In Orlando Killer's Hometown, Religious And LGBT People Choose To Build Bridges

FORT PIERCE, Fla. -- With its slender minaret pointing toward the sky, the beige and teal-trimmed mosque where Omar Mateen once prayed looks much like any small-town Christian church.

But in the days after Mateen stormed into the Pulse nightclub in Orlando, shooting 49 people to death and injuring dozens more, the mosque has attracted the attention of some angry people who blame the shooter’s religion for his outburst of violence.

People have shouted insults from their passing cars. Others have used social media to send death threats . To protect its congregants, the Islamic Center of Fort Pierce now has two armed security guards at night, shining flashlights toward the faithful as they arrive to break their daily fasts and to join evening prayers in the holy month of Ramadan.

Rehman Tahir, a 32-year-old Fort Pierce native who attends the mosque, said he finds the threats disheartening, but he doubts that most locals share in that hostility.

“There’s obviously been people who threaten the masjid and the people who come here,” Tahir told HuffPost, using the Arabic word for “mosque.” “But nobody expected this and nobody knows how to react. I think, overall, everyone has handled themselves very well.”

If Tahir’s reaction appears optimistic, he’s not alone. After finding out that Mateen came from Fort Pierce, Rev. Bob Baggott of the Community Church of nearby Vero Beach started sending emails. He wanted to hold a religious event not just to speak to his own non-creedal Christian congregation, but to bring together people from the Muslim faith and the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community as well.

“Our feeling here was we needed to come together,” Baggott told HuffPost. “What better place to do that than in a house of worship? And then we said to ourselves, if we’re coming together in a house of worship, we need to come together with all the faiths.”

All told, members of four major religions -- Christians, Jews, Muslims and Hindus -- joined with the LGBT community for an inter-faith gathering at Baggott's church last week to share a message of love and compassion in response to the shooting.

For Baggott, one of the most touching moments of the night was when a Muslim teenager played “Amazing Grace,” a Christian song, on the clarinet before reading aloud from the Quran in Arabic.

“It was really powerful,” Baggott told HuffPost. “It was something this community has never seen.”

John Hillhouse, 86, read from the Bible's Sermon on the Mount that night. Having come out to himself at age 13 and to the gay community by the time he was 20, Hillhouse has lived through a long arc of LGBT history. He remembers feeling that he'd done something wrong when he first realized he was attracted to other boys -- maybe it was because he didn't like sports, he thought back then. 

But even after a killer massacred people at a gay nightclub, Hillhouse said he felt inspired by the widespread support for the LGBT community and by President Barack Obama 's speeches following the attack. 

“Coming from all that self-hatred and the hatred from society, today it’s a long way,” Hillhouse said. “It’s incredible the support gay people are getting.”

Victor Begg, a Muslim leader who spoke at the inter-faith event, is worried about the ongoing anger directed at those who practice Islam.

Begg and his wife retired to the area three years ago, moving from Detroit to a condo with a beach view. In Michigan, Begg had helped his local mosque build up a congregation, and he remains active in religious circles, calling himself an “ecumaniac.”

While Mateen had claimed to act on behalf of the Islamic State group in a 911 call during the shooting, Begg questioned the killer’s adherence to the Muslim faith, noting that he had carried out the attack during Ramadan. Had he been practicing the faith he professed, Begg said, Mateen would have been at the mosque for prayers or at home with his family.

“How could this man claim to be a practicing Muslim?” Begg said. “He just committed the ultimate sin, 49 times.”

Last week’s inter-faith gathering left Begg feeling hopeful, although he remains concerned about the wider hostility toward Islam -- which he sees as more intense than even the backlash after Sept. 11, 2001. He noted that after those earlier attacks, then-President George W. Bush spoke in defense of the American Muslim community, declaring that “acts of violence against innocents violate the fundamental tenets of the Islamic faith.”

By contrast, presumptive GOP presidential nominee Donald Trump has reiterated his call for a ban on Muslims entering the United States, slurred all Muslim immigrants as incipient terrorists and said it's time to consider racial profiling. He has also urged surveillance of mosques.

“I think the big problem is the charged political climate,” Begg told HuffPost.

“The community never had a problem here,” he added. “Every hospital you go to has Muslim doctors. However, this election season has caused problems. You turn on the TV and hear this guy [Trump], and he uses the media very effectively.”

While he refrained from discussing politics, Tahir said he thought that other Americans might view the congregation at his mosque with more fellow feeling if they just knew more about them.

“I was born and raised here,” Tahir said. “I’m probably the only Muslim who watches NASCAR, listens to country and drives a truck.”

Christopher Mathias contributed reporting.