According to an interview with radically anti-Muslim activist Usama Dakdok on the October 4, 2016 edition of Brannon Howse's show on Worldview Weekend Radio, the public and internal church turmoil that his speaking engagement created at the Oak Street Chapel in Brainerd in late September prompted at least one congregation to cancel his speaking engagement.
Sure enough, an event planned at a church in Wadena has vanished from Dakdok's calendar for October.
Nonetheless, Dakdok is managing to find ways to gain free earned media (he's an attention addict, regardless of his talking dirty about the news industry). Witness his publicity stunt in Detroit Lakes.
DL Online's Vicki Gerdes reports that Meet your Muslim Neighbor event in DL interrupted by anti-Muslim activist. Our favorite part? This fine turn by the local chief of police, who happened to be attending the event while out-of-uniform:
As Dakdok tried to continue grilling the two speakers, he was asked forcefully to sit down by several members of the audience, who although they didn't outright "boo" him, applauded both Haider and Kamel when they responded, clearly making a point about who had been invited to speak, and who had not.
"You had your turn to speak in Brainerd," Haider said at one point, referring to a recent event where Dakdok was invited to be the featured speaker at a Brainerd church, for an anti-Islam presentation that had taken place just a couple of days prior to Sunday's forum. After several minutes of back-and-forth exchanges, Dakdok approached the front of the room, stating that he wanted to show Kamel a passage from his copy of the Quran (as Kamel did not have a copy with him), and Kamel said, 'Sir, please sit down."
At that point, Detroit Lakes Police Chief Tim Eggebraaten ‒ who was present at the forum, but not in uniform — quietly approached the Florida minister from the side of the room. After escorting a clearly reluctant Dakdok back to his seat, Eggebraaten sat down in the chair right next to him — where he remained for the rest of the presentation.
Aside from Dakdok's interruption, most of the forum was focused on showing the similarities of Muslims and Christians, and how peaceful, friendly relationships can be forged between the two groups.
That's some high-quality community policing. In An open letter to the fearmonger who crashed our DL event, Paula Quam (the editor of the paper) also expressed her appreciation for the manner in which the chief responded to Dakdok's extreme mansplaining:
Perhaps you misunderstand us, Mr. Usama Dakdok, so let's get things clear. When you stood up and spewed hate speech at our local "Meet Your Muslim Neighbors" event designed to build bridges and create understanding, you were not a welcomed presence. You came all the way from Florida to do this first in Brainerd and now here, but as it turns out, we were not the audience you probably thought we were.
Yes, we are located in a mostly rural, mostly white, mostly Scandinavian part of the country. We're not a big melting pot — we know that. We're more of a crock pot full of tater tot hot dish. Whether we realize it or not, many of us have fairly thick northern accents that, to some, may be misinterpreted as simple and a bit back-woodsey. To be very, very honest, anybody who shows up here in traditional Islamic clothing and speaking another language will be probably be stared at. We're not used to it. The majority of our community knows very little about Muslims, except what we see on TV, which leaves many people at least a little uneasy about it all.
Here is the thing, though. Just because we may seem like an easy target — a persuadable audience — doesn't mean we are. The same stubborn, slow-to-change attitudes that many of us here have may mean we're not the best at reaching out to newcomers, particularly if they are obviously different from us, but it also means we don't take your word either.
At the meeting, you tried to "educate" guest speaker Fauzia Haider on her own faith, as if you had the right to clarify what her religion should mean to her. We're sure you would have been open to her breaking down the actual meaning of your own religious beliefs for you, but she didn't do that. It's almost like she thought you had the right as an American to believe in your God the way you wanted to. Huh strange. It's weird when people break out their true American values like that.
It's too bad you wasted your time and money coming here, but just so that you don't feel the need to stay, let us explain to you who we are in this "neck of the woods."
We are low maintenance. If somebody moves in next door, we generally only require a few things in order for them to earn our favor. Number one, we feel certain you are a good hearted person with no intent to harm. Number two, you work for your paycheck unless you are legitimately disabled. Number three, you shovel your own driveway. Boom. We're happy. We're not a hateful group here, Mr. Dakdok. We assume that you learned that during your hate speech when you were told to sit down by audience members. Our own police chief, Tim Eggebraaten, even sat down next to you like a teacher sitting down next to a misbehaved child, to ensure you didn't stand back up. Are you grasping this by now, Mr. Daktok? Our community literally did not want you standing up. We're not perfect, but we're not you. We will evolve on our own accord and in a way that we will be proud of — we don't need your help or "education" — thank you very much. Safe travels home.
If that doesn't introduce the word "uffda" to Dakdok's vocabulary, Bluestem doesn't know what will. Also trending in the paper? Mice are coming out of the woodwork in lakes country.
While the Wadena event has disappeared from Dakdok's calendar, a different engagement has been penciled in for a "closed meeting" with time and place omitted. We'll let readers know if we learn more.
Photo: Usama Dakdok rises to speak at an event in Detroit Lakes and the crowd erupts in a riot of subdued body language. Pass the tater tot hotdish and sit down, dude. Photo by Vicki Gerdes. Bob Collins' take at the News Cut blog at MPR, Detroit Lakes rallies to its Muslim neighbors is also worth a look.
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Well stated - I especially enjoyed the comment about "crock pot full of tator hotdish." Best to all Thinkers up there. Greetings from a former resident of the Red River Valley, now residing in Minneapolis.
Posted by: Susan K Hilde | Oct 07, 2016 at 01:12 PM