Imagine stepping out of your house of worship and seeing a group of screaming, belligerent hecklers ripping apart your holy book – spitting on and stomping on the pages. Imagine being shouted down, and told your faith is a lie by a group of people flashing gaudy, hate-filled signs and matching tee-shirts. This has become the reality for worshippers at the Islamic Community Center of Tempe.
This past Friday, a group of hate protesters gathered outside the largest mosque in the Phoenix area, the unhinged “Brother Dean” Saxton – an infamous student-preacher from the University of Arizona. He has received the most attention for declaring “You Deserve Rape” to female students that he deems inappropriately dressed – as he preaches in open air-spaces.
Over the past few years, Brother Dean has become so infamous at U of A – there is an actual petition to have him expelled from the school, due to his menacing style of evangelism. Vice also did a documentary about him – which gives some insight that this individual is not playing with a full deck.
Saxton has taken his roadshow from U of A and is now frequenting the Arizona State University campus – shouting down female students, Muslims, Catholics, and essentially anyone that falls outside his narrow definition of what a believer is. Since the Tempe mosque falls directly on the ASU campus, it has now become a target for those aiming to vilify Islam.
Over the past few years – a group of evangelical Christians strategically places a team outside each entrance and exit of the mosque – mindful to occupy the first bit of public space outside the Islamic center’s property. These individuals attempt to engage congregants in a theological discussion, passing propaganda pamphlets aimed at converting them away from Islam to Christianity. Needless to say, these evangelists have become a nuisance to deal with for Tempe mosque-goers on a week to week basis. For people like me, who attend the mosque on a weekly basis – It has become part of my calculus of where I go for Friday prayers, in considering if I will have to deal with these individuals.
Pages of the Qur’an were torn out, thrown on the ground, spat and stomped upon during last week’s protest.
But then, Brother Dean and crew started showing up. And however sad it may be – those who attend the mosque would much rather deal with the relatively calm folks blocking the entrances, than the vile, unabashed hate offered up by these street-preachers.
The hate group proceeded to desecrate Islam’s holy book, spitting on and stomping on pages – even throwing them down a nearby gutter. Children were also present at the mosque during this time, however this was of no consequence to the demonstrators.
Mondoweiss.net