The City of Riverside Human Relations Commission will partner with local interfaith leaders in holding a four part series to address claims of anti-Muslim community sentiment following last December’s Islamic terror massacre in neighboring San Bernardino that left 14 people dead.
Riverside City Councilman Andy Melendrez asked commissioners to intervene with what the Press Enterprise described as an “open community discussion about religious differences.” It has been billed as a response to claims of anti-Muslim sentiment in the community following the December 2 Islamic terror massacre.
The monthly series is called Riverside Together: Fellowship Instead of Fear and will be run by the Riverside Human Relations Commission. Events will be held at faith centers and City Hall. The events throw in issues of anti-semitism as well.
Breitbart News reported on an interfaith “vigil” for victims of the December 2 attacks, but never was the word terrorism used. The event was held at the presumptively Muslim Brotherhood affiliated Islamic Society of Corona-Norco mosque and included a selection of “interfaith” leaders (Mormon, Episcopal), local and state elected officials and a CAIR (Council on American Islamic Relations) representative.
The CAIR representative pressed the idea that community members may be experiencing anti-Muslim sentiments and to report them to CAIR. Members of the audience later pushed the idea that they or their children feared backlash.
The December 2 Islamic terror attacks in San Bernardino left 14 dead and at least 22 injured. Syed Rizwan Farook had brought co-attacker Tashfeen Malik over to the U.S. on a K-1 fiancee visa and were married in the U.S. Reports suggest immigration officials did not document whether or not the two had even met before she came to the U.S. to marry Farook.
Enrique Marquez, a friend of Farook and convert to Islam, faces charges for terror plots made with Farook and providing two of the rifles used in the December 2 attack.
Farook and Marquez conspired just a couple of years earlier to carry out maximum casualty events at Riverside City College and a local freeway. Farook and Malik died in a shootout with police just hours after they carried out the mass murder at San Bernardino’s Inland Regional Center. Farook attended the Dar al Aloom al Islamiyah mosque known to be associated with the “Army of Darkness” sect of Islam, Tablighi Jamaat.
The first event in this series will be held at the Allen Chapel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Riverside.
Follow Michelle Moons on Twitter @MichelleDiana
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