Students rally in #NoBanNoWall protest
Standing in front a “F-ck Trump” banner with her microphone in hand, Student Coalition Against Labor Exploitation member Nadja Barlera led a crowd of students and faculty in a series of chants, including “This is what democracy looks like” and “When Muslim lives are under attack, what do we do? Stand up; fight back.”
The #NoBanNoWall Solidarity Rally took place on Friday at Tommy Trojan, with protesters calling for the University to take a stronger stance against President Donald Trump’s executive order on immigration and the travel bam.
The rally was sponsored by the Muslim Student Union, the Black Student Assembly, Students Organize for Syria, Students for Justice in Palestine and SCALE.
After a period of chanting, MSU Secretary Noha Ayoub demanded that the University explicitly condemn the ban on people traveling to the United States from seven Muslim-majority countries — Iran, Iraq, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria and Yemen.
“We call upon the university to allocate more resources in the form of attorneys and counselors to act as legal and emotional support for students and staff who need it,” Ayoub said. “ We call upon the University to not only listen to our demands, but to actually meet them because if there is anything we’ve learned from this past campaign season, it’s that pretty words of support do nothing to protect real lives from a demagogue who wields his supporters like an army.”
International students compose approximately 25 percent of USC’s student body, and it is these students that MSU President Aamna Asif praised for enriching the USC community in her speech at the rally.
“[International] students are vital to the community service work that’s being done here in Los Angeles as well as in other cities,” Asif said. “Working with homeless populations on Skid Row as well as blood drives here on campus … as well as the resettlement program of refugees done by Students Organize for Syria, these students are integral to the fabric of this University, to the city and to the country.”
Asif also declared the MSU and its prayer space in the University Religious Center a safe space for those who feel threatened by the current administration.
“We hereby declare USC’s MSU as a sanctuary organization for anyone who may feel victimized by this administration,” Asif said. “We also want to declare the prayer space at the URC a safe space where you can find support and safety among your Muslim brothers and sisters.”
Executive director of BSA Ahlia Bethea also spoke at the rally, referencing the civil rights leaders of the 1960s and calling for solidarity with people belonging to marginalized groups.
“Today we stand in solidarity with the members of the marginalized, oppressed and targeted communities, whose livelihoods are in jeopardy as a result of the most recent executive orders” Bethea said. “Our voices — all of our collective voices — must come together to abolish racism, religious bigotry, xenophobia and ignorance.”
Political science professor Ange-Marie Hancock said she wanted to give a voice to faculty members who felt that their jobs would be threatened if they spoke out against the administration. She also explained that, as a Christian, she feels obligated to stand with Muslim immigrants and refugees.
“I also want to speak on behalf of the Christian community,” Hancock said. “The book of Exodus tells us that we are not to turn away what they call in the Bible ‘resident aliens,’ meaning refugees.”
Rawan Tayoon, the daughter of Palestinian immigrants, reacted strongly against Trump’s travel ban, heading to LAX on Sunday to protest the detainment of an Iraqi woman with breast cancer. Police allegedly told her that if she stepped off the road, they would look into the woman’s case. However, when Tayoon realized that they did not intend to meet her demands, she refused to get off the street, leading to a confrontation between her and a police officer.
Ultimately, Tayoon was arrested and is set to appear in court on May 1.
“[My] immediate goal was to get the people who were detained released,” Tayoon said. “I was focusing on an Iraqi woman [who] has breast cancer and wasn’t able to access her medicine. I saw her four kids who were waiting for her … and I felt we had to get that woman out.”
For Tayoon, the importance of rallies like #NoBanNoWall is to demonstrate that many people on campus do not support xenophobia and bigotry. She said that these protests make her feel protected even though the current president has insisted on portraying immigrants from Muslim-majority countries in a negative light.
“The thought of no one being here and no one protesting this ban would be really scary to me,” Tayoon said. “It would have meant that everyone was okay with it.”
Following Hancock’s speech, Ayoub recited Maya Angelou’s 1978 poem, Still I Rise to cheers from the audience.
She also invited attendees to walk with her to Masjid Omar Ibn Al-Khattab after the rally to observe the congregational prayer and khutbah, or Friday sermon.
Just to be clear: Rogue Muslims who commit international terror on innocent people invoking the Islamic Faith are the ones responsible for negative feelings toward Muslims… not the President. Just like how the many Hispanics and Latinos who come here illegally, then have children and enjoy social services, are the ones responsible for negative feelings toward Hispanics and Latinos …not the President.
Here’s some sage wisdom for young and old fools alike: When you feel like you’re being discriminated against, look inward, not outward. I understand that this defies conventional wisdom on the subject, but it was one of my most profound epiphanies. Leftist love to throw words like “xenophobia” and “racism” around, but these feelings don’t happen in a vacuum. You’ve maybe heard the phrase: “Racism is a learned behaviour”. Well ask yourselves the tough question: Who’s doing the teaching? True racism when it actually exists is unquestionably horrible, but far too often we are using the word “racism” when in fact we are misidentifying perfectly normal, understandable and yes, at times even deserved, negative feelings that result from negative behaviours.
It is a disgrace that Muslim groups like CAIR run to the microphones condemning fair and reasonable Americans for their distrust and fear of Muslims every time another terrorist attack by a radical Muslim takes place. They should instead be working vigorously within their communities to figure out what in the world is going on that causes so many Muslims to “radicalize”. They should be helping Americans figure out what doctrines of the Quran lead to such radical interpretations. Stop blaming good, decent and fair Americans for their image problem.
Likewise: What a disgrace to see Hispanics and Latinos marching and protesting with signs like “undocumented and unafraid”, demanding “rights”, often waving Mexican flags …and then turning around and wondering why a wall across our southern border is even proposed. Nobody has proposed a wall across our northern border because for one reason or another, our northern neighbors have not demonstrated such disregard for the law. Is it any wonder that people develop negative feelings about Latino or Hispanic immigrants? The answer is NO, it is no wonder at all.
These attitudes can not be simply explained as racist or xenophobic. Sorry that this truth hurts, but this is potentially a life-changing truth if you embrace it. For things to change, YOU have to change. Stop looking outward when you feel discriminated against. Instead look inward at what you do or don’t do (or what a group of people do or don’t do) that might lead to these negative feelings. Search your soul for for areas to fix before you start demonizing those around you. At the very least it can start the healing that is so desperately needed.
When our nation’s territorial integrity and immigration laws are under attack, what do we do? Stand up, fight back.
““When Muslim lives are under attack, what do we do? Stand up; fight back.”
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Hate to break it to you honey but 95% of Muslims under attack are from other Muslims. But why quibble about details when childish and ignoirant sloganeering will suffice