{"id":794071,"date":"2019-03-22T17:44:00","date_gmt":"2019-03-22T23:44:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.summitdaily.com\/news\/dozens-gather-in-dillon-in-show-of-solidarity-with-muslim-community-a-week-after-christchurch-attacks\/"},"modified":"2019-03-24T07:51:06","modified_gmt":"2019-03-24T13:51:06","slug":"dozens-gather-in-dillon-in-show-of-solidarity-with-muslim-community-a-week-after-christchurch-attacks","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/local-news\/dozens-gather-in-dillon-in-show-of-solidarity-with-muslim-community-a-week-after-christchurch-attacks\/","title":{"rendered":"Dozens gather in Dillon in show of solidarity with Muslim community a week after Christchurch attacks"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"
The local muslim community hold a prayer, for the New Zealand Mosque shooting victims, during the event held by the Summit Colorado Interfaith Council Friday, March 22, at the Lord of the Mountains Church in Dillon. On March 15, a hate-filled terror attack targeted two mosques in the New Zealand city of Christchurch that killed at least 50 people and wounded at least 50 others.<\/strong>
\nHugh Carey \/ hcarey@summitdaily.com<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

On Friday morning, thousands of individuals gathered around the Al Noor Mosque in Christchurch, New Zealand, taking in the Muslim call to prayer and observing a moment of silence as the crowd mourned the 50 people who lost their lives in a pair of terrorist attacks on mosques in the city last week.<\/p>\n

Hours later, more than 7,000 miles away, dozens of Summit County residents joined together inside the Lord of the Mountains Lutheran Church in Dillon to stand in solidarity with the county\u2019s Muslim community as they came to worship. Though the attacks were half a world away, the reverberations were undoubtedly felt right here at home.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt impacted me a lot because killing one human being is like killing the whole human race, and that\u2019s what Islam teaches you about,\u201d said Ousmane Ly, a native of Senegal who moved to Summit County last year. \u201cKilling 50 people is outrageous \u2014 people who came together in one place to worship God, who have done nothing to you. You walk up out of nowhere with hatred filled inside you. There are no words to describe these kinds of attacks.\u201d<\/p>\n

In response to the attacks, the Spiritual Support Committee of the Summit Colorado Interfaith Council, led by Diane Luellen, organized an event calling on residents to gather inside the lobby of the church on Friday \u2014 where the county\u2019s Muslim community comes every week to worship in the absence of a mosque \u2014 to show their support. Participants formed a reception line outside of the sanctuary, ushering those who had come to pray into the church with signs of encouragement and calls of Salaam-Alaikum, or \u201cpeace be unto you.\u201d<\/p>\n

Afterward, several participants followed the worshipers into the sanctuary and took part in the service. In addition to the Arabic sermon delivered by Imam Mamadou Tidiane to the group, Pastor Liliana Stahlberg delivered some words of unity to the mixed-faith congregation.<\/p>\n

\u201cReligion at its best brings people together, all people,\u201d said Stahlberg. \u201cReligion at its worst creates divisions among men and women, skin colors, ethnicities, different human expressions of love; at it\u2019s worst religion creates us vs. them, over and over again. I pray and hope the day will come when religion will live up to its name and bring all people together in the unity of love and acceptance of all diversities. And let that day begin today.\u201d<\/p>\n

For the larger Muslim community in Summit and those making their way to the church on Friday \u2014 more than 50 in total from a diversity of backgrounds, and representing a number of nationalities across West Africa, Europe, the United States and more \u2014 the show of support was appreciated.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a good reminder that we\u2019re loved by the community, and we\u2019ve shown something positive to the community for them to be there for us in this time of need,\u201d said Lamine Kane, a former Silverthorne resident. \u201cRegardless of stereotypical comments we might hear, and all the negativity we see, there\u2019s love above all that\u2019s still conquering. Realizing there\u2019s a community willing to stand up and say no to Islamophobia, anti-Semitism and hate in general is a big statement, let alone for them to come together and hold an event like this.\u201d<\/p>\n

Unfortunately, this isn\u2019t the first time that the Interfaith Council has felt the need to hold an event in support of a community following a major tragedy. The group also hosted similar events following the Sutherland Springs church shooting in Texas that killed 26 in 2017, and following the Pittsburgh synagogue shooting that killed 11 last year.<\/p>\n

For some community members, the simple gesture of arriving to show support following attacks like those in New Zealand is incredibly important.<\/p>\n

\u201cI felt that I needed to be here,\u201d said Barb Kohler of Dillon. \u201cI know a lot of the Muslims from around the community just by going around and shopping, and a couple of them have become very close to me. We just wanted to show them we love them.\u201d<\/p>\n

As global responses to these types of attacks become more common, some are hoping that the gatherings will not only help to show solidarity with victimized groups, but also help to create a better understanding between the different cultures and religions.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think this brings about an important topic with what happened in New Zealand,\u201d said Parker Foy, a Colorado native. \u201cIt\u2019s through that lack of understanding and education that causes fear. I think if we take more time to really concentrate on educating and removing that ignorance, we\u2019ll reduce hatred and fear. We\u2019re human beings, and we fear change and things being taken away from us. When we start to learn that\u2019s not the case, and everybody is very accommodating and has this faith \u2014 especially in Islam \u2014 that is very peaceful and can cooperate in an amazing way to develop a community together in a positive manner, that alone will reduce these types of incidents.\u201d<\/p>\n

via:: Summit Daily<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The local muslim community hold a prayer, for the New Zealand Mosque shooting victims, during the event held by the Summit Colorado Interfaith Council Friday, March 22, at the Lord of the Mountains Church in Dillon. On March 15, a hate-filled terror attack targeted two mosques in the New Zealand city of Christchurch that killed […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[99],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-794071","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-local-news"},"acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-06-14 00:42:42","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"distributor_meta":false,"distributor_terms":false,"distributor_media":false,"distributor_original_site_name":"KSMT The Mountain","distributor_original_site_url":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt","push-errors":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/794071","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=794071"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/794071\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=794071"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=794071"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=794071"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}