Anti-Sharia Rallies Met By Counter-Protesters Across US (UPDATES)

Anti-Sharia rallies planned for Saturday took place across the United States in many cities and states, with many of the rallies being met by counter protesters, and reports from local journalists and attendees suggested that the counter protesters outweighed the original demonstrators.

Muslim leaders braced themselves for potential violence due today's polarized political climate and the clashing of ideas at the rallies.

In Seattle, a day of demonstration turned violent as right- and left-wing demonstrators clashed in the city's Occidental Square, according to Patch's reporter in Seattle. As protesters got into fist fights, Seattle police responded by deploying pepper spray and arrested three people for assault.

The rallies were organized by a group called ACT for America, a group that the Southern Poverty Law Center has classified as an extremist group. According to posts on social media, some of the locations where demonstrators came out to march for and against Sharia law included New York, Chicago, Minnesota, Michigan, Pennsylvania, Orlando and in San Bernardino, California.

In Minnesota's capital St. Paul, at least seven people were arrested when protesters and counter-protesters clashed.

In New York City, anti-Sharia protesters and the counter-protesters were kept separated by the NYPD, BuzzFeed reported. Gavin McInnes, a right wing firebrand and the founder of Vice News, spoke at the demonstration in New York City.

Brigitte Gabriel, the founder of ACT for America, posted on Facebook that anyone who counter protests a march against Sharia law is "an absolute monster."

ACT for America claims that the marches were organized in opposition to Sharia Law, many aspects of which they say run "contrary to basic human rights and are completely incompatible with our laws and our democratic values." The group says it will defend everyone's constitutional right to practice their own religion.

While conservative groups, lawmakers and many in the Western world view Sharia law as a form of law and order, one that threatens and goes against Western values and human rights, religious scholars say Sharia is more of a guiding principle for those who practice Islam.

As The Guardian explains:

"It is adopted by most Muslims to a greater or lesser degree as a matter of personal conscience, but it can also be formally instituted as law by certain states and enforced by the courts. Many Islamic countries have adopted elements of sharia law, governing areas such as inheritance, banking and contract law."

Original Story Below:

At mosques around the country, Muslim leaders are bracing for conflict surrounding anti-Sharia rallies taking place Saturday in more than two dozen communities. The alt-right-linked ACT for America says human rights and constitutional violations are inherent in Islamic laws and the National Marches Against Sharia are a show of support for Muslim women and girls. ACT said they also are in protest of a wave of Muslim “honor violence,” shamings typically carried out by male family members against female family members that can include everything from verbal abuse to physical and sexual violence to murder.

In an increasingly hostile political climate toward Muslims, raising security concerns, groups like the Southern Poverty Law Center said rally organizers are appealing to recruiting alt-right anti-government hate groups. With their presence, the SPLC warned, “the potential for violence increases.” (For more local news, click here to sign up for real-time news alerts and newsletters from Flint Patch, click here to find your local Michigan Patch. Also, follow us on Facebook, and if you have an iPhone, click here to get the free Patch iPhone app.)

ACT for America is the largest grassroots anti-Muslim group in the country, according to the SPLC, which tracks hate groups. Its founder is Lebanese- American Brigitte Gabriel, a vocal supporter of President Trump who has referred to Arabs as “barbarians.” ACT calls itself the “NRA for national security.”

Marches are on the calendar Saturday in at least 20 states in what is billed as the first simultaneous anti-Sharia rallies in the United States. Security at some marches will be provided by the Oath Keepers and Three Percenters, and The Proud Boys, a coalition of white supremacists and neo-Nazis, also are backing the event.

Council on American Islamic Relations spokesman Corey Saylor told Al Jazeera News that rallies like those taking place Saturday tend to normalize violence against Muslims to the point that it “feels permissible.”

Two marches are planned in Michigan, where tensions simmered this week after reports that one of the terrorists killed in last weekend’s attack in London was radicalized by a Dearborn cleric. A spate of federal terror investigations in Dearborn, which has the highest concentration of Arab-Americans of any city in America, includes the arrest this week of a Dearborn man the government said trained with Hezbollah, an Islamic jihad group.

The Michigan rallies, to be held in Southfield and the state capital of Lansing, are also expected to shine a light on female genital mutilation, a religious rite of passage in some Muslim sects that is at the center of a historic case in federal court in Detroit that could plow new ground on the limits of religious protections in the First Amendment. Criminal charges have been filed against two Metro Detroit doctors in what has become a highly emotional case as they and six other families who worship with the Dawoodi Bohra Muslim sect face termination of their parental rights as well.

Michigan Democrats U.S. Reps. Debbie Dingell of Dearborn and John Conyers of Detroit denounced the rallies as Islamophobia.

“We need to remember that we’re strong when we’re united,” Dingell told Michigan Radio. “What I simply think they’re trying to do this weekend is divide us with fear and hatred.”

Conyers said that while he is concerned about “free speech,” he’s “more concerned about anti-Muslim speech that leads to violence.”

In Oregon, Muslims are on heightened alert after last month’s fatal stabbing of two men and wounding of a third after they intervened to stop a man shouting Islamic slurs at two teens on a Portland commuter train, including one who was wearing a hijab. At a mosque in Eugene, where a man recently threatened to kill Muslims, higher-grade locks were installed on the front door, and other security upgrades are contemplated.

Drew Williams, who worships at the mosque, told Fox News the man’s threats — “I have no problem killing you,” he reportedly said — and subsequent arrest on intimidation, menacing and harassment charges shook the local Muslim community.

“Many people are worried and saddened and very shocked, but we still hope to be able to practice and be part of the Eugene community,” Williams told Fox.

Elsewhere, activists who work against discrimination and hate crimes are staging counter-protests and other events. In Seattle, activist Aneelah Afzali told Fox she is putting up an “ask a Muslim booth” near the rally site “so people can ask questions directly about Islam, and we can counter conspiracy theories, accusations and lies that come from that hate rally.”

Counter-protests are also planned in California, New York, Pennsylvania, Minnesota and North Carolina.

Feroze Dhanoa contributed to this report.

Photo: Protesters gathered in Portland, Oregon, last weekend for competing rallies following the fatal stabbing of two men on a light-rail train by a man police say was shouting anti-Muslim slurs. (AP Photo/Kristena Hansen)