City Council member Bret Weber says bigotry should not be part of the Grand Forks community.
So in response to an anti-Islam, Christian speaker being scheduled to speak at the Empire Arts Center Thursday, Weber wrote an email to the Empire’s director and other local leaders calling for an informal meeting today to consider “efforts to clearly express that this is an inclusive and welcoming community.”
This meeting will be in addition to other recent efforts by local leaders to promote inclusiveness.
Usama Dakdok, who spoke at the Empire Thursday night, was raised a Christian in Egypt and travels the U.S. preaching about the “dangers of Islam.” He has called Islam a “cult” and “disease,” saying it makes victims of Muslims who do not understand their religion, which he has studied for years.
The Thursday event, which was Dakdok’s second visit to Grand Forks this year, was a rebuttal to local advocates’ educational “Meet Your Muslim Neighbor” presentation in April.
“Meet Your Muslim Neighbor” was a response to Dakdok’s first Grand Forks visit, which also attracted more than 150 protesters outside of the Empire during the event.
At Thursday’s Dakdok event, there was no organized protest. Instead, there was an alternate event at St. Paul’s Episcopal Church featuring national social justice advocates Tony Stewart and Norm Gissel, who promote community strategies of compassion and inclusiveness.
Those two speakers, who also visited classes at UND Thursday, will also be at the meeting Weber called today, he said.
“We must guard against any sense that bigotry is somehow endorsed by our community—we do not want to have Dakdok’s name become a part of our brand,” Weber wrote in his email, obtained by the Herald Thursday. "(Dakdok’s) name should not be associated with the brand of our city, of our downtown, of UND or of the Empire.”
Weber, who is also a social work professor at UND, said he hopes to facilitate a conversation as to how Grand Forks should handle intolerance and form its brand as a welcoming community.
The meeting today is not open to media, Weber said, because he wants attendees to feel comfortable speaking freely. In his email, Weber asked for recipients to “please feel free to share this message broadly, though not with the press at this time.”
Free speech?
Weber said allowing Dakdok’s presentation, which he called “religious hostility,” in Grand Forks is an example of discord between citizens’ right to free speech and the community’s responsibility to protect its residents from harmful discrimination.
“Between those two, there are difficult decisions you need to make,” Weber said. “How do you address that as a community?”
Empire Director Emily Montgomery said she and the Empire’s board of directors strongly felt that they should not censor someone’s right to free speech, regardless of board members’ personal beliefs.
“We feel that what the speaker has to say is protected speech,” she said.
She added The Empire has hosted other seemingly controversial events, including part of the recent Grand Forks Pride Festival.
“Our mission is to be welcoming to everyone,” Montgomery said.
The Empire did not sponsor either Dakdok event, it just rented out its theatre.
Both events were promoted by local Christian radio station Q-FM, said Phil Ehlke, station general manager.
“We don’t believe it’s bigotry. ... The whole issue with Usama is there is a huge difference between Islam and Christianity,” Ehlke said. “We believe clearly the God of Islam is certainly not the God of Christianity.”
Weber said Dakdok’s visits have indirectly helped raise a conversation about discrimination and inclusiveness, but he said Grand Forks should still strategize to peacefully oppose bigotry.
“There are people in the community that have really strong feelings about this. I don’t want somebody coming to our town creating divisions,” Weber said. “This is about trying to find the proper balance.”
Peaceful effort
Many other local leaders are also working toward making Grand Forks known as a welcoming, nondiscriminatory community.
Mayor Mike Brown also voiced support for community compassion and inclusiveness at the St. Paul’s church event Thursday, saying, “We are a community that’s very welcoming and very diverse.”
Several people attended the event, where advocates Stewart and Gissel talked about their strategies for peacefully opposing discrimination. Organizers said the event was not a direct response to Dakdok, but rather a chance to have a public dialogue about discrimination and the need for inclusiveness.
Stewart said community members should always speak out against hate speech, but they should never attend meetings of any discriminatory group, and they should never engage in violence.
“Be in charge of your culture and watch and look, and anytime someone goes through (discrimination), become their ally,” Stewart said. “So many people suffer because of what they’ve been through, and they don’t have an ally, and they need one.”
Stewart’s and Gissel’s message emphasized nonviolence and celebrating diversity.
UND and the local advocacy group North Dakotans for Diversity and Compassion were also partners in bringing Stewart and Gissel to Grand Forks.
That event and the meeting with Stewart and Gissel today also coincide with Grand Forks’ recent efforts toward a new city Commission on Inclusion and Diversity, which will be proposed to City Council in coming weeks.
In a letter to the editor printed in the Herald Thursday, Brown and Weber wrote the new commission “will help us all do an even better job of celebrating both our differences and our commonalities.”