A Dallas, Texas Nation of Islam mosque has become a focal point of contention after an armed face-off between New Black Panther members and anti-Islam protesters.
Armed anti-Islam activists from the Bureau of American Islamic Relations (BAIR) arrived at the Nation of Islam mosque in Dallas Saturday and encountered a larger group of counter protesters, The Dallas Morning News reports. No arrests were made, but the groups grew heated. Police asked the BAIR activists to leave and they complied.
“This is what they fear — the black man,” activist Olinka Green told The Dallas Morning News. “This is what America fears.”
A group called BAIR showed up to protests a mosque in S Dallas. pic.twitter.com/xKlwB7q0Jq
— Diana Zoga (@DianaZogaFox4) April 2, 2016
Man here to counter protest BAIR in south Dallas. pic.twitter.com/aEbxUm7aRs
— Diana Zoga (@DianaZogaFox4) April 2, 2016
This is the second protest at the mosque in recent weeks — protestors were first there in March. Activists from BAIR have also protested at the nearby Islamic Center of Irving. Counter protester Purlie Gates told CBS DFW that if a group conducted an armed protest in the highly affluent Dallas neighborhood of Highland Park, things would be different.
“These people came to our community under false pretenses,” Gates said. “Could we do the same thing? Could we make some allegations about a group in Highland Park and arm a militia and say we are going to go over there with arms and protest? That would have been stopped at city hall. The police would have stopped that.”
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