Minneapolis Muslim Community Calls Emergency #NoMuslimBanEver Rally
Minneapolis, MN – Unicorn Riot was live June 26, 2018 in downtown Minneapolis to cover an emergency rally in response to a 5 to 4 Supreme Court ruling upholding Donald Trump’s travel ban. The ban, which targets five predominately Muslim countries, has been called a xenophobic attack on Muslim-American citizens by local Minneapolis Muslim groups and allies. The rally and march joined similar events across the United States.
Minneapolis Muslim Community Calls Emergency #NoMuslimBanEver Rally and March from Unicorn Riot on Vimeo.
The Supreme Court ruling was split along liberal and conservative lines and met with scathing dissent from Justice Sotomayor who cited Trumps anti-Muslim tweets and rhetoric as proof of the failing of the Supreme court to protect religious freedoms.
In Minneapolis, the space in front of the Federal Building held hundreds of protesters as speakers talked about their responses to the Supreme Court decision.
Ilhan Omar, the first Somali-American lawmaker in the country, stood in front of other local elected officials opposed to the decision. She read a joint statement that began with, “We are extremely disappointed at the courts ruling which has in effect sanctioned President Trump’s policy on discrimination based purely on the religious beliefs of others.”
Another of the rally speakers, Gordon Nakagama of the Twin Cities Japanese American Citizen’s League said, “This Muslim ban is nothing more, nothing less, than state sanctioned Islamophobia.” Later, in a march that left the Federal building and moved through downtown Minneapolis, we spoke with Nakagama who explained some of the history of the United States’ policy of placing Japanese-American citizens into concentration camps. The policy lasted from 1942-46 and also won Supreme court approval. He compared it to what Muslim-Americans are experiencing today.
The march moved briskly through downtown Minneapolis and ended back at Federal building, where marchers heard from with Jaylani Hussein of Minnesota Council of American-Islamic Relations who said,
“Thank you very much. You all deserve to know that you made history here today in Minnesota. When Trump said no. When the Supreme Court said no. You said yes!”
Here is our Livestream Recording of the event:
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