Trump travel ban draws resistance at JFK airport prayer rally

NEW YORK, United States - Crowds gathered at John F Kennedy International Airport (JFK) to attend an Islamic Friday prayer as a show of resistance to US President Donald Trump’s travel ban.

Similar inter-faith rallies and Friday prayers were organised by civil rights groups, religious organisations and immigrant groups across America in solidarity with people affected under the “Muslim ban,” even as a judge in Seattle was moving to block the ban, at least temporarily.

“Right now, the values of not only our city but also our country are under attack and this is an attempt to undo the fabric of our nation,” said Muzna Ansari, immigration policy manager at the New York Immigration Coalition (NYIC), one of the main organisers of #WeAreAllAmerica rally.

“Each of us here today know that immigrants do not take away from this nation but strengthen it,” he said.

New York is home to almost four million immigrants, Ansari noted, addressing a sizeable crowd and appealing to everyone to “stand up for our undocumented brothers and sisters”.

The rally, which was attended by people of all faiths, ethnicities and genders, saw an outpouring of support for Muslim families affected by the executive order that bars travellers from seven predominantly Muslim countries.

“I am Jewish and I don’t want my Muslims brothers to go through what the Jews have gone through,” said Cathy Jarcho, who was at the demonstration at JFK’s Terminal 4.

Jarcho, who has Muslim neighbours, took part at the historic Women’s March and the one at Battery Park last week and wants to continue supporting “everything people are trying to do to get rid of the Muslim ban and prejudice against the refugees”.

Suzanne Loebl, a 91-year-old Holocaust survivor, shared her experiences of fleeing Germany and arriving in New York as a refugee almost 70 years ago.

“The US gave me an opportunity to get an education, a profession and have a family of my own. I’m here to pay my debts and I especially identify with the Syrian refugees who remind me of my younger self.”

In her speech, Loebl shared the struggles of being a refugee and told people: “I stand with today’s refugees and immigrants and demand a reversal of the recent executive orders, which are unjust and not reflective of the country’s soul.”

The imam, who delivered the sermon at the rally, condemned the order and thanked everyone for standing up in support.

“These executive orders are discriminatory and stigmatising to an American community in its entirety, the Muslim community in this case. They are full of Islamophobia, xenophobia, and hate and fear mongering.”

The travel and refugee ban has sparked nationwide protests and thrown the country in a state of chaos and confusion. Thousands of people have taken to the streets over the last one week calling for an end to the polarising order that prevents travellers from Iraq, Syria, Iran, Libya, Sudan, Somalia and Yemen from entering US.

“I came out today to express my sustained support and solidarity with this community and send a strong message to the White House and the current administration that this is unacceptable, unlawful and fundamentally it is un-American,” Diana Dinh, a Brooklyn resident told Middle East Eye.

“My parents came to the US as refugees of the Vietnam War and I am just thinking if they had come to the US and had been met with such hatred and bigotry, what that would have shown to them, and this is not any different,” she said.

MEE met with many other children of refugees or immigrants who were impacted by the recent ban.

A Yemeni protester who declined to be identified because she has family back home, spoke about the horrors of escaping war and her relatives still stranded in Yemen.

“It is impossible for me to go there because of the war, and now they can’t visit me due to this ban,” she said.

Zaineb al-Koraishi fled Iraq in the 1990’s and has lived in the US since then. She said she was at JFK because she felt that it brought back memories of her family’s struggle.

“No matter what [the] US did to Iraq and other countries around the world, we always stood up for it because we thought this was a place of opportunity and equality, but it is all being shattered now.”

Another New York resident who was at the demonstration reiterated the importance of living in religious freedom.

“People come to this country searching for religious freedom and that’s what makes us great, and it has been a really sad time that anyone feels threatened on their liberties here,” Marissa Newman told MEE.

Hundreds of lawyers from across the country have stepped up to help people stranded at airports or facing deportation.

According to several reports, as many as 100,00 visas were revoked by the Trump’s administration under the travel ban.

“No matter what, no one is above the law, not even the president!” said Tahanie Aboushi, a volunteer lawyer who has been assisting people at JFK. “We are not going to stop until this executive order is reversed, and we cannot allow America to fall back into dark times.”