Muslim Family Thankful for 'Touching' Gesture After Christmas Dinner Paid for by Stranger
A Muslims family that went to Olive Garden for a Christmas Day dinner were surprised when they were told a stranger paid for their bill, saying that it "touches their hearts."
CBS News reported on Tuesday that when Georgia resident Eslam Mohamed and his family were finishing dinner at a local Olive Garden restaurant they asked for their bill, and a waitress handed them the note that had large words written across reading: "Paid. Merry Christmas. Beautiful family."
Mohamed took to Facebook to express his gratitude, and explained that his group at the table consisted of seven adults and five children. He said that he suspected everyone in the restaurant could tell they were Arab Muslims, due to their language and the hijabs that the women were wearing.
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"I can't express how this act touched our hearts. Among all the bad things happening to Muslims and the hate speech that the presidential candidate had made lately, there is still light in the dark, there is still hope within the frustration," he said, possibly referring to GOP presidential candidate Donald Trump's call to ban all Muslims from coming to the United States [terporarily], due to security concerns.
"All what I can say to who did that, Merry Christmas to you, too, and God bless such a beautiful heart you have," Mohamed added.
The post has been shared over 26,000 times, and the story has been re-tweeted by Russel Moore, president of the Southern Baptist Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission, among others.
Trump, the Republican front-runner, was widely criticized for his proposal across the political spectrum, though received some conservative Christian support, such as from the Rev. Franklin Graham.
"For some time I have been saying that Muslim immigration into the United States should be stopped until we can properly vet them or until the war with Islam is over," Graham wrote earlier in December.
Moore strongly spoke out against Trump's proposal, however, and wrote in an op-ed published in The Christian Post that "anyone who cares an iota about religious liberty should denounce this reckless, demagogic rhetoric."
Moore said that he agrees that the government should be tough on terror, especially with anyone who might have even a passing involvement with any radical or terrorist network, but said that should not come at the expense of law-abiding people who uphold their religious beliefs.
"Make no mistake. A government that can shut down mosques simply because they are mosques can shut down Bible studies because they are Bible studies. A government that can close the borders to all Muslims simply on the basis of their religious belief can do the same thing for evangelical Christians," Moore wrote.
