Muslim activists organised a fundraiser and collected over $55,000 after 154 gravestones were damaged and knocked over at a Jewish cemetery near St. Louis.
Since its launching on Tuesday at 1 P.M. local time, the fundraiser has raised an average of $1,000 every 15 minutes, said Tarek El-Messidi, a Muslim social activist.
“The feedback we’ve received has been amazing,” El-Messidi told Haaretz.
“You could say there is a silver lining in all the hate that is being directed against Jews and Muslims in America right now in that it has brought the two communities together, and this is just one example.”
Police were alerted to the vandalism around 8.30am on Monday.
Anita Feigenbaum, the executive director of the cemetery, said she cried when she saw what happened, and told the St. Louis Post-Dispatch: ‘It’s hard to even express how terrible it was. It was horrible.’
‘Muslim Americans stand in solidarity with the Jewish-American community to condemn this horrific act of desecration….
‘While these senseless acts have filled us with sorrow, we reflect on the message of unity, tolerance, and mutual protection found in the Constitution of Medina: an historic social contract between the Medinan Jews and the first Muslim community.
‘Through this campaign, we hope to send a united message from the Jewish and Muslim communities that there is no place for this type of hate, desecration, and violence in America.’
