U.S. military members have a message for a Muslim child who is terrified that she’ll be deported: “I will protect you.”
Melissa Chance Yassini, founder of the Dallas-based Unity Movement, shared her daughter Sofia's fears on a public social media post:
“Sad day in America when I have to comfort my 8-year-old child who heard that someone with yellow hair named Trump wanted to kick all Muslims out of America. She had began collecting all her favorite things in a bag in case the Army came to remove us from our homes. She checked the locks on the door 3-4 times. This is terrorism. No child in America deserves to feel that way.”
The post has been shared more than 23,000 times.
Talk show host Montel Williams shared Yassini’s post on his officially verified Facebook page and responded with a message of support.
"It's beyond tragic that this young woman worries about being expelled from her own country based on her faith. Let us never forget many of those who founded this country were fleeing religious persecution - for us to now engage in it, to make a child feel like this, is essentially spitting in the face of the Constitution and those who sacrificed so much so that we can be free," Williams wrote.
U.S. Army veteran Kerri Peek responded to the post and launched a heartwarming movement.
“Salamalakum Melissa!” Peek commented with a photo of herself in uniform. “Please show this picture of me to your daughter. Tell her I am a Mama too and as a soldier I will protect her from the bad guys.”
Peek then wrote a post on her own Facebook asking other U.S. servicemen to show their support for Sofia.
Then #Iwillprotectyou went viral:
