(Reuters) – A Muslim advocacy group yesterday called on Republican US presidential candidate Donald Trump to apologize after a Muslim woman engaged in a silent protest was removed by security personnel and booed by the crowd at his rally in South Carolina on Friday night.
“The image of a Muslim woman being abused and ejected from a political rally sends a chilling message to American Muslims and to all those who value our nation’s traditions of religious diversity and civic participation,” said Nihad Awad, executive director of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR).
Ohio Governor John Kasich, a Republican presidential hopeful, said the crowd’s response at Trump’s rally in Rock Hill, South Carolina was inappropriate.
“We don’t need to be shouting and booing and scaring somebody who decided to stand up and have some sort of silent protest,” Kasich told reporters on the sidelines of a poverty summit in South Carolina yesterday.
“What the heck is that about? We’re not in high school. I mean, this is not some god-darn high school basketball game where we’re booing the other team.”
CNN reported that Rose Hamid, a 56-year-old flight attendant, stood up in the stands directly behind Trump when he suggested that Syrian refugees fleeing violence in their homeland were affiliated with Islamic State militants.
