Adeel Malik
“So my 91-year-old patient heard how Trump has been attacking me, ‘the American Muslim,’” Rahim wrote. “So here she brings me these little stuffed animals that she crocheted herself to cheer me up! And she made my day.”
Needless to say, the photo cheered up more than just Rahim, and received praise from people in all corners of the Internet.
Rahim told The Huffington Post that his encounter with the patient occurred last Friday. Earlier that day, the doctor had been on a local radio show, responding to Trump’s Yahoo News interview, in which the candidate said he’d support an idea to keep a database of Muslims in the U.S. The candidate also said he wouldn’t rule out the the idea of having Muslims carry ID cards, identifying them by their religion.
The doctor said that the 91-year-old had been listening to the radio show and though she didn’t know who Trump is, she felt the presidential candidate’s ideas were hurtful. So when the patient, who happened to have an appointment with the doctor that day, arrived to the office, she gave him the five stuffed animals and also offered him some words of support.
“She said,’I want this for you because I can feel your pain and what you’re going through,’” he said, recalling the sweet gesture. “I had never seen that amount of affection from an unexpected person in that unexpected way. And that was beautiful.”
After Trump attacked Muslims yet again on Monday, calling for a “total and complete shutdown of Muslims entering the United States,” the doctor told HuffPost that he felt it was time share the picture and show people that though we all come from different walks of life, we can still feel compassion for one another. He said:
“I’m a first-generation immigrant from Pakistan … she’s from rural Idaho. We have completely separate backgrounds and regardless of that, we relate to each other as human beings. In that moment, she threw our differences aside and … she was just a human being trying to be kind and connect.”
He says ultimately the photo tells a powerful lesson.
“Yes, there are wars in the world and there are a lot of bad things, but at the core of everything, there’s a lot of goodness.”
