The Daily - Thursday, Dec. 28, 2017

Episode Date: December 28, 2017

The Daily is revisiting our favorite episodes of the year — listening back, and then hearing what’s happened since the stories first ran. Today, we return to the story of two Americans, Abraham Davis and Hisham Yasin. Theirs is a story of vandalism and forgiveness. Guest: Sabrina Tavernise, a national correspondent for The New York Times. For more information on today’s episode, visit nytimes.com/thedaily.

Hi, it's Michael. This week, The Daily is revisiting favorite episodes of the year, listening back and then hearing what's happened in the time since the stories first ran. Today, we're going back to the story of Abraham, a young man whose act of bigotry led to something entirely unexpected. From The New York Times, I'm Michael Barbaro. This is The Daily. From The New York Times, I'm Michael Barbaro. This is The Daily Show. Today, as a poor white teenager in Fort Smith, Arkansas, Abraham Davis never fit in.

As a hidden minority there, the town's Muslims were trying to make a home. Then their lives collided. It's Wednesday, August 30th. Say it in Arabic slowly, the hadith. The hadith. And that means? That means you may hate something that happened to you

but it's good for you. And you may love to have something, but you don't get it, that's good for you. You don't get it. My colleague Sabrina Tabernisi has been reporting on a recent incident in Fort Smith, Arkansas, a mostly white, predominantly Christian town where abject poverty lives alongside visible wealth.

There's a small, little, lively population of Muslims in Fort Smith, but for the most part, nobody knew that there were Muslims in Fort Smith. You know, they were there, but most people didn't know that they were there. And nothing like this had ever happened before. On the morning of October 20th, the imam at the Al-Salam Mosque on South 28th Street drove up to prepare for morning prayers and saw that the mosque had been vandalized. There were swastikas on its sign, on its windows and its doors, curses against Islam, curses against Allah. There were words, ugly, ugly writing, Muslims go home, we don't want you here.

He then begins calling everybody in the Muslim community, telling them a terrible thing has happened to the mosque. One of the first of those calls was to Hisham Yassin. And when he called me, I just came right away. He's a used car dealer in Fort Smith and the social director of the Al-Salam Mosque. And Hisham gets in his white Infiniti, grabs his gun, and drives immediately to the mosque. Wow, grabs his gun. People were on edge. I mean, you know, Trump stuff has been going on. We're really worried anyway about what's happening nationally.

There was a guy who'd been sending anonymous emails to the mosque threatening them. They had to call the FBI about that. And so they were pretty freaked out. You know? And sometimes I was carrying my gun. You never know. So Hisham shows up, kind of takes control, you know, and sees all of this writing. He sees the swastikas.

He sees, we don't want you here, Muslims, go home. And he feels incredibly, incredibly sad. Looks like somebody hates us. We've been here, me and my family, almost 35 years. And these people, how can they say these things? Who would do this? Good evening from the Thomas and Mack Center at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas. I'm Chris Wallace of Fox News.

So who did do this? So it was the night of the last presidential debate between Trump and Clinton. Hillary Clinton and Donald J. Trump. Thank you very much, Chris, and thanks to UNLV for hosting us. Three young men drove in a white Ford minivan to two mosques in Fort Smith. Craig Wiginton, Abraham Davis, and Ezra Pedraza. The only thing I can remember about that night besides being unbelievably just wasted, the short conversation, I remember like bits and pieces of driving. The story that Abe tells is they were together.

They drink Kentucky Deluxe, which is this very cheap whiskey. Craig was getting very, very emotional about ISIS. As a threat. Well, as you know, it's outrageous that they're killing American soldiers. Craig was getting very, very emotional about ISIS. As a threat. Well, as you know, it's outrageous that they're killing American soldiers. It's outrageous that they're killing children. Yeah, just pretty much just talking about like all this stuff that's going on in the Middle East, all of this. We shouldn't allow them to get away with this stuff.

Let's go retaliate. Let's do something. 5 News reporter Joe Ellison is live in Fort Smith. And Joe, there is surveillance video of the vandalism. A security camera on one of them captures with just cinematic precision one of the kids, the ringleader, Craig Wiginton. Tall, kind of gangly in a baseball cap, spraying in spray paint all over the side of his mosque. In the top right corner, you can see two people walk up to the Islamic Prayer Center on South 28th Street. One stays behind where the sign out front was tagged. And you see Abraham Davis sort of standing in the driveway on the lookout type thing.

He is 20 at the time. He had dropped out of high school. Very, very impressed and enamored of Craig. Okay, Joe, thanks. If you recognize the person in the video, police encourage you to call the River Valley Crime Stoppers line at 7-8-CRIME. The cops looked and looked. There were a couple of false leads.

