Two or three four hundred Bay Ridgites—enough to cover the west side of Fifth Avenue from Al Safa to the Knights of Columbus—marched on Martin Luther King Day yesterday to promote unity, especially between the Arab population and its neighbors. It had been organized by concerned locals who wanted to push back against intimidation intensifying online and IRL.
The march, which featured participants of all ages, sexes, religions and backgrounds, began at the corner of 86th Street and Fort Hamilton Parkway, where organizers said a young woman had been kicked in the thigh while waiting for a bus because she wore a hijab; it went down Fifth Avenue and ended at the old Our Saviour’s Lutheran church on 80th and Fourth, which now most prominently houses the Salam Arabic Lutheran congregation, previously of Ovington Avenue.
Marchers filled the church’s gymnasium and made plates of food, piling falafel balls atop halved muffins, cheese cubes next to spinach pies. Children read quotes from inspirational civil rights figures, and adults made speeches; members of the Children’s Chorus of Bay Ridge sang a medley about building bridges, which recently some have tried to burn with rhetoric. “If you think about it,” one politically active local told me, “this is all because of Donald Trump.”
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great pics, great turnout in freezing cold. i counted 390 on the march, and missed a few.
Maybe some of those supporters should have asked why Linda Sarsour, the organizer of this march, has appeared in public supporting Louis Farrakhan.
http://newsone.com/3205838/justice-league-nyc-activist-talk-black-lives-matter-justice-or-else/
Farrakhan is not about “peace”, it seems. Unless peace involves murdering whites. Yes, the man has called for volunteers to aide him in the murdering whites. He did this in public on September 2nd of last year. Linda Sarsour was in attendance at the speech. She actually took the stage herself. She owes Bay Ridge an explanation for this behavior before we allow her to stage another stunt like this in our neighborhood.
Linda Sarsour didn’t “organize” this event; it was organized by a real grassroots campaign of locals of all stripes. Also, that link you posted doesn’t mention anything about “murdering whites.”
The link simply shows video of her in attendance. The text of Farrakhan’s abhorrent statement is readily available online. I am in agreement with the original poster, and I will gladly post it here:
http://www.snopes.com/louis-farrakhan-intercede-quote/
May I suggest you do a bit more research before commenting further, Henry?
BayRidge4Life is the problem. A march like this is the answer. Linda Sarsour didn’t organize this. But like most ignorant people, you like to divert a positive into a negative for your own purposes with half-truths and outright lies. What the f*ck does Louis Farrakhan (someone I disagree with wholeheartedly and often) have to do with the march? Why not honestly look in the mirror and realize that the people of Bay Ridge are the best of New York — diverse, welcoming, industrious and peaceful. But no, make it about you. About your lost homogenous NYC. The Irish and Italians (I’m guessing you’re one of the two, and I could be totally wrong here) were treated like animals by the native New Yorkers when they came over here. Do we not learn from history? Sad. Really sad.
“this is all because of Donald Trump.”
Really? Not because of Paris, San Bernadino, Chattanoga, Boston, etc. etc.???
How many people from Brooklyn have been arrested recently for wanting to join/providing support for ISIS?
Clearly blame has been misplaced.
Right. And there is a hate monger named Linda Sarsour behind much of the outcry for Muslim equality in Bay Ridge. This woman reveres Louis Farrakhan, of all people, appeared on stage at the same rally in which he called for the murdering of white people, and yet she expects an educated public not to question her motivation and ethics? Enough is enough.