A Muslim woman wearing a shirt which read “Salam, I come in peace” was forcibly ejected from a Donald Trump rally Friday night as some supporters of the 2016 presidential candidate reportedly hurled Islamophobic epithets at her.
Rose Hamid, a 56-year-old flight attendant, had attended the rally at Winthrop University in Rock Hill, South Carolina with a small group of people who wore yellow stars with eight points, a reference to the markers Jews were forced to bear during the Holocaust. The symbols read “Muslim” and “Stop Islamophobia.”
When Trump falsely insinuated that all refugees fleeing Syria are loyal to ISIS, Hamid and others from the group stood up in a silent protest.
At this point, the crowd quickly turned on those making quiet gesture and began shouting, pointing, and chanting Trump’s name. As Hamid and others were forcibly removed by security officials, “The ugliness really came out fast,” Hamid told CNN. Hamid reported that one person yelled, “You have a bomb.”
The scene, and Hamid’s reflections, are captured in the video below.
Responding to the incident, Trump appeared to endorse the forcible eviction—and the crowd’s behavior. “There is hatred against us that is unbelievable,” Trump told the crowd. “It’s their hatred, it’s not our hatred.”
The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) immediately demanded an apology from Trump, who has hinged his presidential bid on racist, nativist, and Islamophobic rhetoric, including a call for a ban on non-American Muslims from entering the United States. Studies show that this and other hateful rhetoric is leading to real violence against those communities targeted.
“The image of a Muslim woman being abused and ejected from a political rally sends a chilling message to American Muslims and to all those who value our nation’s traditions of religious diversity and civic participation,” said CAIR national executive director Nihad Awad in a statement.
“Donald Trump should issue a public apology to the Muslim woman kicked out of his rally,” Awad continued, “and make a clear statement that American Muslims are welcome as fellow citizens and as participants in the nation’s political process.”
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