Organizers Cancel Portland’s June 10 March Against Sharia

The Facebook announcement reads: “In order to ensure the safety of those who had planned on attending, we have taken the decision to cancel the Portland March Against Sharia.”

Pro-Trump marchers faced off with antifa at Joey Gibson’s April 29 protest in East Portland’s Montavilla neighborhood. It was advertised as a patriotic march for “free speech,” but several attendees wore the insignia of racist and militia groups. (Joe Riedl)
By Elise Herron

Scott Ryan Presler, co-host of the June 10 March Against Sharia, took to the event's Facebook page earlier today to announce that the march has been canceled.

Last Friday a horrific fatal stabbing left two dead and one injured after they attempted to squelch racial slurs directed toward two teenagers on a MAX train, one of whom was wearing a hijab. In response, Mayor Ted Wheeler urged the federal government to rescind permits for two alt-right rallies scheduled to take place in Terry D. Schrunk Plaza.

Presler announced that the cancellation of the June 10 rally is, "due to Mayor Wheeler's inflammatory comments and what we feel is an incitement of violence, he has shamefully endangered every scheduled participant."

In addition to the assertion that Wheeler's comments would lead to violence, Presler also took issue with categorizing the rally as alt-right. "Our March Against Sharia includes all religions, genders, sexual orientations, and walks of life," he said.

In a response, Wheeler told OPB Tuesday, "Given where this city is now, in terms of the mourning we're going through collectively, the anger that is currently focused on what I would describe as the alt-right, this is not the right time for those groups to come into our community and hold a rally."

The rally was to be part of nationwide anti-Sharia law rallies. In his post, Presler advises participants to join the Seattle March Against Sharia, which is still scheduled to take place.

"Our city is in mourning, our community's anger is real, and the timing and subject of these events can only exacerbate an already difficult situation," Wheeler said in a statement last Monday.

The June 10 anti-Sharia law march was one of the events that Wheeler sought to see canceled. The other was a June 4 pro-Trump, free speech rally, also planned for Schrunk Plaza. That event has not been canceled.

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