Today, back in 1847, President Brigham Young arrived in the Salt Lake Valley with his party of Latter-day Saints and said, "This is the place!" In 1846, the members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints had left Nauvoo, Illinois because they were driven out, and they wanted to find a place where they wouldn't be bothered, and where they could worship as their consciences dictated.
Today, I'm watching a similar kind of persecution, only it's not happening to the LDS Church; it's happening to the Muslims.
Ever since the attacks on September 11, 2001, and more recent terrorist attacks, the Muslim backlash is horrible. Only one percent of them are radical and the rest are God-fearing and law abiding. Two of them are colleagues of mine. They are wonderful women, but one is afraid of wearing her hijab out and about, because she doesn't want to be attacked. The other one wears different head coverings, but for the most part, she'll wear her hijab.
But at the end of the day, they still have a right to worship as they see fit. That's what supposed to be great about our country. We have freedom of religion, but now it's been, "Yeah, that's fine, except for Islam, because of the terror attacks." That is NOT okay! It's bigotry in its ugliest form, in my opinion. I told one of my Muslim friends that if someone wanted to physically attack her because of her faith, then they'd have to go through me first. I mean it. I won't let anyone attack her because of her faith.
So as we in Utah commemorate the day that our Latter-day Saint forebears came to this valley to worship as they saw fit, let us remember the current modern-day pioneers who are here in this country to safely worship as they see fit, Latter-day Saints, Muslims, etc.
Slan go foill