And then in February, they got a call from a kid who had been at a party with Craig. And this kid said, I think that Craig Wiginton was the one who defaced the mosque. And he was with Abraham and Ezra. And he actually told me that he wanted to go back and burn it down. Wow. go back and burn it down. Wow. I remember that night because I was frantic. And Abraham, two policemen came to his door, to his mom's house, Kristen's house, and knocked on the door. They said, hey, is Abraham Davis here? And we're like, no, he's not right now. Why? What's going on? We have a $15,000 warrant for Abraham's arrest. Noah, his brother, knew where he was and he called his brother. He

said, hey man, cops just came and ransacked the whole house. They're looking for you. You got like a $15,000 warrant for your arrest. I'm just sitting here like, what? And yeah, he gives himself up. He drives to jail, stops by the house to say goodbye to his mother. He said, I'm basically here just to say goodbye for right now. That was a bad moment. God. He was white as a ghost, and he was shaking. And he gave me a hug, and when he did, I just, it was like a dam that broke. I mean, seriously, that's what I felt like.

I've never seen my mother cry like that. She cried like a woman who just got the news that her son died. You know, like a mother would if, like, getting the news, like, if her son had went out to war and the two guys in the car show up at her house and she just lost everything. Here's this kid that I knew was, you know, not going down the right path.

And I wanted him to do something different with his life. And I'm just like trying to hold on to him to try to get him to say, God, would you just turn this way and go down this way instead of going this way? I mean, come on, the way you're going, you're screwing your life up. She was so sad and so just completely broken that this had happened to her kids and i was like going okay are you sure this are you sure they got the and he's like mom i've seen all the evidence yeah it's me i i wasn't i was in on this and i'm like okay and so you just kind of take a deep breath and then you and then your next focus is okay I was in on this and I'm like, okay.

And so you just kind of take a deep breath and then you, and then your next focus is, okay, so what's the next step? And he's like, well, ma'am, you know, this is a charge and his bond is like 15,000 and I'm just like going, Oh my God. Holy crap. I said I couldn't get him out if I wanted to. I mean, seriously, I mean that's- Because what was the bail? Bail would have been 10% of 15,000, which is 1,500. Actually, it would have been 1,580, because 10% is what the bail bondsman take.

And then the state charges like a, I don't know, a fee of some sort of $80, just to get him out. And I couldn't do that. There was just no way, ever. What you need to understand about Abraham's family is that they have a combined income of about $1,700 a month, which needs to cover gas, their $700 a month rent, which they're always behind on, and three boys, Abraham, Noah, and Gabriel. One of the weeks I was there, their water was cut off. They were two days late for their water bill, in part because they were juggling being able

to pay a phone bill. Did his mother work? She worked in a fish tackle plant where she would paint eyes on fishing lures. But she was diagnosed in 2014 with leukemia and went on disability a couple of months later and has been on disability since then. Her husband, Kenny, who is the stepdad of Abraham and Noah, worked maintenance at McDonald's for many years, cleaning, sort of draining the grease from the drains. Then most recently was working at Kohl's department store and was diagnosed with Parkinson's. Wow, one thing after another. And actually has a pretty advanced stage of Parkinson's, so he could no longer fold a shirt.

His hands were shaking very badly, and he went on disability. I was telling my mom the other day, I said, you know, they have some shorts at Walmart. They're like five bucks. She's like, oh, that's not bad. I was telling my mom the other day, I said, you know, they had some shorts at Walmart. They're like five bucks. She's like, oh, that's not bad. I'm thinking, what? Five dollars for brand new shorts? And then she's like, yeah, that's not bad. I said, well, you know, technically, no.

But if I can walk down here and buy them for three or even two, that's so much better. Or even free. Free is even better. For somebody like Abe, from his perspective, from his economic, you know, the very, very lowest rung in the economic ladder, somebody who drives to school in a car that their parents bought them and has the latest iPhone and has the fancy new shoes is rich. So it felt like an outcast. So it felt like an outcast. Yeah. He was very much part of a social class that was not privileged in a place that had a lot of privilege sort of out in the open for people to see.

I think that had a profound effect on how he saw himself, who he ended up associating with and having his friends and, you know, his own confidence in himself. And that was, ended up being a major problem for his life because, you know, he got into this trouble with this mosque. Yeah, I don't think he chose the best of friends sometimes. And he's really, and the one friend he trusted 100% with, they really did a doozy on. Kristen, the mother, was driving them somewhere, and Craig made this sort of offhand comment. They saw a woman in a hijab drive by in a very fancy car, and he said, oh, look at that sand monkey in a Cadillac. You know, it was like, it wasn't even like he was sort of afraid or kind of worried about them as the other. It was like he was jealous.

