Rose
Hamid, a 56-year-old flight attendant sitting in the stands directly
behind Trump, stood up Friday during Trump's speech when the Republican
front-runner suggested that Syrian refugees fleeing war in Syria were
affiliated with ISIS.
Trump has previously called for a temporary ban on Muslims entering the U.S.
As they were
escorted out, Trump supporters roared -- booing the pair and shouting
at them to "get out." One person shouted, "You have a bomb, you have a
bomb," according to Hamid.
"The ugliness really came out fast and that's really scary," Hamid told CNN in a phone interview after she was ejected.
Major
Steven Thompson of the Rock Hill Police Department told CNN Hamid was
kicked out of the event because the campaign told him beforehand that
"anybody who made any kind of disturbance" should be escorted out.
The Trump campaign did not immediately respond to a request for comment asking why Hamid was escorted out of the venue.
After
Hamid and three others, all wearing stars reminiscent of those worn by
Jews during the Holocaust, were escorted out by police and Trump
campaign officials, Trump commented on the disturbance.
"There is hatred against us that is unbelievable," Trump said. "It's their hatred, it's not our hatred."
Before
the event, Hamid told CNN that she didn't plan to shout or disrupt the
event -- she simply wanted to give Trump supporters a glimpse of what
Muslims are like.
"I figured that most
Trump supporters probably never met a Muslim so I figured that I'd give
them the opportunity to meet one," she said, wearing a shirt that read
"Salam, I come in peace." "I really don't plan to say anything. I don't
want to be disrespectful but if he says something that I feel needs
answering I might -- we'll just see what strikes me."
Hamid
joined a group of people -- some friends, others strangers -- who
wanted to silently protest Trump's Islamophobic proposals.
Several of those other people attended Trump's rally in Aiken, South Carolina, last month, including Jibril Hough.
Unlike Hamid, Hough did not stay silent, shouting "Islam is not the problem" as Trump spoke about radical Islamic extemism.
Despite her early exit, Hamid
did manage to speak with the Trump supporters sitting around her in the
stands, several of whom held her hand and said "sorry" as she was forced
to leave the venue.
"The people around
me who I had an opportunity to talk with were very sweet," she said.
"The people I did not make contact with, the people who Trump influenced
were really nasty."
One woman Hamid spoke with in line remarked that she "didn't look scary," but "like a good one."
"People
don't have a chance to see anything other than the Muslims they see on
TV," Hamid said, pointing to footage of terrorists and Islamist
militants.
Hamid said before the event
that she was not concerned for her safety, explaining her ardent belief
that "people are mostly decent."
After
her chaotic exit, Hamid remained optimistic about the character of most
people -- even those who shouted at her to "get out" -- instead blaming
Trump's heated rhetoric and outsized influence.
"This
demonstrates how when you start dehumanizing the other it can turn
people into very hateful, ugly people," she said. "It needs to be
known."
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