Phoenix Anti-Islam Protest Triggers Counterattack

Some anti-islam protesters who showed up at a Phoenix mosque on Friday evening carried firearms.
Hundreds of members of various religious and community groups had already gathered along the sidewalk across from Islamic Community Center of Phoenix to meet the protesters.
community center president Usama Shami said of those who offered support quote“I think this is the real story, not the bigotry,” He said they were standing against bigotry.
Phoenix police had blocked off most streets in the residential area near the center, where the protest lasted nearly four hours.
Jon Ritzheimer organized the protest, which followed one held on 17 May at the same mosque. Both protests were staged in response to an attack at a similar event in Garland, Texas earlier this month, by gunmen known to have attended the Phoenix mosque a year previously.