UW Tacoma vigil shows Muslim support for ‘Black brothers and sisters’
The poet was at a loss for words Tuesday night.
“I don’t know what to say, other than I wish we didn’t have to do this,” Hanan Hassan told more than 200 people on the University of Washington Tacoma campus.
“And yet, here we are, every time someone loses their life over senselessness, over hatred, over arrogance, over ignorance,” she said.
Hassan was one of the speakers at the UW Tacoma Vigil, an event meant to, “remember and honor the lives of our Black brothers and sisters,” according to co-organizer Bengisu Cicek.
Near the speakers, painted portraits honored George Floyd, Breonna Taylor and others who had died recently while being taken into police custody.
Cicek, a junior at UW Tacoma and the upcoming president of the school’s Muslim Student Association, said the event was being held in solidarity with the Black Lives Matter movement.
“We wanted to be the best ally for our Black brothers and sisters,” Cicek said.
Their group wanted to send a message, she said.
“Their lives are so precious and they deserve to feel safe in Tacoma and they deserve to feel safe in the United States,” she said.
Cicek, a native of Turkey, has lived in the U.S. since the age of 3.
“My American culture is the only one I know of,” she said.
She has experienced racial profiling from law enforcement.
“As a Muslim American hijabi woman here in the United States, there have been cases where I would be scared of the police, where I would think their duty is not to protect me, their duty is to stereotype me,” Cicek said.
“I definitely do not know what my Black brothers and sisters are going through, but I’m here for them (to) let them know that I love them.”
Hassan said her struggle is felt all over the world, citing a George Floyd mural painted on a bombed-out wall in Syria.
“Their struggle is our struggle,” Hassan said. “We must stand for every oppressed group, every other underrepresented group in the world. This injustice is not changing. It’s the same injustice. If we exterminate it one place, we must exterminate it everywhere else.”
At least 98 percent of the crowd wore face masks and most maintained social distancing during the vigil. A first aid tent was ready with water, snacks and electric candles for a planned moment of silence. The Black Student Union and the Progressive Student Union also helped with the event, Cicek said.
“I’m here to represent the Muslim community,” said Islamic Center of Federal Way Imam Ahmad Saleh. “But actually, anyone (who) talks about justice, not only the Muslim community, not only the Christians, or Jews or any religion, we are representing humanity.”
He thanked the crowd for supporting justice and ending discrimination.
“Do not step over the neck of George Floyd again,” Saleh said. “Do not step over his neck by being silent, by accepting oppression. We need to say no, to prove we are still human beings.”
Speaker Kwabi Amoah-Forson, the driver of Tacoma’s Peace Bus, said the institution of racism needs to be dismantled.
“We’re going to have to figure out where we’re going to move forward from here,” he said. He wants to develop a curriculum for kids to combat racism.
“I think the best way to do that is to show them what racism is not,” he said. “That’s love, that’s compassion and that’s understanding and being accountable.”
Most of all, he said, it’s listening.
This story was originally published June 17, 2020 at 6:00 AM.
