LEWISTON – The past week has been tough for the community, Somali and Franco-Americans attending a community dialogue at the Franco American Heritage Center agreed Monday.

“A lot of anger and hate has been flying around,” said Steve Wessler of the Center for the Prevention of Hate Violence.

In the days after last Thursday’s report of a hate incident at Lewiston Middle School involving a ham steak left at a lunch table to insult Somali students, a Sun Journal newspaper forum was so filled with hostility it was shut down.

Wessler said he received hate e-mail and two phone messages in which a man threatened to commit violence against him.

And then last Saturday, Brent Matthews, a Lewiston man who became known for rolling a pig’s head into a Somali mosque last July, committed suicide at Marden’s parking lot.

“Fear is what guides us,” said Edward Boucher, 62. “A lot of us are led by that. It’s the beginning to a lot of the problems.”

For years, Catholics suffered prejudice before being accepted. That’s not uncommon for any new group arriving in a community, several Francos said.

“Eventually these things work themselves out,” Boucher said.

“But does it make it right?” asked Zamzam Mohamud, 32, sitting beside him wearing her Somali head scarf and dress. “Then does it just keep going? Where does it stop?” There isn’t much of a community “if we don’t make a change.”

So, Wessler asked, “What can we do about this heightened tension?”

Speak out, said Emmanuel Boucher, 15.

When something happens or someone says something that is wrong, “Ask them, ‘What do you mean by that?'” Then start “telling people differently when they start saying stuff about Somalis,” Boucher said. At first, “it’s hard to do. But once you start doing it everybody’s going to start doing it. So it’s going to be a lot easier.”

Mustaf Sharif, 17, agreed.

That happened at Edward Little High School, Sharif said. “At our school every day there used to be a fight my freshman year.”

Through the Unity Project program, white and Somali students got together. Understanding grew. Racial tensions are still there, but not as much. Now when someone says something that is wrong, students are more likely to say, “You don’t do that here,” Sharif said.

Part of the problem was kids were believing everything they heard, like Somali immigrants get free cars, said Mukhtar Sharif, 16.

At Edward Little, once students were told there was no truth to rumors like Somalis get free cars, they began to understand. “Education is the key,” Sharif said.

Wessler agreed. There is no magic solution to stopping the rumors and bias. It takes speaking out. Sometimes that can be 400 people at a rally, sometimes a newspaper editorial, or sometimes just one person talking to another.

The group talked about what they’ve gained by meeting with each other for four weeks.

John Glaus, 57, said he’s learned that Somalis want to be accepted, not assimilated. People don’t need to change themselves, but people need to understand others.

Sharif said he attended the dialogues “to put a face to the rumors and stereotypes” about Somalis. He hopes people stop believing rumors.

Boucher said he’s now “friends with Zamzam.”

She said both sides need to get out of their comfort zone. Whites need to get to know Somalis, Somalis need to get to know whites. “That’s the only way we’re going to learn.”

There are opportunities.

Bill Cutler said the Jubilee Center held at the downtown Trinity Church could use volunteers to tutor Somali students.

More community dialogues between whites and Somalis will be held this fall, Wessler said.