Hundreds of people filled Kalamazoo’s Bronson Park on Sunday protesting Donald Trump’s immigration ban. The President’s executive order prevents people from seven countries - Iraq, Iran, Syria, Sudan, Libya, Somalia and Yemen - from entering the United States for 90 days. It also bans all refugees for 120 days.
Muslim Kalamazoo resident Nancy Hammoudah says religious freedom is a right in the United States.
“In the words of one of our famous scholars in Islam - his name is Shaykh Omar Suleiman - it is dehumanizing, it is dehumanization of Muslims like me only to talk of us in terms of national security,” she says.
The City of Portage’s mayor pro-tem Nasim Ansari spoke at the rally along with several leaders of religious and activist groups. The Republican and Pakistani immigrant says he hopes the ban will remain temporary, but that the President is making sure the country is safe from terrorism.
“Just to make sure that we are…you know, that everybody is vetted out properly,” says Ansari.
Trump has been criticized for the ban. The countries listed in the order have not been responsible for deadly terrorist attacks in the U.S. in more than 20 years. A federal judge halted Trump’s executive order on Friday.
