Cheyenne residents support local Muslims at service Friday

She said she came “in support of our brothers and sisters in the Muslim community.”

“They have every right to be here, to practice their religion, to work here, to be in our community,” she said.

“We’re the land of immigrants. We’re all immigrants.”

The Unitarian Universalist Church, the Wyoming Association of Churches and community faith leaders promoted the service. The service came in response to President Donald Trump’s recent executive order temporarily banning travel to the United States from seven predominantly Muslim nations, which a federal judge temporarily halted Friday.

Mohamed Salih, a Muslim religious leader from Cheyenne, led the service. He explained the basics of the Islamic faith and how its actual beliefs differ from what many people have claimed about the religion.

“Muslim is the religion of peace,” Salih said, adding that people who listen to the news would think differently. The faith seeks for its believers to surrender their egos, he said.

Salih wore a long white robe called a jaliba and a white cap called a tagia to the service. Both are ways to show modesty.

The event began with a recording of a man singing an Arabic call to prayer. Then, Abbas Alab of Cheyenne sang the call in person in his strong, clear voice.

Salih spoke in Arabic at times and translated those words to English.  

After he spoke, people gathered in the nearby fellowship hall. Many prayed in the Muslim method, kneeling on rugs or blankets.

They also spent time talking together, sharing baklava made by Salih’s wife, Fatima.

The Rev. Dick Naumann drove from Laramie to attend. He is a priest at St. Matthew’s Cathedral there.

“I just feel deeply about what was said here today, that religions have so much more in common than they have in difference,” Naumann said.

“I am very distressed with the trend that I see coming about through our society, not just from the president, but across the board,” he said. That trend is one of separating, isolating and discriminating, he added.

Naumann said he absolutely does not support Trump’s travel ban.

“To define ourselves by who we’re against goes against everything I believe in,” he said.

Elhadji Gaye is a Muslim who has lived in Cheyenne for three years. He teaches at Laramie County Community College and comes from Senegal, a country in west Africa.

He was pleasantly surprised by the large turnout of supporters.

“I couldn’t believe it,” he said.

People claim to be Muslim – like those in the ISIS terrorist group – who are not, he said. “They are hijacking our religion.”

He said that a verse in the Quran, which is the holy book for Muslims, says “if you kill one human being, it is like killing all humans,” he said. Saving one human being is like saving the whole world.

The Rev. Dee Lundberg, leader of the Wyoming Association of Churches’ Peace and Justice Team, told the group that “our God is a God of justice, inclusion, unity, charity and compassion. Muslims, Jews and Christians and many other wonderful religious traditions share these guiding principles.

“We, as Christians, stand with you, stand with the entire community and say we cannot hijack Jesus for hate or division,” she said.

Rabbi Larry Moldo of Mt. Sinai Synagogue and Congregation in Cheyenne said he hopes that “eventually everybody of any religion can go anywhere and openly practice what they believe and be able to be in any particular country.”

Ted Dunn, 71, of Cheyenne and his wife, Judy, attended for a simple reason.

“I believe in equality,” he said, adding he wants to support different faiths, particularly the Muslim community, the refugees and immigrants affected by the executive order.

“That’s atrocious. It’s hatred,” he said of the order.

Theresa Barbre said she was glad she came to the service. A Christian, Barbre said she “learned more about what we have in common.”

“We are all worshipping the same God. We may call him by a different name and express our faith differently.”