Omar Suleiman

There was a hysteria here.

And it was unfortunate because what it unleashed, especially with the national discourse at the time, again, the presidential campaign, Donald Trump says, I think Islam hates us.

When he uses those words, I think Islam hates us.

when Ted Cruz suggests that Muslim neighborhoods could be patrolled or should be patrolled.

And then you have the Irving mayor saying that one of the most populated cities with Muslims in America, they're operating under an alternative legal, an alternate legal system.

And funny enough, the year before that, she'd come to the mosque and she praised the diversity of Irving.

And she was talking about how welcome she felt in the mosque.

And the next thing we know, you have these crazy white supremacist groups, openly white supremacists that affiliate themselves with

The Klan and others protesting regularly in front of our mosques with their AR-15s and telling people to go back home.

And I'm like, I'm from New Orleans.

I'm not planning to move back to New Orleans.

I'm home.

We're home.

We're good.

You know, we're staying put.

And we refuse to be intimidated.

But then when the Syrian refugee crisis is unfolding as well, Dallas has been one of the more popular destinations, if you will.

I'm not talking about it like a vacation destination, but where a lot of refugees have come to just because of the infrastructure that we have set up here to receive refugees.

And so that hysteria was an unfortunate, perfect combustion of the national discourse with the local discourse with the incoming refugees.

And we would do all sorts of welcome refugee events.