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SALT LAKE CITY — A social media post by Utah Rep. Trevor Lee featuring a group of Muslims walking the streets of Taylorsville has prompted backlash from some and a call from a national Muslim civil rights group for the lawmaker to meet with community members.
"It is important for elected officials to know and understand all segments of their constituencies. We encourage Rep. Lee to take up the Muslim community on its offer to meet with them and build greater understanding," Corey Saylor of the Council on American-Islamic Relations said in a statement Wednesday. The council said leaders of the Alrasool Islamic Center in Taylorsville have invited Lee and other lawmakers to meet with them.
Lee, for his part, said that he's open to the idea. "If they want to invite me to something, yes, I can make time. I'm more than happy to sit down and talk with them. I just don't know what for," said the Layton Republican.
At the same time, he expressed a measure of exasperation over the attention and responses generated by the post on the social platform X on Monday, many responders defending the Muslim contingent's right to religious expression, others expressing discomfort and alarm with the group's presence in Utah. It had been seen by 6.6 million people as of Wednesday afternoon and generated around 2,300 responses.
"All I do is post a video, and because of how each side is assuming what it means, they're all just going out there crying foul on each side," Lee told KSL.com.
Some 60,000 Muslims with roots in a broad range of countries live in Utah, according to members of the religious group, and the state is home to 14 mosques.
The video, which Lee said was sent to him by an acquaintance, shows a contingent of Shia Muslims, the women among them wearing head coverings and long black garments, walking on a sidewalk in Taylorsville, some holding flags. "In the small town of Taylorsville, Utah," Lee wrote in the post, to which he added a comment in the post's reply section, "Not a single American flag in sight."
"Someone sent me the video and said, 'Hey, this is interesting.' I said, 'Oh yeah, it is interesting,' so I just posted it. That's all. It's a video. This is in the small town of Taylorsville, Utah," Lee said.
Group members, it turns out, were walking as part of an annual religious pilgrimage called Arbaeen, which follows a 40-day mourning period to mark the death of the prophet Muhammad's grandson, Hussein ibn Ali, a seventh-century revolutionary leader who stood up against a corrupt leader of the time. The pilgrimage has also come to represent a protest against oppression.
"We do it every year," said Hassan Mardanlou, a member of the board of trustees of Alrasool Islamic Center, sponsor of the pilgrimage in the X video, which occurred last Thursday. It's not a political event, he said, but rather a religious activity and the black clothing and flags are representative of the mourning for Hussein ibn Ali.
Lee wonders why posting of the video has prompted such a response and suspects it may be a backlash to his conservative politics. "It's because I'm a conservative lawmaker and I'm outspoken on what I believe and so they're trying to rile something up and they call me islamophobe because I post a flippin' video," he said.
Indeed, he thinks people are getting riled up over nothing.
"Why does posting a video of a bunch of Muslim people in Taylorsville, Utah, rile so many people up on the left and the right? Why is that the case?" he asked. "Is it because everywhere the Muslim community has infiltrated in Europe it has been destructive? Is that why? Is it because of 9/11? I don't know. Is it because of, you know, the Middle East not allowing us to have missionaries there? I don't know. Is it a refugee problem? I don't know. Is it because we have a housing crisis in Utah, yet we're importing over 100,000 refugees in our state in the last decade? I don't know. But I can see why ... people would have their own assumptions on each side of the aisle. But that's not what I say."
While not speculating on what Lee's intent may have been, the Council on American-Islamic Relations said in its statement Wednesday that the organization had documented 4,951 bias complaints from January to June this year, up 69% from the same period last year. The group received 8,061 complaints in all last year, the most it has recorded in its 30-year history. "CAIR's mission is to protect civil rights, enhance understanding of Islam, promote justice and empower American Muslims," reads the group's statement.
Mardanlou said Alrasool membership, with roots in Iraq, Iran, Afghanistan, Pakistan and the United States, numbers around 250-350. Alrasool opens its doors to those learning about Shia Muslims, he said, and he welcomed Lee. "Ask Mr. Trevor Lee to come forward if he has any questions he wants to know about the Shia Muslims. Let's sit down and talk," Mardanlou said.
While expressing vexation at the responses to his post, Lee also said the mainstream media has a role in not exacerbating the situation through its coverage of the matter.
"You guys should not assume either, but that's what all the news articles have done thus far, right?" he said. "Like they're trying so hard to make it a story that gives them a click instead of just saying, 'Hey, it looks like a video is posted and it has caused a lot of assumptions on both sides, the left and the right. Let's talk to people and figure out why a video of a bunch of Muslims in Taylorsville is causing so much an issue.' That's your story right there."
As for the responses to the post, some of the X commenters bashed Lee, others questioned why he made the post, others offered their own open-ended questions.
"What are they protesting? Or supporting? I can't tell from this clip. I served my mission in a region of Russia that was heavily populated with Muslims and they are good people, being Muslim isn't an identifier for a person being good or bad," said one poster.
"I never said being a Muslim makes them a bad person," Lee responded.
Some posters offered words of support for the people in the video. "I live in Taylorsville and I'm OK with it. They are peaceful, unlike the Americans who violently stormed the capital on Jan. 6," wrote one.
Others expressed alarm. "What?!?! I live in UT… unfortunately the culture is naive and stupid about the dangers of Islam. They don't assimilate! Wake up! Send these people back where they came from," wrote another.
