ANAHEIM, CA – A group of
anti-Islamic protestors attempted to disrupt the fourth annual Eid Festival on
Saturday, July 9 and Sunday, July 10, but instead were met with confrontations
that turned into a dance party.

The Bible Believers, a
familiar group to Dearborn residents, was up to its old familiar tricks at the
Eid Festival held in downtown Anaheim. This was the first year the group
attended the festival, carrying bigoted signs and chanting offensive language,
such as “Prophet Muhammad is a Pedophile.”

Members of the Bible
Believers caused chaos when they disrupted the last Arab International Festival
in Dearborn in 2012 by marching through the premises carrying a pig’s head on a
stick and chanted similar remarks.

Wayne County Sherriff’s
deputies had to escort the group out of the festival after attendees– many of
them children– began engaging with the group and throwing rocks and water water
bottles at them.

But quite a different
reaction occurred in Anaheim this year.

18-year-old Ibrahem Dalati,
whose father founded the Eid Festival, led a dance party in front of the
protestors–eventually drowning out their offensive behavior.

In an interview with The
AANews, Dalati said what had transpired at the festival was never planned.

“They started preaching things and spewing hate,” he said.
“People were non-violently confronting them because they were upset at what
they were doing. I was upset too, I’ll admit it. But I decided that it wasn’t
about them, it wasn’t about us; it was about the festival and coming together.
We are there to celebrate and not start altercations.”

Dalati said during the first
evening of the festival, only two men showed up to protest. But by the second
day, the protestors had quadrupled in size. That was when festival attendees
were growing increasingly agitated with the group.

However, instead of
confronting hate with more hate, Dalati recalled taking advantage of a moment where
a sound technician began blaring music through speakers. He decided to start
dancing and soon dozens of festival attendees joined him, eventually drowning
out the protestors with a larger-than-life dance celebration.

“The feeling I got from it was fantastic,” Dalati
recalled. “I felt like we brought people together. We weren’t going to stop
ourselves from celebrating. We aren’t going to be depicted as a religion of
hate and murder. We are about peace and love. It wasn’t just Muslims and Arabs
dancing with us. So many different people were dancing along. It became one big
dance party.”

Ibrahem Dalati.

A video that went viral captured the incident. In it, the
protestors appear increasingly frustrated as more festival attendees began
engaging in the celebration, with many of them shaking, shimmying and strutting
to dabke music to block out their noise.

One protestor can be heard screaming, “Your prophet would
have you guys stoned if he caught you dancing like this.”

In a similar fashion to what they did after the Arab Festival
in Dearborn, the Bible Believers posted a YouTube video about an “Eid
sacrifice” that has yet to gain traction. Instead, the dance party video went
viral.

In 2012, the Bible Believers’ YouTube video called
“American Muslims stone Christians in Dearborn, MI” went viral and the incident
at the Arab International Festival
resulted in a freedom of speech lawsuit that has made its way through several
courts and eventually landing in favor of the evangelist group in the Court of
Appeals. Last month, the U.S. Supreme Court refused to hear the case of the
Wayne County Sheriff’s office, upholding the Court of Appeals decision that the
group’s rights had been violated.

But while the Bible Believers group has been credited for
shutting down the Arab festival in Dearborn for good, the outcome is different
in Anaheim. According to Dalati, the festival there will only thrive in the
years to come. This year, he estimated that 20,000-30,000 people attended over
the two-day celebration.

Dalati said he rarely feels targeted in the Anaheim area
for being a Muslim. However, he added that bigots tend to come out of the
woodwork during large gatherings. He recalled overhearing a festival attendee unaffiliated
to the Bible Believers telling her friend “Islam is a religion of murder” while
she was engaging in the festivities.

Dalati said he turned around and responded to the woman by
telling her, “I’m sure the murderers will treat you to a nice meal. Go ahead and
enjoy the festival.”

Watch the video below:

https://www.facebook.com/HappyArabNews/videos/vb.267478113283421/1186973981333825/?type=2&theater