Diverse NY crowd demonstrates against Trump travel ban

Several hundred people demonstrated in New York Friday for a second consecutive evening against President Donald Trump’s ban on refugees and visa holders entering the country from seven Muslim-majority countries.

The diverse crowd of young and old, people of different ethnic backgrounds and observant Muslims protested in a predominantly Muslim community in Queens, the New York borough where the president was born. City politicians also attended the rally.

“Say it loud, say it clear, refugees are welcome here!” “No hate, no fear,” chanted the crowd in Astoria, one day after hundreds of Yemeni Americans gathered for sundown prayers and protests against the ban in Brooklyn.

They held up homemade placards with slogans such as “Don’t Ban My Neighbors” and “No Ban, No Wall,” in reference to the Republican president’s plan to build a wall on the Mexican border as part of his tough immigration policies.

“I came to support my community. It’s crazy. This guy (Trump) — he has to control his mouth. He’s going to make everything upside down,” said Mustafa Aly, originally from Alexandria in Egypt but living in Queens for 16 years.

“The hate that runs with this election has to be countered,” said Edward Kulzer, carrying his six-year-old daughter. “She witnessed a Trump supporter threatening me. This has to be destroyed,” he added in reference to his child.

Trump signed the executive order last Friday, closing US borders to refugees for 120 days and visa holders from Iran, Iraq, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria and Yemen for 90 days.