By Rob Moritz
Arkansas News Bureau

LITTLE ROCK — Dozens of people rallied in support of U.S. military personnel Thursday outside a recruiting center where two soldiers were gunned down this week.

Pvt. William Long died and another soldier, Pvt. Quinton I. Ezeagwula, was wounded in the attack Monday at the Army-Navy Career Center in west Little Rock. Police arrested Abdulhakim Muhammad, 23, who has pleaded innocent in the shooting.

Muhammad, born Carlos Bledsoe, converted to Islam as a teen-ager and legally changed his name in 2006.

“This soldier has given his life in battle. He was ambushed in a cowardly act by a terrorist,” state Rep. Ed Garner, R-Maumelle, told a crowd of about 50 people. “We need to let soldiers know that when they put on the uniform for our country and our freedom, we support them.”

Ed Hairston of Benton said he attended the rally in support of America.

“These soldiers were for America,” Hairston said. “The life was taken so tragically. It’s a senseless crime.”

A makeshift memorial of several bouquets of flowers was erected in front the recruiting center. A half-dozen or so uniformed servicemen at the facility Thursday stood at attention as the crowd sang the national anthem and recited the Pledge of Allegiance.

Some attending the rally stood near Rodney Parham Road and held signs — “Does the Jihad love us yet Obama?” among them — critical of President Obama’s overtures to Muslims worldwide.

Passersby honked in support of the rally.

Jim Porter, former commander of the Veterans of Foreign Wars Post 10483 in Hot Springs Village, said he was disappointed that just 50 people attended.

“This was a disasterous, disgraceful act,” he said about the shooting. “This parking lot should be packed.”

Though none of the speakers made inflammatory remarks about Islam, a Muslim woman who was driving by and noticed the signs stopped during the rally.

Faten Abdeljaber confronted those holding signs near the roadway and said she was upset because she felt Islam was being slandered and labeled a terrorist religion.

“Islam is peace,” said Abdeljaber, dressed in a black berka, traditional public attire for Muslim females. “Do you see me holding a sign saying Christianity is terrorism?”

The woman and several of the people attending the rally argued over her presence there and whether her religion should be equated with terrorism.

Eric Hairston of Benton, who saw the woman from a distance, said he didn’t think she should be there and that she needed to show respect to the soldiers.

Hairston’s father, Ed, told his son the woman had a right to voice her opinion.

“If she doesn’t have the right to speak, we’ve gone too far,” he said.