ANGRY crowds have gathered in Leamington to protest against Donald Trump’s controversial so-called ‘Muslim Ban’.
Activists stood in solidarity with people from seven Muslim-majority countries who have been denied entry to America by the new President.
Around 200 residents headed to the town hall on Monday evening (January 30) brandishing signs.
Nearby Warwick University also saw a protest of around 300 students.
Leamington organiser Emma Mort told the Observer: “Myself and many others have been angry about not only Donald Trump’s words and behaviour in the lead up to the presidential elections but also some of the policies that he has enacted within days of his becoming president.
“I noticed that emergency demonstrations were being called throughout the country and I wanted to join in but was unable to get to anywhere holding a protest. After asking round to see if anyone knew of anything happening locally and drawing blanks, I decided to organise my own. We estimate around 200 people were there at the busiest point and it was wonderful to see so many people who shared the same views, prepared to come out at short notice notice to make their strength of feeling heard.
“People may wonder what the point of it was – does Donald Trump care that we were there, outside Leamington town hall on a cold Monday night? Probably not, I imagine he doesn’t even know we were there, but that doesn’t mean that our action was pointless.
“It was about coming together as a community and saying we don’t want the things that Trump says and does to become ‘normal’, that we won’t put up with racism, sexism, homophobia, Islamophobia or any other form of intolerance. We wanted to show people in our community who may be living in fear that we support and stand up for and alongside them.”
Students at the university echoed their messaged, chanting ‘We are loud, we will not resist’ while others brandished signs reading ‘Love Trumps Hate’ and ‘If you are neutral in times of injustice, you have chosen the side of the oppressor.’
Demonstrations have been staged across the globe against one of Donald Trump’s first executive orders as President of the USA.
In the order he barred nationals from Syria, Iran, Iraq, Yemen, Sudan, Somalia and Libya from entering America.
He also halted the US refugee programme for 120 days and indefinitely banned all Syrian refugees.
There had been fears the ban would affect British citizens born overseas or who hold dual-nationality passports from the seven banned countries – including Olympic hero Sir Mo Farrah, who was born in Somalia, and Iraqi-born Stratford MP Nadhim Zahawi.
But Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson told MPs earlier this week that he had been assured Britons would not be affected by the ban.
