While Sheriff David Stanko said he's receiving supportive comments over his Facebook reaction to an Internet story of Muslims beheading Christians, Boiler Room Executive Director Amy Howard said the message created a widespread social media controversy.

“There was a huge uproar,” Howard said over Facebook posts that some people took to be Islamaphobic comments by the elected sheriff of Jefferson County on his personal Facebook account.

“It was distracting from the Boiler Room mission and harming the Boiler Room community,” Howard said of public reaction to Stanko's personal Facebook post.

Stanko last week resigned as an honorary co-chair of the Boiler Room's annual fundraising auction set Feb. 18, 2017 with the title, “A Night of Heroes.” The Boiler Room was created 23 years ago as a volunteer-operated coffeehouse, and serves as a social services hub in Port Townsend dedicated to building community and providing people with a safe space.

Stanko said last week he was asked to resign from the Boiler Room board.

“It was either resign or get rid of me. David Faber and Amy Howard came to me at Rotary [club meeting] and said, 'We've had people pressure us not to have you be our spokesman for the Heroes event' and I said 'That's fine',” Stanko told the Leader.

“I told Amy that I would graciously back out. I like the Boiler Room and I've supported them financially,” Stanko said. “I still think they are a great organization because the youth are where our future is.”

Howard doesn't remember the conversation the way Stanko did.

“He was asked at the Rotary Club meeting to speak to our board of directors and he declined and he resigned,” Howard said Oct. 24. “We didn't ask him to resign. We asked to have a conversation. We were interested in opening dialogue and he said no.”

Howard, who is also a Port Townsend City Council member, said that surprised her because Stanko has been an “excellent supporter” and “he does deserve to be thanked for that.

“I was surprised he resigned without having the conversation,” Howard said.

She said she wanted to have that conversation because, “I was getting between five and 20 [calls] for four days in a row and none of them were repeats.”

On Oct. 20, the Boiler Room posted a notice on its Facebook page that said: “Respect is the number one rule of the Boiler Room. With that in mind, the Boiler Room Board of Directors respectfully accepts Dave Stanko's voluntary resignation as one of the co-chairs of the Boiler Room's annual auction. The Boiler Room prides itself on being an institution that embraces inclusivity and diversity,”

“We thank Sheriff Stanko for his time and enthusiastic support,” read the comment that received 48 “Likes” on Facebook.

CHRISTIAN BELIEFS

Stanko, who acknowledged his strong Christian faith when he campaigned for sheriff in 2014, initially defended what he had written in Facebook posts Oct. 15 and 16. He has since said he regrets his comments.

“As a Christian, I embrace everyone as a child of God, whatever faith tradition he or she may follow. As an officer of the law, I believe that everyone is entitled to equal protection under the law,” Stanko wrote in a statement on Monday, Oct. 24.

“In my work as Jefferson County sheriff, I strive to practice community-based policing which recognizes the dignity and equality of every citizen.

“This one, from my perspective, I've done the best I can ... I've learned my lesson from Facebook that not everybody who says they are your friend is your friend,” Stanko said.

Stanko took his personal Facebook page down and has said he will only invite family and people he knows when he reactivates it in the months to come.

The original posting was from a site called

shoebat.com that implied Muslims in Aleppo, Syria had taken 12 Christians and ordered them to convert to Islam or face being beheaded. A photo accompanied the post showing several men holding the heads of other men.

According to a screenshot of the posting, Alex Mintz, a retired Jefferson County Sheriff's deputy, and a friend of Stanko's on Facebook, commented on the post: “This isn't a religion based on the Judeo-Christian God, but one surely spawned by Satan, This is the heart of evil, not peace.”

Stanko responded to Mintz, by writing “Smen,” then corrected his spelling to say, “Amen it is evil.”

The original article posting from Shoebat.com from October 2015 talks about Christian women being raped in front of other Christians and then Christians being crucified and others being beheaded as they cry out “Jesus.”

The author of that was Theodore Shoebat. Another man, Walid Shoebat, has been taken to task by CNN's Anderson Cooper as a “fraud.”

Hours after Stanko posted the article on Facebook, screenshots of his post were made and shared, generating dozens of comments and conversation threads, and more than 50 shares.

REFLECTION ON FAITH

On Friday, Oct. 21, Stanko submitted a letter to the editor to address the issue, saying he did not intend to inflame passions.

“I had a visceral reaction, a passing personal reflection of faith while viewing the horrific picture,” he wrote. (See page A 10 for the letter.)

“There's something I live by and it is quoted out of Scripture,” Stanko said last week after the Leader's initial story was published.

“Walk in wisdom towards outsiders, making the best use of time. Let your speech always be gracious, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how you ought to answer each person,” he said, quoting Colossians 4.

Stanko said he had received three supportive calls from people who were shocked at the comments being made about him from people who do not know him. He said Oct. 24 he also had received supportive comments when he attended Centrum's annual gala fundraising auction on Saturday at Fort Worden.

As for the differences between his recollection of the conversation at Rotary and Howard's recollection, Stanko said, “Whatever she said is fine. I'm going to stop this conversation.”

He noted that people have different perspectives on conversations and Howard is welcome to her perspective.

Stanko also said he has a new sheriff's office citizen advisory committee which is meeting to advise him of issues. The next meeting is Dec. 1 at the fire station in Chimacum.

And he also acknowledged on Monday that he's looking toward a run for a second term as sheriff. Stanko was on the ballot in 2014 as a Democrat, but since changed party affiliation to being Independent.

MUSLIM REACTION

Arsalan Bukhari, executive director of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) office in Seattle, contacted the Leader Oct. 20 after the news story on Stanko's post was noticed by the entity's national headquarters.

CAIR is the nation's largest Muslim civil rights organization. CAIR's mission is to enhance the understanding of Islam, encourage dialogue, protect civil liberties, empower American Muslims, and build coalitions that promote justice and mutual understanding.

"I can't speculate on someone's intentions," Bukhari said of Stanko's social media comment. "What we do know is the shoebat.com website is full of claims that have been proven to be false."

Bukhari said that nationwide, the number of hate crimes directed toward Muslims began to rise in late 2014 and throughout 2015, "long before the current presidential election was as active as it is now."

He said there is an "education gap that must be filled," including "the right of an American citizen to live and worship in their own way."

It's especially important for community leaders, such as an elected sheriff, to set a good example, Bukhari said.

For more information on Islam, Bukhari suggested

islamfactcheck.org.

(Leader Staff Writer Katie Kowalski contributed to this article.)