A number of local organizations are planning to protest outside the Empire Arts Center on Tuesday night prior to a talk being given by Christian speaker Usama Dakdok, whose speeches on Islam have stirred up controversy in the region in the past year.
“Basically everything he (Dakdok) is saying is hate speech,” said Bailey Bubach, president of UND’s Muslim Student Association. “It’s anti-Islamic rhetoric.”
Phil Ehlke, general manager of the Christian radio station Q-FM, which is sponsoring the event, said the purpose of the having Dakdok speak is to instruct people about what Islam is.
“To me it’s all about education and the whole issue of Islam and Christianity and can the two get along and what Islam is,” he said. “We hear it in the news, and we need to understand it rather than to guess.”
Ehlke said the spread of Islam in the U.S. has lead to the implementation of Sharia law in certain communities.
“As the Muslim population grows, we’ve seen that there has always been the next step and that is the push for things like Sharia law,” he said. “That’s just a fact. That’s already happened in our country.”
However, to Bubach, this logic doesn’t add up at all.
According to a June 2014 article in the Pioneer Press, Dakdok spoke for three days in Bagley, Minn., and has referred to Islam as a “cult” and “disease.”
For Bubach, Dakdok is a threat to the peace between faiths in the community.
“We just want people to know in the community that this man is not here to create peace, and we are all here living peacefully, and we just want peace in our society,” she said. “It doesn’t matter if we’re Muslim, Christian, Jewish or anything, we should all have the right to live peacefully.”
To raise this awareness, Bubach and others began canvassing local churches starting on Friday night to clarify Dakdok’s philosophies and to clarify that his intents are not educational.
A local group, called North Dakotans for Interfaith Acceptance, has organized in response to the talk by Dakdok and intends to protest in front of the Empire Arts Center from 5:30 to 6:30 p.m. Tuesday, Bubach said.
“People from the Christian and Jewish communities and the secular community have joined us,” in this cause, she said.
The group intends to stage a silent peaceful protest, Bubach said.
“We’re all going to stand in unity together to show we are against hate,” she said.
Bubach said the group has no plans to contact people attending the event or block the theatre entrance, but intends to hold signs.
The group plans to contact the local police before Tuesday’s event, she said.
“We’re following all the rules that the Grand Forks Police (Department) requires. ... Our goal is safety for everyone,” she said.
Members of other organizations have expressed interest in participating in the protest, said Bubach, who is organizing the event with Sarah Coen-Tuff, a UND student.
They are: Christus Rex Lutheran Campus Ministry, North Dakota Dakotans Against Brutality, Free Thinkers of UND, Third Wave Feminist Group UND, the North Dakota Human Rights Coalition, Build Blocks of Islam, CAIR (Council on American-Islamic Relations) Minnesota, the Grand Forks Islamic Center, and the Muslim Student Association.
Emily Burkland, executive director of the Empire Arts Center, said the center decided to let the Q-FM group host the event because its policy is to not discriminate on the basis of race, religion, sexuality or any other group or characteristic that is protected by law.
However, she emphasized that despite the center’s support for freedom and creativity in speech and expression, that does not extend to hate speech.
“Our organization doesn’t condone messages of hate or racism,” she said.
Due to potential security concerns, Burkland said the center is working with the Grand Forks Police Department to make sure the event remains peaceful and safe.
The center also required that the renters for the event hire professional security to work the event.