Protesters will be gathering in cities across the UK Monday evening to protest against the immigration pause put in place by U.S. President Donald J. Trump.
Marches and rallies are scheduled to take place from 6pm Monday evening in locations including London, Cardiff, Edinburgh, and Liverpool, with hundreds of Facebook users showing an interest in attending.
Former Labour Party leader Ed Miliband, the Green MP Caroline Lucas, and the singer Lily Allen are among those who will congregate outside Downing Street to show their disapproval of President Trump’s actions in implementing a short-term hiatus on travel from seven countries previously deemed to be a security risk by the Obama administration, The Telegraph has reported.
In a tweet directed at Prime Minister Theresa May, Miliband has demanded that she force President Trump to renounce the order, adding that he will be organising an emergency debate on the “Muslim ban”.
.@theresa_may You’re the Prime Minister. Get on the phone to the President and tell him the ban cannot stand. And do it today.
— Ed Miliband (@Ed_Miliband) January 29, 2017
1/With @nadhimzahawi, I will be applying for an emergency debate for today on President Trump’s Muslim ban, in addition to a Statement or UQ
— Ed Miliband (@Ed_Miliband) January 30, 2017
2/We think it essential the House of Commons has proper chance immediately to debate & send out united message against this abhorrent policy
— Ed Miliband (@Ed_Miliband) January 30, 2017
Kate Allen, director of Amnesty UK, backed the protests saying: “Donald Trump’s administration is wilfully demonising as ‘security concerns’, children, women and men fleeing from torturers and mass murderers.”
“These demonstrations show the depth of anger and frustration felt by ordinary people in the UK.
“Amnesty is calling on everyone to search out their nearest demonstration and send a loud message to our politicians that such a ban cannot be tolerated.”
A second protest organised by Stop the War Coalition, Stand Up to Racism, Muslim Association of Britain, Muslim Engagement and Development, the Muslim Council of Britain, CND, and Friends of Al-Aqsa is due to go ahead on Saturday outside the U.S. Embassy in London.
However, the protests are causing division among some factions on the left as some point out the Obama administration, who was not the subject of similar actions, had a hand in creating some of the asylum seekers on whose behalf the protesters are now pleading.
Left wing journalist Brendan O’Neill took to Facebook to denounce Miliband’s involvement in the rally, writing:
“Miliband was at the forefront of calling for the bombing of Libya in 2011. The forefront. That bombing campaign was an unmitigated disaster, contributing to the collapse of state structures in Libya and the division of the country into three (at least) warring parts, and leading to a situation where hundreds of thousands of Libyans had to flee to Tunisia while many more risked the savage journey to Europe in order to escape the clutches of Islamist radicals who filled some of the gaps left by the end of Gaddafi rule.”
He added: “Sorry, no. You don’t get to virtue signal about the plight of refugees when you helped to create those refugees. You don’t get to tut tut at Trump over his attitude to Muslims when you helped to plunge a Muslim nation into mayhem. You just don’t. If Miliband doesn’t get booed today, my faith in the left will likely be lost forever.”
The executive order signed by President Trump makes no mention of Muslims or Islam, but rather places a hiatus on the “issuance of visas and other immigration benefits to nationals of countries of particular concern”, in order to “protect the American people from terrorist attacks by foreign nationals admitted to the United States”.
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