It was a packed house Tuesday night at Christ Church Cathedral in downtown Lexington for the Stand to Support Refugees event.
The audience heard from religious and community leaders, all who garnered applause and brought the audience to its’ feet, but it was the six minute speech by Kentucky’s Secretary of State Alison Lundergan Grimes that brought about five standing ovations. Grimes pointed at that refugees don’t leave their homes because the want to, it’s because they have to in order to save their lives. Echoing a previous speaker who said refusing entry is against every premise this country was built on, Grimes said “our American values are not a slogan you can put on a hat.”
Those who attended also heard from Muhammad Alshamden, a Syrian refugee who came to the United States four years ago with his siblings after his parents were killed in the war. When asked about people who are afraid of Muslim’s who are seeking refuge in America he said “You cannot judge people because they are Muslim. You cannot say oh you are a terrorist that’s because of my religion. Or just because that is where I am coming from. The number of Muslims in the world…a billion and a half and the terroristic is just a few. If you calculate this number, the percentage would be like 0.006. So how can you judge this large of people based on a few bad persons. Just because some Muslims are bad it doesn’t mean all of the religion is bad.”
Unlike other recent protests and public gatherings since President Trump took office, there were no supporters of his temporary travel ban on immigrants at or outside of Tuesday night’s event.