Muslim woman embraces protester outside United States mosque

Cynthia showed incredible compassion and curiosity towards Annie, connecting with her from a place of a person who had fears and concerns and not as an object – one that represented everything that Annie feared.

Cynthia Cox de Boutinkhar didn’t know what came over her when she embraced a woman protesting outside a mosque in Hilliard, pulled her in and held on tight.

Post-hug an invitation to come inside the cultural centre was accepted by Annie.

The woman told the mosque’s members that her husband and her pastor did not want her to come to protest. Annie joked saying, “What if I catch on fire?” she joked. According to Naziri, there are a few who are pure bigots full of hate but, there are also other people who get manipulated by hate groups, preachers, and teachers of hate. A 50 minute video has gone viral that taped their conversation. DeBoutinkhar jokingly offered to taste it for her first.

Annie, an anti-Islam protester from Lancaster, takes a selfie with Cynthia DeBoutinkhar inside the Noor Islamic Cultural Center in Columbus. The Facebook page promoting the protest around Noor Islamic Cultural Center had been disabled by Monday morning.

“She definitely seems to have had a lot of misinformation and misguided information from the Internet”, he told The Post.

“Normally, I don’t go up to somebody who despises me and give them a hug”, de Boutinkhar said”.

“I grabbed her – I don’t know why I did this – and her whole body just relaxed like a noodle”.

“And she said, ‘I googled “beheadings and Islam”.’ I mean, you google any two things, and you’re going to find a picture!” We all began applauding.

De Boutinkhar informed the lady “I’m an American, too”, and requested her to go inside for a glass of water. “We tend to rely on our social media for knowledge and fail to reach out to people on a one-on-one, human level, and I think that is creating more ignorance and arrogance in our communities”.

Annie was then given a tour and spoke with mosque leaders for almost two hours before leaving with a copy of the Quran.

Malik hopes that Annie will continue to engage with Muslims.

“When she left, I gave her a hug and asked her to please stop getting all her info from Fox News and Donald Trump (who she greatly admires)”, DeBoutinkhar wrote.

The group asked Annie once again if she’d come inside for coffee and bagels, and she finally agreed. That’s in God’s hands. I don’t approve of the violence or killings (neither do we), but I’ll read this book.

“I’m here today to protest the Islamophobic protesters that are here bearing arms”, said Rekab Semaj of Oakland County, who had an AK47 rifle slung over his shoulder and a sign reading “Muslims Deserve Freedom”.