DENVER (AP) - Thousands of people gathered at Denver’s City Center Park Saturday for a rally in support of the Muslim community and to protest President Donald Trump’s executive order to temporarily ban refuges from seven mostly Muslim countries.
Participants carried signs, heard speeches, sang and chanted.
One of the speakers, Zahra Abdulameer, came to the United States as a refugee from Iraq and is now a U.S. citizen. The 17-year-old says she has been welcomed and treated with respect and been able to receive an education, but she fears things could change.
“I find it utterly cruel that Trump is depriving people of the same dreams my family and I had. Those poverty-stricken, disadvantaged humans he isn’t welcoming into a nation built on immigrants is not only unconstitutional, but it is inhumane,” Abdulameer said.
A federal judge blocked the travel ban on Friday.
“There are righteous and corrupt people in every creed and race,” Abdulameer said. “No religion inflicts terror on people, but those who do so in the name of a faith have only twisted its values.”
She said safety is not guaranteed by banning Muslims or building a wall, but by upholding the values of humanity and respect for others.
One of the thousands in attendance was Ronaldo Michelena, 54, who came to the United States as a refugee from Venezuela and became a citizen in 2011.
He said he was fired from his job in 2003 for being among those that opposed Hugo Chavez’s policies - and “here we are again.”
“We cannot see this happening around us and don’t do anything,” said Michelena, who was holding a sign depicting the cover of the German magazine Der Spiegel that has a cartoon of Trump beheading the Statue of Liberty. “This is something that cannot stand.”
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