“They’re terrified. It was an honor to be invited to this mosque, but it was surreal to be there, and it made me feel good about my actions in that white supremacist church earlier.”
William Kelly, the DC-based agitator who was arrested on Friday and released only to storm a St. Paul church with other anti-ICE agitators on Sunday, has said he "feels good" about his actions after visiting a local mosque that he praised, in contrast to churchgoers that he harassed on Sunday.
"So we’ve been invited to the local Somali mosque, and as you can see how beautiful it is. This is where they do their prayer," Kelly said. "This is where normally, 500 people will, you know, come and make prayer, but things are quiet because the local community is scared to come out. They’re terrified. It was an honor to be invited to this mosque, but it was surreal to be there, and it made me feel good about my actions in that white supremacist church earlier."
"How can these people be not afraid to go out of their homes, afraid to go practice their prayer while these rich white people can live like nothing's happening and ignore it completely. It's unjust, it's un-American. What is? What is freedom, if it only applies to white people?" he added.
https://twitter.com/TPostMillennial/status/2013268363720396937?s=20
This came after Kelly and others stormed Cities Church in St Paul, Minnesota, where congregants were in the middle of Sunday service, as part of "Operation Pull Up," organized by former Minneapolis NAACP president Nekima Levy Armstrong.
Kelly went around the sanctuary, filming churchgoers as he also filmed himself saying to them, "As you can see, all these pretend Christians, all these comfortable white people, who are living lavish, comfortable lives while children are dragged into concentration camps. You’re living real nice lives with your lattes, doing absolutely nothing for your Latino and Somali brothers and sisters."
He was confronted by a couple of congregants, to which he yelled, "you are a fake Christian. Why are you not standing with your Somali and Latino communities? Why do I not see you out at Whipple every day protesting this attack on humanity? Where are you? You’re sinners. You’re pretending to be Christian," later yelling at them, "shame." He also harassed people outside the building, yelling similar comments.
https://twitter.com/libbyemmons/status/2013248757211578820?s=20
One of the members of the church posted after the incident, "ICE protestors invaded my church this morning. They stormed in right as the sermon started, surrounded the congregation, and started shouting obscenities and their disgusting slogans. As the children started crying, this seemed to enrage one man even more and he started screaming about how we are 'privileged pigs.'"
"It’s hard to know what to say or do in a situation like this but the congregation began to pray, read Scripture, and sing. Eventually we were told to move to another part of the church and the protestors were cleared out," the person added. "I don’t know what kind of person can do something this disordered and evil but I keep thinking Father forgive them for they know not what they do. Pray for Minnesota."
https://twitter.com/kangminjlee/status/2013083033960599588?s=20
Former CNN host Don Lemon had been embedded with the protestors as they stormed the church, claiming that he was "not part of the activists, but we’re here just reporting on them." As the activists shouted and interrupted the service, Lemon said, "so this is what the First Amendment is about, about the freedom to protest." The Department of Justice’s Civil Rights Division is investigating potential violations of the FACE Act in response to the incident, which prohibits obstructing, injuring, or intimidating people who are exercising their First Amendment right of religious freedom at a place of worship.
https://twitter.com/TPostMillennial/status/2013267843291250732?s=20
At the church, Lemon interviewed a man who said, "if I was to break into any of their houses uninvited, cause derision and upset according to their values, I would be kicked out." Lemon claimed that houses with US citizens are being broken into, and the man replied with defending the Trump administration’s actions to crack down on immigration that exploded under the previous administration. "I'm not saying it's pretty, I'm not saying it's not messy. I'm not saying it could be it couldn't be better. I'm saying this is a part of a much larger dialog in which one administration caused a great deal of chaos and havoc and danger for American citizens, and another is trying to correct that," the man added.
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