A St. Cloud town hall meeting at 6 p.m. Tuesday invites people of all faiths and backgrounds to discuss a recent anti-Muslim incident in the city.
The meeting will give citizens a chance to talk with community leaders about concerns they may have, said Taneeza Islam, the civil rights director for the Minnesota chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR-MN), one of more than a dozen organizations sponsoring the event.
“There’s a lot of interest,” said Lori Saroya, chairwoman of CAIR-MN, who said the meeting was moved to the St. Cloud City Council chambers where there is more seating. “People are really looking for the opportunity to address the whole picture,” she said, referring to hate crimes in general, not only against Muslims.
The incident involved cartoons, discovered Dec. 8 by a St. Cloud Muslim shopkeeper. They included vulgar depictions of Islam’s Prophet Muhammad, as well as an Islamic crescent with a swastika inside it, and were posted outside the store and in front of a mosque. Sidney Allen Elyea, 41, admitted to posting the cartoons and was cited with violating a city ordinance that prohibits posting materials on utility poles. Prosecutors in Stearns and Benton counties declined to press criminal charges, saying that the cartoons should be considered free speech.
Saroya said that one of the goals of the meeting will be to educate the community on the legalities of the crime and clear up any confusion about the prosecution.
In general, she said, the Muslim population of St. Cloud has been impressed with the greater community’s reaction to the incident. “There’s been a lot of support,” Saroya said.
Minnesota ranked ninth in the number of reported civil rights complaints in 2008, accounting for 3 percent of all incidents in the United States, according to CAIR’s annual report on the status of American Muslim civil rights.