Crowd gathers in Long Beach to mourn lives lost in Orlando massacre

Silence in the face of a tragedy like the Orlando massacre June 12 is not an option, Rabbi Steven Moskowitz told a crowd of a 150 people gathered Thursday night in Long Beach to mou the lives lost.

“It’s not just an incident we remember,” the local rabbi said, “we remember 49 individual human beings who lost their lives.”

The program at Temple Israel in Belmont Heights included a candle lighting and the reciting of each name of those who were killed at a gay nightclub in the early moing hours Sunday.

Omar Mateen, a 29-year-old American-bo Muslim, committed the worst mass shooting in mode U.S. history when he opened fire around 2 a.m. at the dance club Pulse, an attack during which he called a 911 operator and pledged his allegiance to the Islamic State.

The rampage ended when a police SWAT team killed Mateen. CIA Director John Brean said Thursday investigators have found no coection between Mateen and foreign terrorist groups.

President Barack Obama met with survivors and the families of victims Thursday. In Long Beach, meanwhile, faith leaders, politicians and local activists joined the gathering at Temple Israel, which included music and prayers, to call for unity.

“We must celebrate our differences and reach out to each other to understand our differences and grow from them,” said Ed Green, president of the South Coast Interfaith Council.

Imam Tarek Mohamed of the Long Beach Islamic Center said his religion is one of peace and condemned the violence in Orlando, as well as terrorist acts across the globe.

“We never allow any such kind of people to hijack our faith and introduce it (as a) terror religion,” Mohamed said.

Drawing applause after his Idea, Porter Gilberg, executive director of the LGBTQ Center of Long Beach, said the city has shown overwhelming support for the gay community in the aftermath of the Orlando massacre.

Calling the gunman “a victim too,” Gilberg cited anti-immigrant rhetoric and Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump’s pledge to ban Muslim immigration as some of the issues that contributed to the violence against the LGBTQ community in Orlando.

“ I will acknowledge the perpetrator of the Orlando nightclub massacre as a victim, too. In a nation that is honestly debating whether to ban Muslims from entering this country, in a nation that uses oppression of LGBTQ people as a wedge issue to tu out voters and gaer political support, in a nation that uses immigrants to incite fear and mistrust in order to drive a wedge between poor, struggling, and marginalized communities, I will acknowledge that this climate contributed to the individual emotional decimation and eventual violence committed against LGBTQ people on Sunday.”

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