New Yorkers by the thousand, representing myriad backgrounds and faiths, converged on Times Square on Sunday to participate in the ‘Today I am a Muslim too’ rally.
People came out to show solidarity with Muslims and denounce anti-Muslim rhetoric promoted by the US President Trump following executive orders that stopped refugees and travellers from seven-Muslim majority countries to enter the US.
The demonstrators — many of them hoisting placards featuring a woman in an American flag hijab with the caption “we the people are greater than fear” — gathered at one of the world’s most famous public places to denounce what they see as threats and pressure aimed at Muslim communities.
Thank you to all who organized #IAmAMuslimToo today – Charlotte’s 1st protest rally. #NoBanNoWallNoRaids pic.twitter.com/5mSXGQtPJU
— Chelsea Clinton (@ChelseaClinton) February 19, 2017
Organised by music mogul Russel Simmons, the gathering had Rabbis, Imams, a sikh, Buddhist, a Hindu, a Baptist pastor, Episcopalian and Presbyterian reverends including a Mennonite, a Seventh Day Adventist minister and local politicians and civil rights advocates as speakers.
The New York City Mayor, Bill de Blasio, assured the crowd that “regardless of your background, your faith or where you were born, this is your city.”
Simmons urged the crowd to not be hostile towards Trump. “We won’t speak too harshly of him today. We want to thank him for bringing us together,” he said. “So we are here today to show middle America our beautiful signs and, through our beautiful actions and intention, that they have been misled — that the seeds of hate that were small and maybe just ignorance cannot be watered, and that hate cannot grow because we are here to assist them in promoting love.”
He said that those who demonise Muslims were actually demons, emphasising how Muslims were the victims of terrorism.
Brooklyn-born Palestinian-American activist and commentator, Linda Sarsour highlighted that February 19, 2017 marked the 75th anniversary of President Franklin Roosevelt’s executive orders that “paved away for the internment of Japanese, German and Italian-Americans.
“I am unapologetically Muslim, all day, every day,” Sarsour said to the crowd. “I am not afraid because fear is a choice; it is not a fact. So today I ask you, in the true grit and spirit of a New Yorker, that you choose courage in the face of fear.”
