Cal State Long Beach’s Muslim Student Association gathered in front of the Speaker’s Platform on Tuesday, along with other CSULB students and faculty, to express their disapproval of President Donald Trump.
The event began with a noon prayer led by Bilal Zaheen, former president of the Muslim Student Association and current lecturer of Islam 101 classes on campus. Following the prayer, speakers from MSA rallied together to provide powerful words of encouragement for all who were standing beside them.
“The association was there to show their rejection against President Donald Trump’s cabinet and his Supreme Court nominations,” Aliyah Shaikh, MSA vice president, said.
MSA had just gotten word Thursday that chapters from other California State University campuses wanted a day of action. Shortly after, Shaikh created a Facebook event page to bring attention to the event, she said.
“I hope that we can bring about change, I hope we can inspire that there are more similarities between us than there are differences,” Zaheen said.
MSA believes that, with events like this, people will become more aware and knowledgeable about information that they otherwise would not hear about in their daily lives.
Shaikh said “ We wanted to bring together our allies of the Muslim community, to have everyone who supports Muslims join us and unite as one and to hopefully inspire fellow students.”
The event helped bring awareness to the discrimination against Muslims, women, hispanics, undocumented people, LGBT and any other marginalized people potentially threatened by Trump’s presidency.
Members of MSA were not alone, accompanied by other associations on campus like La Raza.
“As brown folks we are no strangers to discrimination against our people, we are no strangers to the threat of our families being torn apart, but we are strangers to discrimination against our believes and despite our differences we still stand in solidarity with you, as you have stood in solidarity with us,” Asia Gonzalez, a member of La Raza, said.
Gonzalez said that not just the Muslim community, but all attendees that everyone should stand together in solidarity.
After the speeches, Shaikh rallied the crowd and began a small march from the Speaker’s Platform to Brotman Hall, where MSA thanked everyone who attended the event. They also encouraged the crowd to not give up and to continue to create events like this.