Minneapolis, MN – On June 26, over 600 protesters rallied at the U.S. Federal Courthouse in Minneapolis and then marched through downtown to protest the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision to uphold President Trump’s Muslim ban. The rally was organized by the Council on American Islamic Relations (CAIR) and the MN Anti-War Committee (AWC) as an emergency response to the Court’s 5-4 decision in Trump v. Hawaii.

Since being elected, President Trump has tried to implement his Muslim ban three times. Each time, thousands of Minnesotans have taken to the streets and to the airport to call Trump out on his attempt to put anti-Muslim bigotry into law.

Jaylani Hussein, executive director of CAIR-MN, started off the protest. “I am here today on land stolen from Native Americans. I am standing here today with still the fear, the anger, all the emotions that we have felt this week – in North Minneapolis with Thurman Blevins loss. I am here today with the same horrific feeling that we saw on the border of this nation when children were removed from their parents and put into child prisons. I am here today in solidarity with all of the struggles and know that many of us are reminded of this every single day. So, what I want to tell you today is they have come for the Muslims but they are coming for everybody. The Supreme Court today was wrong, and we have to say that!”

Speaker Tracy Molm, a member of the Anti-War Committee, explained the connection between Trump’s immigration policy and his foreign policy, “It is immoral for the Court to not see this ban for what it is – justification for a racist federal policy that attacks people from countries that the U.S. is bombing or threatening to bomb. We need to demand not only an end to the Muslim ban but to demand an end to U.S. drone strikes and special forces operations in Somalia, to an end to intervention in Syria, to war threats on North Korea and Iran and to threats to topple the government of Venezuela. Trump’s racist Muslim ban is directly related to his policy of expanding U.S. warfare and threats in the Middle East, Africa, Asia and Latin America.”

Mohamud Mohamed, an organizer with the Young Muslims Collective, gave an impassioned speech: “If legality is a measure for morality for you then you’re doing it wrong. If every time we tell you that these things are eating at the heart of our community and are tearing us apart and you say ‘Well the state legislature passed it...I don’t know what to say’ or ‘your state rep or the mayor said it was ok’ or ‘Andrew Luger said it was moral’ ...legality can never be a measure of what is moral because we have seen what that does to our country. We’ve seen policies that have pursued that we have known for a fact are unethical and fly in the face of what it means to be human. And the only thing evil needs is the silence of good people.”

Other speakers at the rally included U.S. Representative Keith Ellison; the civil rights director from CAIR Amir Malik; Gordon Nakagawa from the Twin Cities Japanese American Citizens League; State Representative Ilhan Omar; Samantha Sanchez from the MN Immigrant Rights Action Committee; Rachel English from Jewish Community Action; Sarah Brenes from Advocates from Human Rights, and Leilah Issa from the Palestinian Youth Movement.

Significance of the Court’s ruling

Jaylani Hussein explained the significance of the Court’s decision at a press conference earlier in the day, “This impacts almost the entire Muslim community in Minnesota. The majority of the Muslim community in Minnesota, about 60 to70%, comes from Somalia. There are many who have family members that had already been granted the opportunity to come here who cannot come now. And we are concerned now that this administration will add other Muslim countries to this ban. There are countries that have been leaked that they are interested in adding.” He went on, “After the first bans we got calls from Muslims who are U.S. citizens that are not from countries on the seven-country list, which shows the impact the Muslim ban has had on the entire Muslim community.”

John Keller, executive director at the Immigrant Law Center, concurred, “Just Sunday, President Trump explained his preference that anyone arriving on the southern border should be deprived of access to a court and deprived access to due process. These are elements of a similar policy that represents intolerance and I believe it represents a clear and present threat to our democracy.”

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