TURNERSVILLE, N.J. (KYW Newsradio) — After the concession by New Jersey Democratic Senate President Steve Sweeney on Wednesday, the GOP long shot who beat him met with leaders from the Islamic community to talk about his inflammatory social media posts that labeled the prophet Muhammad as a pedophile.
Senator-Elect Ed Durr and a group of Islamic leaders from throughout New Jersey emerged from a nearly two-hour meeting in all smiles.
Durr said it was an extremely productive and informative meeting, and he said he will use his platform to denounce Islamaphobia.
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While he and the men he met with worship a different way, they found common ground in their faith.
“I think that’s the real key to everything. As long as you know somebody, it’s hard to hate somebody," said Durr.
“It’s very easy to hate somebody you don’t know, but if you know them personally and you talk to them, it’s very hard to hate them, don’t you think? That’s progress, right?”
Selaedin Maksut, executive director of CAIR New Jersey, said everyone was there to listen first, which was important.
"As we were sharing stories," Maksut said, "it really hit for all of us the seriousness and the impact that this rhetoric can make.”
“His commitment to renouncing Islamaphobia means a lot to our community, and we look forward to working with him in the future.”
As the evening wrapped up, Durr and one of the men from the meeting talked about getting together for a beer sometime soon.
Durr said he has grown as a person and the way forward for every person to grow and develop a deeper understanding of others is to have more face to face conversations.
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Durr says he rode a red wave of frustration to victory, and this election was less about his name recognition than it was voters saying enough is enough from Democrats in Trenton.
“(Gov.) Phil Murphy said ‘Do this’ and they all got in line. So (voters) say, ‘Well, if you’re not going to push back at all, we’re going to find someone who is willing to,'” said Durr.
“I’m not saying they didn’t pay attention to me. I had a good message that I believe we need to fight. But it was clearly a vote against the mandates, the lockdowns, the closing of businesses.”
Durr said a few times the media attention made him feel a little queasy and he isn’t quite sure yet what he will do in Trenton.