Why jealous? So the Muslims are, for the most part, affluent people. You know, they are the doctors, they're businessmen. They are seen as affluent people, both, you know, by the kids in the high school and by people in the society. both by the kids in the high school and by people in the society. So they are, yes, they're Muslims, but in some ways it's just as important that they're rich. We'll be right back.

You told me about that you had a dream. Tell me about that dream. That dream, oh my God. I'm waking up in this thick ground, and I stand up, and I'm looking around, and there's people all over me. I don't really notice where I'm at at first, but I get up, and I start walking, and I'm at at first, but I get up and I start walking.

And I'm looking at all these people and their faces and their kids are crying. There's women that are holding their husbands and they've got tears. And the husbands are just very scorned, very upset by what they're looking at. And I'm walking through this crowd of people and I look forward and there's the mosque. And I see all the spray paint and all that shit all over it. And I'm just, I look at them and I turn around and then they're all going from looking at the mosque to looking at me. And I think it's like almost like the dream was trying to tell me, you're the monster that you've always fought against, you know? So Sabrina, Abe just said goodbye to his mother, and now he's in jail because she can't pay for his bail. He is awaiting sentencing. Then what happens?

There was a back and forth about what the charge should be for Abraham. Fundamentally, what was his crime? According to the police, he wasn't actually doing the writing. He was the one that was the lookout. Also, obviously culpable, but, you know, did that merit a felony charge? Arkansas does not have a hate crime statute, but the prosecutor was taking it very, very seriously and sort of in some ways using it as an example, I think, of, you know, what will happen to you if you decide that you're going to, you know, do an act of bigotry. But then something very strange happens.

It was after a Friday prayer, one afternoon, 2, 2, 3 o'clock. You know, people are sort of standing around talking, prayers are over. And they get this knock on the door. A man enters. He's taken off his shoes, sign of respect, which not many people know, so they were sort of impressed by that. And he introduces himself as Noah Davis. And I was really surprised that he would walk in. I thought that was courageous of him. If I were in his shoes, I wouldn't do this. And he says, I just want to tell you that I am the brother of Abraham Davis who vandalized your mosque.

And I have a letter from him that I want to read to you that I need to deliver to you because he has something to say to you. And so he sits down and he reads and they listen. Dear Masjid al-Salam Mosque, I know you guys probably don't want to hear from me At all But I really want to just pretty much get this to y'all I'm so sorry about having A hand in vandalizing your mosque

It was wrong And y'all did not deserve to have that done to you I hurt y'all And I'm haunted by it I don't know what's going to happen to me, and to be honest, that's really scary, but I just wouldn't want to keep going without trying to make amends. I wish I could undo the pain I helped to cause. I used to walk by your mosque a lot and ask myself why I would do that. I don't even hate Muslims, or anyone for that matter.

All in all, I just want to say I'm sorry. Y'all are good people who do good work in the community. Sincerely, Abraham Davis. So suddenly the mosque people are standing holding this letter thinking, wow, we didn't expect this. We didn't expect any of this. They had a long discussion about what they should do, but they came to the conclusion that they wanted to

ask for mercy and leniency on Abraham's behalf. And we had a feeling that this was heartfelt. He really meant that. And because of this, we took it very seriously. And I promised Noah at that point that if asked, I would definitely speak on his behalf and try to have the court have mercy on him. The main, the president of the mosque, he's a pediatric pulmonologist who came from Syria in 1980. Dr. Nostri said, you know, we went to talk to the prosecuting attorney for eight. I felt sorry for these kids, and especially Abraham.

We did not this to affect their lives forever in any way, shape, or form. And because of this, we did not want this judgment to be a felony. We wanted it to be a misdemeanor. this judgment to be a felony. We wanted it to be a misdemeanor. And actually, when we talked to the assistant prosecuting attorney initially, he agreed with us. And he actually liked this idea. But as the weeks went on, and in the end, that wasn't what happened. So what did happen in the courtroom when the judge delivered Abe's sentence? So Kristen and Noah arrived at the courtroom exactly 9 o'clock. They were very nervous.

