Spreading the message. Update to this previous story.
Via The Missoulian:
Shahram Hadian strove to drive home his point against Islam with statistics and scripture while protesters stood in silence outside.
Hadian is an Iranian-born pastor who converted from Islam to Christianity in 1999. His event Tuesday night at the DoubleTree Inn, “Unveiling the True Face of Islam: A Wake Up Call for the World,” brought about 90 people to the conference room that had enough chairs set up for 370.
Before his speech began, protesters met at the Emmaus House near the University of Montana, passing around signs with slogans like “My Missoula Includes Muslims” before they marched to the DoubleTree. Eamon Ormseth, lead organizer of SALAM, or Standing Alongside America’s Muslims, helped to organize the rally. He said he attended another speech by ACT in Kalispell and was bothered by the viewpoints expressed there.
“I think that speech, like this, leads to more hatred and violence towards people from the Middle East, Arabs and Persians,” Ormseth said.
Dan Carlino, general manager of the hotel, made multiple trips to where the protesters stood, bringing trays of warm chocolate chip cookies with him to pass out to the demonstrators, around 150 of whom had gathered by the time the speech began inside.
Shortly after the marchers reached the hotel and joined the group of protesters already there, a man drove past the group, leaning to yell out of his window.
“(Expletive) them. Take care of our vets and the homeless. The ones who are sleeping on the street who don’t have a (expletive) place to go,” he said.
It was one of few interactions between the demonstrators and their detractors Tuesday evening, which included two points when a large truck drove past the line of protesters, the driver stomping on the gas to engulf the people on the sidewalk in a cloud of black smog.
Hadian’s event was sponsored by the Lake County chapter of American Congress of Truth for America. ACT for America formed in 2007 as an organization promoting national security and defeating terrorism – though the Southern Poverty Law Center and Council on American-Islamic Relations have called it a “hate group.”
“We really want to start a chapter down here,” Calvin Beringer, co-chair of ACT’s Flathead chapter, said of Missoula.
During his event, Hadian covered his interpretation of the basics of Islam, the history of the religion, violence, Sharia law, jihad and refugee resettlement.
“This is not about the Congolese refugees that recently arrived in Missoula,” Linda Sauer, co-chair of ACT’s Lake County chapter, said before introducing Hadian.
Shouts of “Amen!” filled the room as Hadian outlined his views on the “dangers” of Islam.
He believes the people protesting his interpretations are the minority in Montana.
“For whatever reason we’ve lied down, and we have to rise up,” Hadian said.
“I’ve been labeled as an anti-Muslim bigot. … I’ve been called a xenophobe. Xenophobia means an irrational fear of foreigners. Funny, isn’t it?” he said as the crowd laughed, because he is Iranian.
Throughout his speech, he referred to the Quran, a hadith (a report about Muhammad) and various sites such as quran.com.
“I use sources they use, because then it makes it more authentic,” he said. “It refutes their argument that you’re taking it out of context.”