Man wearing MAGA hat kicked out of vigil for Christchurch, New Zealand, mosque victims
A man wearing a “Make America Great Again” hat attended a vigil for victims of the New Zealand mosque shootings and was told to leave by upset mourners.
Last week, an Australian gunman opened fire in two mosques — Masjid Al Noor and Dar Al Hijrah in Christchurch, New Zealand — killing 50 people. Brenton Harrison Tarrant, a 28-year-old personal trainer who was charged with murder, was seen flashing the “OK” sign in court — a hand gesture associated with white supremacy. On Wednesday, police said Tarrant was stopped before he hit a third targeted location. “We absolutely believe we know where he was going,” said New Zealand police commissioner Mike Bush, according to NBC News.
On Monday, students at York University in Toronto held an on-campus vigil for victims. During the closing prayer, a young man wearing a MAGA hat appeared in the crowd.
Raneem Ayoub, an 18-year-old freshmen student filmed people’s reactions, tweeting, “My school held a vigil to honor the lost lives caused by the attack in New Zealand. This man showed up with a MAGA hat on purpose. This was taking place in Toronto. Before I started recording he was saying the vigil was meaningless.”
Ayoub tells Yahoo Lifestyle, “I saw he was wearing a MAGA hat and I was shocked since I’ve never seen it worn before.”
She tweeted that the man had argued with people paying their respects. “I don’t know much about the argument, but it was about the hat, judging from the gestures the guy next to him was making,” she tells Yahoo Lifestyle. She also heard the man was making rude comments about the vigil.
Mourners told the MAGA hat-wearer, “There’s a f***ing massacre and you’re wearing a symbol of racism. Get the f*** out!” Others chanted for the man to leave and yelled “Shame!” and he left.
Since everyone in my replies seems to think they know so much about what happened, I’ll go into more depth of the story. The man in the cap did not attend the vigil until the very ending of the event when it was being finished off with a prayer.
During the prayer, he was arguing with the two men next to him. Everyone else at the vigil ignored him until the vigil was officially over (out of respect of the victims and the event). No one approached him and disturbed the vigil until it was finished.
Ayoub doesn’t know the man personally, but she tweeted, “He’s also been known by other students for always showing up to events similar to this one wearing the MAGA hat.”
My school is so welcoming, the vigil was not only for the muslim community but it was being heavily supported by many other communities at our school (including the jewish and christian community). The problem is not the students who took offence but the man himself.
Hes also been known by sother students for always showing up to events similar to this one wearing the maga hat. Everyone seems to also be ignoring the fact that he was vocalizing disrespectful slurs about the vigil (this happened during the prayer when everyone ignored him).
“I was paying attention to the prayer, but a friend of mine could hear him say something like, ‘the vigil is meaningless,’ and apparently said that Muslims are doing this around the world,” Ayoub tells Yahoo Lifestyle. The man allegedly told members of the crowd he can stand wherever he pleases.
In a different version of the video, a person knocks off the young man’s MAGA hat while he exits.
Man wearing MAGA hat kicked out of vigil for Christchurch, New Zealand, mosque victims
![Man wearing MAGA hat kicked out of vigil for Christchurch, New Zealand, mosque victims]()
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March 21, 2019
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