They had on their best clothes. About 11.15 a.m., Craig and Abe sort of shuffle up to the front to the judge. Their feet have manacles on their feet, leg irons. And essentially the prosecutor says that they are being offered this plea of a felony charge. The judge gives them this sort of very harrumphing lecture. You know, this was a very stupid thing that you've done. You should be ashamed of yourselves. You were very lucky that the victims aren't pressing for more, you know,

justice for themselves because you would have gone to prison for six years. So the judge announced his sentence, and it was not to the liking of the mosque. It was the following. According to the law, this is a felony, and it's not a misdemeanor. I mean, I didn't know that if the victim, which is us, if he asked for leniency, then the law does not allow that in Arkansas. I didn't know that. We still are not very happy that Abe actually had a felony sentence on his records. had a felony sentence on his records.

The two bystander young men, Ezra and Abraham, got three-year suspended sentences. So what that means is they have to be on good behavior for three full years. That means no drugs, no drinking, no going to bars, working, and most importantly, consistently paying on their $3,200 fines and restitution chunk of money that they owe the court system now. And that's, you know, perhaps going to be the biggest hurdle for Abraham since it's a lot of money to come up with for his family. Craig gets a stricter sentence, a six-year suspended sentence, so he has all of the same conditions but for six years instead of three. The mosque was hoping that the case would be sealed.

He could not have to check the box. The felony wouldn't be a problem because it would be expunged. Check the box meaning he would not be having to acknowledge for all future employment or background checks that he was a convicted felon. Exactly right. Exactly right. Did you ask the prosecuting attorney why when Hisham and others didn't want Abe to get a felony, and they're the victims, so presumably, you know, their views would have a lot of weight, why they went ahead with the felony? I did ask him that. He's a thoughtful guy, the prosecuting attorney. He said, you know, look,

He said, you know, look, actions have consequences. We take into account what the victims want, but it is ultimately we, the state, that make the argument and make the charge. And we believe that this was what was fair in this case. I mean, in fact, you know, to be fair to the prosecutor, imagine the opposite. Imagine, you know Imagine this terrible thing happens to this mosque in Arkansas. Everybody kind of laughs, walks away. Prosecutor says, eh, you know, no big deal. Give them a misdemeanor. We would have been pretty upset about that too.

Right. What would that signal about the place of Muslims in our country and the protections afforded to them. Exactly. Vandals defaced the Islamic Center for the third time, and the Muslim community worries it will continue. New video shows two men vandalizing the Islamic Center in Murfreesboro earlier this week. Now detectives hope someone will look at this and recognize them. After a woman is caught on camera smashing windows and draping strips of bacon on door handles. Early this morning at the dome of the Orland Park Prayer Center, eyewitness news reporter Eric Hong is live.

Titusville police tell us they are working solid leads in the vandalism of a mosque operated by the Islamic Society of Central Florida. Local and federal investigators say it's too early to know if the suspect in this video shatters windows and lights, Philadelphia mosque, and police are investigating it as a possible hate crime. Tonight, there are calls for increased security at mosques across metro Atlanta after four of them received threats. One mosque letter read, Death for you and your kind. Three other mosques received identical threatening emails. Fox 5's Patty Pan has more.

The story taken Sunday night shows a red truck slowing down in front of the mosque. You go to the hospital, you go by car, you go with the other hospital. All these people, they are Muslim. And nobody have problem. They always, like I said, we always treat people good. With so much Islamophobia at this point kind of baked into American life, it might be hard for listeners to view what Abe did as an innocent blunder.

What did Hisham think of that explanation? You know, Hisham was of two minds. I mean, he did very much think this was an individual act. It didn't really represent what Fort Smith thought of Muslims. The fact is Fort Smith didn't think really anything of Muslims because for the most part, it didn't know that Muslims were there. So in some weird way, Hisham talks about this vandalism as something that, in the end,

was very good for Muslims at Fort Smith. It allowed them to stand up and show the community who they were. It made people notice them. When this happened, subhanAllah, it was just like revealing. And that's what we need, to reveal ourselves for the community. We are here.

And they were victims in this situation. What had been this quiet conversation at home, at night, over the dinner table, or perhaps not even over the dinner table because you don't want your kids to hear, in the bedroom between husbands and wives and families, became very public and was sort of connected these two parts of this town, this society, that hadn't had to grapple with these things out in the open before. When people, when it first happened, many, many people in town called the mosque, and a man called crying, saying, I can't believe this happened in Fort Smith, and these can't have been Christians who did this. And the person in the mosque answering the phone said, I know exactly what you mean. I feel that every single time I see an ISIS bombing on TV. They can't be Muslims.

Do the Muslims in Fort Smith see Abe as a kind of victim. I think Hisham does. I think Dr. Nostri does. I think many people do. I think that the way that Hisham and the way that Dr. Nostri talk about Abe is with sympathy. And understanding that in this county, in this part of Arkansas, it's very, very difficult to be poor, have a felony charge, and make it. It's hard. In your conversations with him, does he say, Abe, that he still one day hopes to be able to meet with him?

