4_4″][\/et_pb_column][\/et_pb_row][\/et_pb_section][et_pb_section bb_built=”1″ _builder_version=”3.0.92″ custom_padding=”2px|0px|37.9062px|0px” prev_background_color=”#000000″][et_pb_row custom_padding=”0px|0px|18.9531px|0px” custom_margin=”10px|||” _builder_version=”3.0.92″][et_pb_column type=”2_3″][et_pb_text admin_label=”News Story” _builder_version=”3.20.1″ custom_margin=”0px||0px|”] A powerful and melodic call of prayer filled the Noor-Ul-Huda mosque in Columbia Friday, signaling the beginning of the evening service. While the words are the same as usual, they seemed to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":174,"featured_media":19950,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"on","_et_pb_old_content":" A powerful and melodic call of prayer fills the Noor-Ul-Huda mosque in Columbia signaling the beginning of the service. While the words are the same as usual, they seem to carry an even greater weight as the New Zealand mosque shooting remains in the forefront of everyone\u2019s minds.<\/p> As Columbia\u2019s Muslim community mourns and remembers the fifty lives lost in the attack, they recognize the importance of continuing to keep their doors wide open to the community.<\/p> Mark Hill, a board officer for the mosque, said \u201cwe have to make sure that we are welcoming to our neighbors and as you can see here we\u2019ve established that in the Columbia area.\u201d<\/p> Almeera Lateer, the president of the Muslim Student Association at USC, agrees with this sentiment, but she thinks those outside the Muslim faith need to reach out as well.<\/p> \u201cI feel like not only is it our jobs as Muslims to go out into the community and ask or kind of relay we are a very peaceful religion, peaceful people, but I think also it is a two way street where people from neighboring communities, different beliefs, and faiths should come up to us and make it a point to get to know what Muslims truly believe and what type people we are,\u201d she said.<\/p> With the rise of hate crimes like the New Zealand shooting, a strong interfaith and well-informed community is even more important than ever. In the U.S., hate crimes have risen for the third consecutive year. The FBI reported over 7000 hate crimes in 2017, and 273 of those were anti-Muslim. In South Carolina, hate crimes statistics are low, but the state does not have any hate crime laws in place leading to limited data.<\/p> Adrian Bird, the president of Interfaith Partners of South Carolina, thinks while the New Zealand shooting should have our attentions, we need to focus on these everyday incidents of hate and prejudice.<\/p> \u201cIn the everyday range of things, what to do we do about the student walking wearing a hijab and has hot coffee thrown at her\u2026 insults thrown at her? How do we challenge the prejudice and the day to day hate that is a part of our reality?\u201d said Bird.<\/p> While hate and prejudice won\u2019t be going away anytime soon, the Muslim community will continue to remain strong and draw support from those of different faiths and cultures.<\/p>","_et_gb_content_width":""},"categories":[39],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/carolinanewsandreporter.cic.sc.edu\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19535"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/carolinanewsandreporter.cic.sc.edu\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/carolinanewsandreporter.cic.sc.edu\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carolinanewsandreporter.cic.sc.edu\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/174"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carolinanewsandreporter.cic.sc.edu\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=19535"}],"version-history":[{"count":11,"href":"https:\/\/carolinanewsandreporter.cic.sc.edu\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19535\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":21582,"href":"https:\/\/carolinanewsandreporter.cic.sc.edu\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19535\/revisions\/21582"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carolinanewsandreporter.cic.sc.edu\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/19950"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/carolinanewsandreporter.cic.sc.edu\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19535"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carolinanewsandreporter.cic.sc.edu\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19535"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carolinanewsandreporter.cic.sc.edu\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19535"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}