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Imam Shamsi Ali, director of the Jamaica Muslim Center in Queens. | DONNA ACETO
PHOTO ESSAY BY DONNA ACETO | Several thousand demonstrators filled Times Square for a February 19 rally to show solidarity with Muslim Americans and those immigrants and refugees from Muslim nations who hope to enter the US –– but face hostility from the Trump administration.
Rabbi Bob Kaplan, founding director of the Center for Community Leadership, a division of the Jewish Community Relations Council of New York. | DONNA ACETO
The event was organized by the Foundation for Ethnic Understanding, a coalition of religious groups led by recording mogulRussell Simmons and Rabbi Marc Schneier, the founder of the Hampton Synagogue in Westhampton Beach. Simmons and Schneier, together with other activists, including Linda Sarsour, executive director of the Arab American Association of New York, and Imam Shamsi Ali, chair of the Al-Hikmah Mosque and director of Jamaica Muslim Center in Queens, pulled together a broad range of religious figures as well as civic leaders, including Mayor Bill de Blasio and Donna Lieberman, executive director of the New York Civil Liberties Union, for an afternoon of solidarity in the face of the new president’s crackdown on both refugee entry into the US and undocumented immigrants currently living here.
The crowd in Times Square on February 19. | DONNA ACETOSimon Moss, a co-founder of Global Citizen, a social action platform that aims to unite worldwide efforts at tackling the planet’s biggest challenges. | DONNA ACETOProfessor Simran Jeet Singh, a Sikh professor of religion at Trinity University, with his daughter Gia. | DONNA ACETOProfessor Simran Jeet Singh, a Sikh professor of religion at Trinity University, with his daughter Gia. | DONNA ACETODonna Lieberman, executive director of the New York Civil Liberties Union. | DONNA ACETOThe Reverend N. J. L’Heureux, Jr., executive director of the Queens Federation of Churches. | DONNA ACETOAs with other faiths, Muslim adherents are a diverse group. | DONNA ACETOThe Reverend Dr. T.K. Nakagaki, president of the Buddhist Council of New York. | DONNA ACETOA participant in the rally evokes the memory of novelist and author James Baldwin. | DONNA ACETOComedian Judy Gold. | DONNA ACETORecording mogul Russell Simmons, a founder of the Foundation for Ethnic Understanding. | DONNA ACETOPHOTO BY DONNA ACETO
