#NoRoomForHate at Hyatt

This week, the largest anti-Muslim group in the U.S., ACT for America, is meeting at the Hyatt Regency Crystal City in Arlington, VA. That’s far away from my home, but the hate they spew feeds discrimination and violence against Muslims across the country — and right here in Chicago.

On the national stage, ACT for America’s founder, Brigitte Gabriel, regularly promulgates lies like this one: “The radicals are estimated to be between 15–25% according to all intelligence services around the world…. When you look at 15–25% of the world Muslim population you’re looking at 180 to 300 million people dedicated to the destruction of Western civilization.”

But it was in Des Plaines, Palos Heights, Palos Park, Plainfield, and Rolling Meadows — all Chicago suburbs — where Muslims encountered hostility to building or expanding their mosque. It was at Chicago O’Hare where a Muslim family with three young children was ejected from a United Airlines flight after they requested an additional strap for one child’s booster seat.

It was the head of Portland, Maine’s ACT for America chapter, Frank Thiboutot, who proclaimed, “Islam is a supremacist, totalitarian political ideology masquerading as a religion. It’s as dangerous as Nazism or communism and must be eradicated.”

But it was in Chicago that a man called the local CAIR office (Council on American-Islamic Relations) and left a voicemail message: “This is America calling. You are not welcome here. Take your (double expletive) back to Syria. We will kill you.”

The ACT for America conference is also close to home because Hyatt is a “Chicago” corporation, founded by the Pritzker family in the 1950s. Muslim Advocates and allies have asked Hyatt not to host the conference, but the hotel chain responded that they are simply providing equal access “for people to respectfully and peacefully exercise their first amendment right to free speech, so long as in doing so they do not endanger any of our guests or colleagues.”

Several arguments come to mind:

· Hyatt’s claim ignores ACT for America’s clear record in fomenting physical, legal and social violence against Muslims.

· I’m guessing that Hyatt would not rent their facilities to the KKK to “peacefully” assemble. Anti-Muslim bigotry should be just as unacceptable.

· Besides, ACT is closely allied with white supremacists and neo-Nazis; they also invite paramilitary groups to provide security, with semi-automatic weapons and full tactical gear.

· The First Amendment protects you from government interference in free speech; it does not require that Hyatt facilitate it on private property. I’ve been kicked off plenty of store parking lots for protesting employment practices.

A friend asked me how this is different than refusing to bake a wedding cake for a gay couple because of your religious beliefs — a Supreme Court decision I oppose. One resists celebrating love, I replied; the other resists seeding racist and religious bigotry. We cannot give hate sanction and safe harbor.

Another friend asked: Isn’t this limiting free speech? No — they can think and say what they want, but we don’t have to help spread the hate. We don’t have to house hate group members, or drive them, amplify them, publicize them, or feed them when they gather to promote harm. Especially now, as our communities face a documented rise in hate crimes against Muslims.

Usually, I encourage activists to organize alternative events instead of showing up to shout down bad ideas. I like creative ways of changing the story, like when a UCC congregation in Gainesville Florida countered Terry Jones’ incendiary “Burn the Qur’an Day” with “Read the Qur’an Day.” When a college gets in the student-group-invites-hateful-speaker-and-everyone-is-angry trap, I’d likely suggest that they let it happen, and schedule a free concert with Chance the Rapper at the same time.

But context matters. For much of my life, haters knew their ideas were socially unacceptable. Now that they’ve been allowed into the mainstream — and some of them are invited to the White House — we all have to be more active in resisting them.

I remember when neo-Nazis wanted to march in Skokie in 1977. My father, Abner Mikva, represented the old 10th District in Congress — including the largely Jewish suburb that the fascists had targeted. Having worked for ideas that were “unpopular” during the early civil rights era — like integration and voting rights — he initially resisted the idea of shutting down the march. In the end, however, he publicly declared his commitment to pursue every legal remedy to prevent it. Skokie was home to many survivors of the Holocaust, people for whom the very presence of swastikas was like a physical assault. Context matters.

Skokie ultimately lost the case in the Supreme Court, but the fight pressed the Nazis to march elsewhere. Resistance matters too.

When I contacted JB Pritzker’s campaign and asked the candidate to intervene in Hyatt’s decision, they replied: “While JB has no management or leadership role in Hyatt, he strongly condemns the decision to host this conference. JB believes there is no place for anti-Muslim bigotry or bigotry of any kind in our country and with Donald Trump in the White House, it is more important than ever that we make that clear.” I wish he had committed to do more, but at least he recognized how this moment is different.

The best way to make it clear is for the company to say: There is no room for hate at Hyatt hotels. And then for every hotel chain to follow suit.

Rabbi Dr. Rachel S. Mikva

A professor at Chicago Theological Seminary, training religious leaders who build bridges across cultural and religious difference, working to repair the world.

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