The Daily - Thursday, Dec. 28, 2017

The Daily is revisiting our favorite episodes of the year — listening back, and then hearing what’s happened since the stories first ran. Today, we return to the story of two Americans, Abraham Davis and Hisham Yasin. Theirs is a story of vandalism and forgiveness. Guest: Sabrina Tavernise, a national correspondent for The New York Times. For more information on today’s episode, visit nytimes.com/thedaily.

Duration: 38m
Broadcast on: 28 Dec 2017
Audio Format: other

For more information on today’s episode, visit nytimes.com/thedaily. Transcripts of each episode will be made available by the next workday.

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Brought to you by the Capital One Saver Card. With Saver, you are an unlimited 3% cashback on dining, entertainment, and at grocery stores. That's unlimited cashback on ordering takeout from home, or unlimited cashback on tickets to concerts and games. So grab a bite, grab a seat, and earn unlimited 3% cashback with the Saver Card. Capital One. What's in your wallet? Terms apply. See CapitalOne.com for details. Hi, it's Michael. This week, the Daily is revisiting favorite episodes of the year, listening back and then hearing what's happened in the time since the story's first ran. Today, we're going back to the story of Abraham, a young man whose act of bigotry led to something entirely unexpected. From the New York Times, I'm Michael Barber. This is the Daily. Today, as a poor white teenager in Fort Smith, Arkansas, Abraham Davis never fit in. As a hidden minority there, the town's Muslims were trying to make a home. Then, their lives collided. It's Wednesday, August 3. Say it in our big slowly, the Hadeeth. Hadeeth. Wasser and Takara Hoseihan. Wasser and Tohypu Hoseihan. Wasser and Tohypu Hoseihan. Wasser and Tohypu Hoseihan. Wasser and Tohypu Hoseihan. Wasser and Tohypu Hoseihan. Wasser and Tohypu Hoseihan. Wasser and Tohypu Hoseihan. Wasser and Tohypu Hoseihan. Wasser and Tohypu Hoseihan. Wasser and Tohypu Hoseihan. Wasser and Tohypu Hoseihan. Wasser and Tohypu Hoseihan. Wasser and Tohypu Hoseihan. Wasser and Tohypu Hoseihan. What I mean is, you may hate something to happen to you, but it's good for you, that you may love to have something, but you don't get it, that's good for you, you don't get it. My colleague Sabrina Tavernisi has been reporting on a recent incident in Fort Smith, Arkansas, a mostly white, predominantly Christian town, where abject poverty lives alongside visible wealth. There's a small, little lively population of Muslims in Fort Smith, but for the most part, nobody knew that there were Muslims in Fort Smith, you know, they were there, but most people didn't know that they were there, and nothing like this had ever happened before. On the morning of October 20th, the mom at the Alsala Mosque on South 28th Street drove up to prepare for morning prayers and saw that the mosque had been vandalized. There were swastikas on its sign, on its windows and its doors, curses against Islam, curses against Allah. There were words, ugly, ugly writing, Muslims go home, we don't want you here. He then begins calling everybody in the Muslim community, telling them a terrible thing has happened to the mosque. One of the first of those calls was to Hashemi's scene and when he called me, I just came right away. He's a used car dealer in Fort Smith in the social director of the Alsala Mosque, and Hashem gets in his white infinity, grabs his gun, and drives immediately to the mosque. Wow, grabs his gun. People were on edge. I mean, you know, Trump stuff has been going on. Mr. Trump, he was up in fire, right on the list on Muslims. We're really worried anyway about what's happening nationally. Every day they talk about Muslims, every day, every day, every day. There's a guy who'd been sending anonymous emails to the mosque, threatening them. They had to call the FBI about that. Oh, my God, I have a fear, you know, for myself, for my family, for my mosque. And so they were pretty freaked out. You know, and sometimes I was cutting in my gun, you never know.

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