'Unapologetically Muslim': WSU rallies against ban
Detroit — Wayne State student Hana Alasry wants everyone to know her background.
"I, as you can probably tell, am unapologetically Muslim," said Alasry, her head covered in a cheetah-print hijab at a noon rally Thursday against President Donald Trump's executive order on immigration.
"I am unapologetically Yemeni," Alasry said, to cheers from the crowd on WSU's Midtown campus in Detroit. "And I am unapologetically American."
Alasry, 21, joined a couple of hundred WSU students, faculty and community members who protested against the ban, which for 90 days suspends immigration for citizens of the predominantly Muslim nations of Iraq, Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria and Yemen.
The executive order also suspends admission of refugees for 120, but makes an exception for religious persecution of those practicing a religion that makes them a minority in their home country. Syrian refugees are indefinitely barred from entering the country.
"Don't normalize what is happening," said Alasry, an American-born Yemeni who studies nutrition and food science. "Stay angry. Stay concerned."
The large crowd held signs showing popular slogans against the ban, including "Let them in" and "No ban, no wall, no hate." They assembled in the heart of campus before marching to the law school building nearby, where representatives from U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement were participating in a public service internship fair.
Students recently circulated a petition and sent it to President M. Roy Wilson to make WSU a so-called “sanctuary” campus, where law enforcement limits cooperation with federal immigration officials.
"Go home, ICE," protesters repeatedly chanted on Thursday. The group briefly moved their rally into the building, crossed a narrow hallway near the internship fair and gathered back outside.
The demonstration was organized by the university faculty union. Charles Parrish, president of the WSU chapter of the American Association of University Professors/American Federation of Teachers, said Trump's ban has directly impacted the campus community.
"We have students who can't go home because they may not be able to get back in (the country)," Parrish said.
Activists from outside the WSU community also joined the protest.
"It's not going to be easy," said Ismael Ahmed, senior adviser to the chancellor at University of Michigan-Dearborn. "All the differences we've had over the years have to go away."
Ahmed said citizens should push lawmakers into action, but he also emphasized that all hopes can't be put on politicians.
"In the end, it will be our movement that moves them," Ahmed said.
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