Social Justice Group Says 'Don't Blame Muslims' for What Happened in Orlando

Bill Beaulieu, of Southsiders for Peace, says Muslims shouldn't be demonized because of the Orlando shootings.

Chicago, IL, June 15, 2016 -- Organizers of an impromptu vigil for the Orlando shootings victims had two messages in mind when they gathered Monday evening at the corner of 103rd Street and Western Avenue: to show support for the LGBT community and to stop demonizing Muslims.
“We support the LGBT community and we have a lot of sympathy for them,” said Lenore Wolf, a member of the social justice group Southsiders for Peace. “One of the things we want to bring out is that there should be no backlash against Muslims. Just because this man [Omar Mateen] is a Muslim, it doesn’t mean that the whole community should be punished.”
About 40 supporters came out to the social justice group’s candlelight vigil, all of them still reeling from the worst mass shooting in U.S. history the day before, in which 50 people -- including the shooter -- died and 53 others were wounded at a popular Orlando gay bar.

Southsiders for Peace gathered at 103rd Street and Western Avenue to show support for the LGBT community.

Like many at the vigil, Wolf thinks the shooter, Omar Mateen, was a homophobe who was perpetrating a hate crime.
“I think he was deranged and mentally ill,” Wolf said. “He probably knew ISIS and added it into his rampage. Everybody said he had a lot of hatred for gays.”
The vigil was planned by Rita Archibald, who divides her time between Beverly, where she grew up, and California.
“I was going to go downtown to one of the vigils, but then I thought there are plenty of people here who are upset and don’t want to be alone with their grief,” Archibald said. “All the vigils I saw were focused on the deaths, which are horrific, but then I heard so many stories of what is happening to Muslim people on the streets and their schools and workplaces.”
Archibald said Mateen doesn’t represent the many Muslims she knows, who are true to their faith, and doesn’t want the Orlando shootings to add to the backlash.
“I think it’s a hate crime. As a psychiatric nurse he was probably a closet case. The majority of people that go to this extreme have repressed  homosexuality. The part of gay movement is that, hopefully, there will be less and less people who have to hide their true selves and act out in violence.”
Mariza Muniz and her partner, Ernie Thomas, of Chicago Ridge, heard about the vigil through social media and wanted something close to home where they could memorialize the LGBT community.
“I think we’re targets because of our lifestyle,” Muniz said. “It was definitely a hate crime because of the population that was targeted, but I also think it was a terrorist attack against the United States because we have certain freedoms.”

Ernie Thomas (left) and her partner, Mariza Muniz, of Chicago Ridge.

Throughout the vigil, passing cars honked their horns in support of the Southsiders’ message of peace. Beverly resident Darcye Hoff Nolan said she was drawn to the vigil by her faith.
“I’ve never done anything like this and I couldn’t sit still anymore,” Hoff Nolan said. “I have to do something. I feel pretty powerless.”
Asked whether she thought the Orlando shootings were a hate crime or a terrorist act, Hoff Nolan replied: “What’s the difference?”
Pat Haynes said she learned of the nightclub massacre during church Sunday morning at Beverly Unitarian.
“The man doing the order of service announced it and broke down crying,” she said. “We have to take away the guns. There is no reason for us to be carrying assault rifles, period.  Gun violence is in the city but it’s also everywhere and we need to stop this. The only way we can do it is to take to the streets.”
Bill Beaulieu, a member of Southsiders for Peace, says there is a double standard when it comes to the religious background of mass shooters. He compares Omar Mateen to Dylann Roof, the 22-year-old man accused of shooting seven African-American church members to death in South Carolina last year.

Throughout the vigil passing cars honked their horns in support for the Southsiders' message of peace.

He said his Muslim friends talk of feeling ashamed that they have to constantly have to explain to people that Islam isn’t defined by terrorists who claim to be acting on its behalf .
“We feel horrible for the [Orlando] victims but we also don’t want gays or Muslims to be demonized,” Beaulieu said. “Christians aren’t called to denounce violence perpetrated by other Christians.”
At the end of the vigil, supporters gathered in a circle in front of Beverly Bank and Trust, where everyone was given a chance to say a few words.
“It’s so easy to go numb and to just do Facebook and stay on the computer and legalize marijuana and just be a vegetable,” Archibald said. “We get so much more by being fully alive by here with each other and staying awake. Because if we numb ourselves we numb ourselves to the beauty of life too. We have have to face the pain and we can do that together.”