Muslims and non-Muslims alike donned head coverings Friday in Allentown as a show of solidarity and unity in the face of intolerance voiced during the election.
Christians, Jews, Muslims, Buddhists and others rallied in the city’s downtown for Hijab Solidarity Day, an event to signal that Lehigh Valley residents welcome immigrants and minorities and reject the anti-immigration, Islamophobic rhetoric they said they heard from President Donald Trump and others over the last few months. Many held signs written in English, Spanish and Arabic or with slogans reading “love wins.”
“We got together and started to think about how would we respond to [Trump’s] calls for the Muslim registry, and his commitment to building a wall, and how would we ... speak our values out loud,” said Jude-Laure Denis, executive director of POWER (Pennsylvanians Organized to Witness, Empower & Rebuild) Northeast. “We are a welcoming community, we are a community committed to understanding immigrants are part of the fiber of this country and make this country great.”
People who spoke at the rally said Friday marked not just the inauguration of President Trump, but also the beginning of their resistance.
Helping drive them, Denis said, is an FBI report for 2015 that shows anti-Islamic hate crimes rose by 67 percent over the prior year, anti-Jewish hate crimes by 9 percent, and anti-African American hate crimes by 8 percent.
“We decided since Muslim women are visible and have been visible targets, this is what we needed to do together as a community,” Denis said.
Shahida Qazi, a member of the Muslim Association of the Lehigh Valley, said hijab literally means separation, veil, cover or screen and is traditionally worn by a woman in the presence of males who are not part of her immediate family. It is supposed to cover the head and chest and shows that women shouldn’t be harassed, she said.
“It is not a symbol of oppression, or enslaving of women,” she said. “Rather it a a symbol of modesty and dignity.”
Wearing a hijab is outlined in the Quran, the Islamic holy book.
Sherrine Eid, whose family founded the Muslim Association of the Lehigh Valley and teaches middle and high school students, said two girls in her class have been harassed and had their hijabs pulled off at school.
"[They] now have decided to no longer wear their hijab and practice their religion as the First Amendment has guaranteed for us,” Eid said. “It is our job as Muslims, as Jews, as Christians, as people of goodwill regardless of your faith, to stand up for what our rights are as humans.”
Hager Sbita, an Allentown Muslim, wore an American flag scarf as her hijab to the rally Friday.
“I’m American. Just because I’m wearing a scarf doesn’t mean I’m not American,” she said.
Before the November election, Sbita said as she passed a Trump rally people told her to remove her scarf.
“It hurt. I went home and I cried a lot that day,” she said.
Macungie resident Marti Muhe knows someone who yelled at a woman for wearing a hijab. She asked him if he realized the hijab was a religious article of clothing, like a nun’s wimple. He didn’t.
“It bothers me that people are judgmental without knowing what they’re being judgmental about,” she said.
Adanjesus Marin, the executive director of Make the Road Pennsylvania, a group that supports low-income and working class Latino immigrants, spoke at the rally and said he is ready to resist oppression against Latinos, Muslims and others.
“We will stand together, side by side, arm locked in arm,” he said.