Rose Hamid, a 56-year-old Muslim woman, was escorted out of a rally for Donald Trump in Rock Hill, S.C. this past Friday after silently protesting against his hateful, specifically anti-Muslim, rhetoric.
Hamid wore a t-shirt that said, “Salam, I come in peace” and stood up when Trump implied that Syrian refugees have attachments to ISIS. A security guard led her out of the rally, but not before a man shouted, “Get out! Do you have a bomb?” according to Refinery29. Hamid replied, “No! Do you have a bomb?”
She attended the rally with the intent of showing Trump supporters that Muslims aren’t scary. “I have this sincere belief that if people get to know each other one-on-one, they’ll stop being afraid of each other,” she told CNN.
Before Trump began using “hateful rhetoric,” as Hamid describes it, she said that many people she met at the rally were “very sweet.” She believes that Trump’s language changed the mood of the crowd.
According to CNN, during Hamid’s protest, Trump supporters began chanting his name—as instructed by Trump campaign staff before the event—and pointed at Hamid and Marty Rosenbluth, the man next to her who was also protesting.
“The ugliness really came out fast and that’s really scary,” Hamid said.
Hamid and Rosenbluth, among others, wore gold stars that said “Muslim” similar to those worn by Jews during the Holocaust. According to a reporter at the rally, Hamid wasn’t removed for being Muslim, but for being part of a larger protest.
Despite the reason for her removal, Hamid faced plenty of hate including a comment from one woman about not looking scary but “like a good one,” CNN reported.
“This demonstrates how when you start dehumanizing the other it can turn people into very hateful, ugly people,” Hamid said. “It needs to be known.”