A Canadian politician, Jagmeet Singh, recently showed that he really puts the word “leader” in the term political leader, by facing down a woman who came to his event to spew racist rhetoric. He did it by using love and peace, rather than sinking to her level and using anger or harsh words. The incident happened in Brampton, Ontario, where Jagmeet is a member of the provincial Parliament, and a New Democratic Party leadership candidate, and where he was holding an event called the “Jagmeet and Greet.”
The meeting was just coming under way when the woman stormed up to Jagmeet and began to yell at him, interrupting him from conducting the meeting properly. Although Jagmeet is part of the Sikh religion, the woman believed him to be Muslim and yelled at him such things as, “We know you’re in bed with Sharia. We know you’re in bed with the Muslim Brotherhood. We know by your votes.”
Jagmeet is no stranger to Islamophobia. Although Sikhism and Islam are not the same, because Sikh men wear a turban covering their heads, they are often assumed to be Muslim and can face the same discrimination that they would if they were Muslim. Perhaps due to his experience, Jagmeet himself remained calm, even as members of his audience grew increasingly frustrated with the woman, and started to try to engage back with her. That is when Jagmeet took charge.
Speaking directly to his audience, Jagmeet said, “We don’t want to be intimidated by hate. We don’t want hatred to ruin a positive event, Let’s show people how we would treat someone with love.” With that, he began to lead everyone present in a chant of his campaign slogan, “Love and courage.”
This had the immediate effect of bringing together all of the people who had shown up to the event for valid reasons, either to support Jagmeet or to hear and learn more about him with an open mind, and it drowned out the hatred coming from the unidentified woman who had come to yell at Jagmeet. With the audience united in a peaceful protest of their own against her, eventually, the woman realized she was not getting the reaction she wanted, and left the event of her own accord, with no violence or confrontation necessary.
After the event Jagmeet put out a statement about why he thought it was important to confront the issue in the way he did, rather than arguing with her, playing into her Islamophobia by explaining he himself is not Muslim or allowing a confrontation to happen with his supporters and her. Jagmeet truly is the definition of firm political leadership.
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Video Courtesy: YouTube via Brampton Focus
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Source: Huffington Post
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