By Faith News Note,
It maybe the season for peace and good will, but in Medford citizens are in an uproar over anti-Muslim posters throughout the city earlier this month, prompting outrage, charges of racism and pleas for public denunciation. The poster’s creators, a white supremacist organization called American Vangaurd, told local KOBI-News that in addition to a Muslim-free America, “We would prefer to secure and maintain white hegemony in the United States.”
More than a half dozen pastors, ministers and other church leaders Thursday asked the Medford City Council in writing to publicly oppose racism and bigotry.
“Hate and discrimination thrive where people of goodwill fail to speak out,” Caren Caldwell, associate minister at Medford Congregational United Church of Christ, told the council, according to The Medford Mail Tribune.
In October an anti-Muslim group calling itself Global Rally for Humanity organized nationwide protests outside mosques in 20 cities.
Fliers promoting a pro-police “Back the Blue” rally outside Medford’s police station in October initially featured Global Rally for Humanity’s logo, although it was later removed and the organizer said he cut ties with the anti-Muslim group, according to The Mail Tribune.
Activists with Oregon Action, a social justice group, responded with a counter-rally across the street. Ten people attended the pro-police rally; more than 100 rallied against hate and bigotry, the newspaper reported.
The Medford City Council agreed to draft a resolution condemning racism and bigotry, and Councilor Chris Corcoran said the anti-Muslim episode “reminds me that there is no cure for stupidity.”
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