INQUISITR.COM / Entertainment

Actor Kal Penn Has Turned Twitter Troll’s Hate Into Over $500K For Syrian Refugees [UPDATE]

By Amy Feinstein
Published on: 16:01 PST, Jan 29, 2017

UPDATE: 9:49 a.m. $532,791

UPDATE: 12:47 a.m. $494,795

UPDATE: AT 11:50 p.m. Sunday night, Kal Penn raised $487, 976.

Kal Penn, who is best known for starring in the Harold & Kumar series of films, and his time on the popular series House with Hugh Laurie, is seriously showing the world how to take lemons and make some seriously fine lemonade. Many people don’t know that Penn left the series House (his character committed suicide) so that he could take a job in the Obama White House. But this weekend, Penn turned a sleight on Twitter from a troll who said Penn, a native of New Jersey, didn’t belong in America, into a massive fundraising opportunity for Syrian refugees.

Hate and xenophobia has sadly been a theme lately, from a contentious election to a divided country, and even Eric Trump, the son of President Donald Trump, came forward to say that the Trump administration does not want the support of the likes of Klansman, David Duke, according to a previous report by the Inquisitr. Trump even went on radio to say that the former Klan Grand Wizard Duke deserved a bullet in his head.

While Kal Penn just decided that he would try and make something good happen from something ugly, he says he had no idea that so many people would rise up to donate money for Syrian refugees, said PageSix. Penn decided that after a troll on Twitter said that Penn did not belong in this country, he would start a CrowdRise fundraising page in the bigot’s honor to raise $25k, but it went so much farther than that.

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Saturday, Kal Penn, who was born Kalpen Suresh Modi in Montclair, New Jersey, received a Twitter rant, that at least in part said “you don’t belong in this country you f***ing joke.”

So Penn thought on it, and turned that disrespect into a fundraising opportunity.

“Donating To Syrian Refugees In The Name Of The Dude Who Said I Don’t Belong In America.” The money benefits the International Rescue Committee.

“We are better than the hateful people who tell us we don’t belong in our own country, that America can’t be a beacon of freedom and hope for refugees from around the world. We will turn their bigotry, along with the President’s, into love.”

While Penn hope to raise $25k, but 10 p.m. Sunday night, the total was inching towards $500k. Penn says he is without words to expressed how pleased and touched he is.

“I’m speechless, How’s that for showing the world who we are?”

Even while working as President Barack Obama’s public engagement advisor, Kal Penn didn’t realize the many ways that he could reach out and be part of something bigger than himself, according to Vanity Fair, but he has, in the fundraising efforts for Syrian refugees. Penn was on Twitter, speaking out against Donald Trump’s executive order denying entry into the U.S. for Muslims from seven Middle Eastern countries, which was signed on Friday.

Penn watched the page, in disbelief, as it doubled, tripled, and more than quadrupled his intended $25k, and just kept thanking all of the people who were supporting his intention to help the Syrian refugees. Into the evening, people continued to make donations, some in the names of others, which included Donald Trump, and Steve Bannon, the man many people believe is advising President Trump in this anti-Islamic exercise.

There is still no word on the name of the troll who got the whole fundraiser going, but it is suspected that he knows who he is.

Do you think that Kal Penn has done the best he can after being told he didn’t belong in his own country?

[Featured Image by Alex Wong/Getty Images]

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