For some context, I’m an Arab American from a Palestinian Christian family. Like many Palestinians, my family became refugees, but we’ve always been Christians.

That’s important to mention because after reading the comments on KSEE24’s Facebook post about a Sunday Islamic cultural event in Clovis, I wasn’t looking at them through the lens of politics.

I was looking at them as someone who grew up in the same Valley as the people writing them.

‘We Don’t Need No Devil Festivities’

What I found was honestly disappointing.

The comments weren’t simply people saying, “Islam isn’t my religion,” or “I don’t agree with this event.” Everyone has the right to their own beliefs, and religious freedom cuts both ways. What I saw instead were comments filled with mockery, stereotypes, and outright hostility toward people who, in many cases, are simply trying to celebrate their culture with their neighbors.

Comments like, “We are not here to coexist with evil. Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ.” “Bring your dogs. Watch what happens.” “Bringing my pot-bellied pigs and BBQ ribs.” “We don’t need no devil festivities.” “Some cultures are incompatible.” “I bet it’ll be explosive.”

Read those comments for what they are.

They’re not theological debates. They’re not thoughtful disagreements. They’re attempts to make an entire group of people feel unwelcome before they’ve even shown up to a community event. The fact that so many people were comfortable posting them publicly says far more about us than it does about the event itself.

I know how the internet works. There will always be keyboard warriors who say things online they’d never have the courage to say face-to-face, hoping for a few laugh reactions or likes from people they’ll never meet. But I couldn’t stop asking myself one question: Is this really who Fresno and Clovis are?

I hope not.

The Central Valley Was Built For Everyone

This Valley has always been built by people who came from somewhere else. Armenians fleeing genocide, Hmong families escaping war, Sikh and Punjabi immigrants, Mexican farmworkers, Japanese Americans rebuilding their lives, Palestinian families like mine, and countless others have all shaped the San Joaquin Valley into what it is today. We don’t all worship the same way. We don’t celebrate the same holidays. We don’t all speak the same language at home. That’s never been the point. The point has always been that we coexist anyway.

That’s why I found some of the comments invoking Christianity especially troubling. Being from a Christian home, I can’t reconcile calling millions of people “evil” simply because they practice a different faith. Muslims and Christians may disagree on fundamental theology, but disagreement has never been a license for hatred. If we’re going to judge an entire religion by the worst people who claim it, then none of us comes out looking very good.

You’re free to disagree with Islam. You’re free to practice Christianity, Judaism, or no religion at all. That’s the promise America makes. What isn’t required, and what shouldn’t be normalized, is turning your neighbors into targets because they pray differently than you do.

The saddest part is that comments like these don’t stay online. They tell families they’re not welcome. They tell children their culture is something to be mocked. They make people wonder whether attending a community event is worth the risk of becoming the next target of someone else’s joke or threat.

Fresno and Clovis is better than those comments.

At least, I’d like to believe we are.