So there's a restraining order against Abe and the other two defendants. They are not allowed to go to the mosque and not allowed to meet with people from the mosque. So it was a big disappointment. It was a big disappointment for the mosque and it was a bigger disappointment in some ways for Abe that he was unable to have that closure. So they're left kind of, you know, they're left to imagine what each other is like. And they're left to imagine what that feeling of closure might be.

If you were to talk to them today, like if you were to tell them something today, what would you say to them? Probably, I'd probably apologize well over a hundred times man that's a good question I I don't really know how the conversation would go you know what you want to say what's in your heart that you want to tell them how sorry I am and how grateful i am for them forgiving me you know like and showing so much support for for me and the others like it that's i don't know it's amazing to think about just how merciful they were towards me.

Hey Abe, I hope I can call you Abe. My name is Anas. I heard a lot about you. I'm here at the masjid or the mosque and I just want to tell you that we love you man and you know, we'll forgive you the moment you sent that letter we were done holding grudges with you and everybody makes mistakes and i hope you find it in yourself to forgive yourself and use this to move on with your life and be the best you can be and you can count on us anytime you feel like it. We'll find a way to contact you. We will never give up on you, brother, okay?

Well, hi, babe. I'm sorry I never met you before. I have to say I was upset with you when you did this initially. And I didn't know what your role in it was. and I didn't know what your role in it was but I want you to know that we have forgiven you and we would like very much to meet with you. I want you to come see who we are.

We want to know who you are and I think things will be much better in the future between both of us. So I'm hoping you'll accept my invitation, and we'll see you over here, brother. When Sabrina last saw Abe, he was searching for a job to pay off his legal fines. He owed $3,200. Let's get some mints.

Gotta keep that breath fresh, bro. He finally got one. So it was $2.40. At a gas station a few miles from his house, where he works six days a week. Alrighty, man. You take it easy. Stay warm out there. Just like a shrimp roll like this?

Like a roll. The shrimp is cooked. You know the shrimp? Cooked, yeah. Cooked shrimp. Then, several weeks ago, an organization contacted Hisham, saying that they were planning to make a donation to the mosque. Every day I asked the sheikh, imam,

did you receive any mail? He said no. Did you receive any mail? No. Did you receive any mail? He said no. Then one time I said, okay, I'm going to go check the mailbox by myself. I go there, I open it. Oh my God! That's $25,000! It's real! It's real! He and the other members of the mosque had an idea for what to do with the donation. The idea is we should take care of Abraham because he is part of our story.

You know, he is part of our story and we have to take care of him. So I'm recording now. Abe, this is Louis Nashry. I hope you remember my name. I was extremely pleased when I heard that you got a job and that you're doing much better. I know the whole thing was a horrible experience that you went through. And when we thought that we would like to help you a little more

by relieving the financial stress that you have to go through now because of this incidence. that you have to go through now because of this incidence. So we're going to pay off the fines that you have to pay every month. Abe knew nothing about this until a couple of weeks ago when Sabrina sat down on the couch with him in his home to play him this message from Dr. Nasseri. Every month. And I hope this will help you again, same thing, reduce the stress that you're going on.

We wish you the very best and we hope this will be behind you now and you have a great future. I'm uh I'm uh I think they wanted you to be able to just wipe it clean yeah it's like I don't know how to respond just cause I'm just

this sort of stuff doesn't happen for me. All I really know is the formalities like thank you and that just doesn't feel like enough to be said um i don't know it's just it's like a whole new window just opened up you know and the wind's still blowing in and just kind of hit me in the face and then it's like someone who's been locked in a padded room and has never felt the wind before. You open up that window, and you're just in awe of the ambiance of it all. I'm just kind of blown away and just kind of still embracing the ambiance of this moment, I guess.

It was just... Man. Would you want to say something back to them? beyond this moment, I guess, and just, man. Would you want to say something back to them? Yeah. Where do I start? Hey, everybody. It's Abe. I'm a little bit flabbergasted here um i guess first things and foremost i would just man thank you like you have no idea

how just unbelievably, just amazing this is for, for me. Um, this is, this just opened a lot of doors in my life that I didn't think were going to be open anytime soon. Um, I, uh,

thank you. Thank you. Abe still hasn't been able to meet Hisham or Dr. Nasseri or any of the members of the mosque because of the restraining order in effect for three years. But Abe says after it's lifted, he plans on going to the mosque to say thank you in person. Tomorrow, the story of Shannon Mulcahy, a factory worker who lost her job when her plant moved to Mexico. I'm Michael Barbaro. See you tomorrow.