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Community Members Gather to Support Muslim Students

In response to recent anti-Muslim sentiments -- such as remarks from GOP presidential front-runner Donald Trump, who called for a complete ban on Muslims entering the U-S -- roughly 400 people, from Baylor faculty and students to community members, gathered, to offer encouragement and solidarity to those Muslim students at the university.  
 

At noon today, Blake Burleson, a professor in Baylor’s Religion Department, thanked Muslim students for their contribution to Baylor’s community. Burleson also expressed grief about recent anti-Muslim rhetoric. Afterward, the crowd prayed and sang a hymn.

One of those people was Sundus Ahmed. She received an e-mail from Burt Burleson, university chaplain and Blake Burleson’s brother. He voiced the University’s support and invited her and others from the Muslim community to the event. Ahmed shared the e-mail on Facebook and it quickly went viral.

“So I went on and like posted it on Facebook. It was intense," Ahmed said. "Like the response I got on Facebook was ridiculous, and it was nice to see that so many people were in support of this."

In fewer than 24 hours, her post garnered more than 1500 likes, and it has been shared more than 700 times.

Al Siddiq the President of Islamic Center of Waco, spoke to the importance of this event for Baylor and Waco’s Muslim community.

“I just want that people know that we are one of them, not any body else," Siddiq said. "We are an American. We love this country. That’s why we are here. We serve this country. That’s why we are here.”

Avery was an intern with KWBU from 2015-2016. She graduated from Baylor University, where she studied philosophy and creative writing. She will intern with Here & Now at NPR in Washington D.C during the Summer of 2016.