Alwaght- US Muslims in New York City held a demonstration on Friday to protest newly announced US policies to target refugees and immigrants.
After their religious ritual of Friday Prayers, dozens of Muslims rallied against the recent executive order by President Donald Trump that aims to exile refugees and undocumented immigrants.
The demonstration was organized by the New York Immigration Coalition (NYIC) and was supposed to include Muslim population but many of other faiths also gather for the protests as Muslims carried out their Friday prayer services.
"No matter what happens moving forward we got each other's backs,” said Murad Awawdeh, NYIC director of political engagement. “They came for immigrants on Wednesday, they are coming today for us Muslims, and they are coming for everyone else tomorrow," he said in reference to the executive orders.
Mark Hetfield, CEO of the non-profit pro-immigration group HIAS, compared the executive orders by Donald Trump to those issued by the Nazi Leader, Adolf Hitler and referring to struggles to prevent such discriminations after the WWII, he said "President Trump is undoing that today on International Holocaust Remembrance Day".
"Why is he doing this? The pretext is security, but the real reason is Islamophobia, the ugly cousin of anti-Semitism, the ugly cousin of racism, the ugly cousin of every form of hatred," Hetfield added.
Imam Khalid Latif, who is the chaplain of New York University and New York Police Department, said the Trump administration's four-year term would present an "opportunity for us to decide what side of this line we want to stand upon.
"It's a time we have to meet this hatred with real love, we have to meet this selfishness with real selflessness, and allow for those values to not just be things that we speak about but things that we are moved by and we act upon," Latif said.
Chanting "No hate, no fear, refugees are welcome here", protesters formed a human wall in front of 26 Federal Plaza that houses the local offices of the Citizenship and Immigration Services.
Trump signed an executive action Wednesday to deport undocumented immigrants involved in criminal activity, and another Friday that limits the flow of refugees into the US.
