About 125 people of diverse religions, ages and races gathered in front of the Dove World Outreach Center Wednesday evening for a prayer vigil in response to a sign recently posted by the center.
The sign reads "Islam is of the Devil" and was placed Sunday in the church's front lawn. It was vandalized and torn down that evening but was re-erected on Monday, said Terry Jones, the pastor at the church.
Nicolette Guerrero, a UF sophomore who was present at the vigil, said she came to send a message to the church that posted the sign.
"If we keep going on with this, maybe they won't post another one," Guerrero said.
Jones said that the church, located at 5805 NW 37th St., does not plan on taking down the sign, and that more messages will be displayed in the future.
"We think we are losing our heritage as a Christian nation," Jones said as one of the reasons the church put up the sign.
Jones said Islam's growing popularity in the United States needs to be addressed because Christians are not standing up for what they believe in.
"To be a Christian, you would have to agree with that sign," Jones said.
He said the sign is not meant to attack individuals but to attack the religion of Islam because it is oppressive and violent.
Leila Aamir is one of several Muslims who attended the vigil. She said she came to the United States two months ago from Pakistan to give her children a better life.
She attended the vigil because she wanted to show that Muslims are not hateful, but peaceful and loving, she said.
"Like Christians we also hate the devil," she said. "We are not of the devil."
Ismail ibn Ali, president of Islam on Campus at UF, said in an e-mail that he hopes non-Muslims who read the sign will Google "Islam" and see what the religion is about before making judgments.
"Even though they are allowed to post a sign based on our beloved First Amendment, this is not an action which brings understanding and only misinforms people about the religion of Islam," Ali said.
He said he hopes everyone who is offended by the sign will peacefully ask the Dove World Outreach Center to remove it.
"I am glad to see that people from other religious backgrounds are also deeply disturbed," he said.
Eve MacMaster, pastor at Emmanuel Mennonite Church who organized the prayer vigil, said she wants people in the community to know most Christians do not agree with the message that the Dove World Outreach Center is sending by posting the sign.
"It troubles me that my faith is represented by such a negative message," MacMaster said.
She said she sent an e-mail about the vigil to her congregation, members of Campus Ministry Cooperative, pastors from local churches as well as personal Jewish and Muslim friends.
"We decided that the most appropriate response was to meet in prayer," she said.
She is concerned for the people in the Gainesville community as well as the congregation and pastors of the Dove World Outreach Center, she said.
"It's not a good thing for our community to have a sign that shows that much hatred," she said.
The sign was brought to MacMaster's attention by a fellow member of United Voices for Peace, Scott Camil, who received a call from a woman in tears after seeing the sign, Camil said.
She called after the police had told her that it was a matter of free speech and nothing could be done about the sign, he said.
"When she told me what the sign said, I couldn't even believe it," he said.
He said he believes there should be tolerance for different types of people and religions and doesn't understand why a church would post that type of sign.
Like MacMaster, Camil said he is concerned about the sign's effect on the community and said he believes it is below the community's standard for decency.
"I really thought the sign represented hate speech, bigotry and racism," he said.
