Elham Salah of Auburn and a member of the Lewiston-Auburn Islamic Center had trouble speaking at the podium in Lewiston’s Kennedy Park on Wednesday. By not speaking, she actually said more than anyone else who attended the rally in support of the city’s most recent immigrants.

After introducing herself, Salah identified herself as a member of the Lewiston mosque. She couldn’t say another word, overcome by emotion and uncomfortable speaking publicly about the attack against her mosque.

A local man has been charged with desecration of a place of worship after confessing to rolling a frozen pig’s head through an open door at the mosque during prayer on July 3.

Wednesday’s rally fiercely supported religious freedom and demonstrated support for immigrants who have chosen to call Lewiston home.

“There is no excuse for people in Lewiston to be uncomfortable practicing their religion,” Mayor Lionel Guay said.

He’s right. Especially in this city, where English immigrants, then Irish, then French established their homes and built their churches.

The mayor pledged to protect the values and beliefs of all residents of Lewiston, a statement backed by the presence of religious leaders and of school, municipal and police administrators, Gov. John Baldacci and Attorney General Steve Rowe.

Rabbi Hillel Katzir of Temple Shalom explained his feeling that our freedom of religion depends upon our freedom of speech, which are both reliant on our freedom of assembly – rights all contained in the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. “If we don’t feel free to exercise those rights, then we might as well not have the rest of the rights,” Katzir said.

His statement, which was met with applause, is proof of how important our freedoms are to us.

“This is not a Muslim issue, or a religious issue,” the rabbi said. “This is a Lewiston issue, a Maine issue, an American issue.”

And, he warned, if we do not stand in solidarity to stop intolerance now, “There is no telling who will be the next target.”

While the rabbi was speaking, several people standing on the outskirts of the rally were talking loudly about eating ham sandwiches and cooking pork chops. The comments were certainly connected to the pig’s head at the mosque, and the people talking were critical of how much the city has done to accommodate a people of faith who consider pork unclean.

They were “joking,” just as the man arrested for the crime said he was doing July 3.

Such jokes are what the Rev. Dr. Jodi Hayashida, pastor of the First Unitarian Universalist Church in Auburn, called “casual hatred.” Hatred disguised as kidding or fun.

Elham Salah and anyone of any color, religion, gender or sexual orientation who has ever faced hatred knows it’s no joke.