SAN FRANCISCO (Diya TV) — Actor Kal Penn turned a nasty comment he received on one of his social media accounts into a positive and an inspiring cause, raising more than $160,000 in a few hours for Syrian refugees after being berated for his origins.

The former actor of Harold and Kumar acclaim who parlayed his acting gig into an associate director position in former President Barack Obama’s White House. He tweeted the comment he received, which was sent to his Instagram account.

Penn, who was born to Indian parents in New Jersey, tweeted the picture, along with a link to a fundraising page he created titled, “Donating to Syrian refugees in the name of the dude who said I don’t belong in America.”

“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,” he said on the page.

Less than an hour after he posted the link, his tweet went viral. Thirty minutes after the page’s inception, Penn had already raised $5,000. Within a few hours, that figure rose to $25,000. He increased his goal to $50,000, and less than 24 hours after creating the page, Penn had raised $167,090.

Now he’s hoping he can hit the $250,000 level.

Penn will donate all of the proceeds to the International Rescue Committee, which supports refugees across the globe.

TV writer Marc Guggenheim and his wife Tara Butters donated $500 to the cause.