NEW YORK: A crowd of Muslims broke Ramazan fast and offered prayers on Thursday outside the Trump Tower in protest against the US president’s Islamophobic rhetoric.

About 100 Muslims showed up for the iftar event, which was organised by immigrant defence groups. A similar number of non-Muslim supporters also attended.

Participants sat on the edge of the avenue and shared a meal that included rice, chicken and pizza.

Police monitored the group closely, as they do with all groups near the building.

Trump Tower in Manhattan is home to the Trump Organisation, the heart of President Donald Trump’s business empire. First Lady Melania Trump lives there with the couple’s youngest son, Baron.

Fatoumata Waggeh, a 26 year-old Muslim-American woman with Gambian roots, said she had come to denounce the negative “rhetoric they are spreading about Muslims”, and to show solidarity.

Maggie Glass, a 31-year-old New Yorker active with a Jewish refugee association, said she was there “to support all our Muslim neighbours and friends.

“I just thought it was an opportunity for us to come together as a community, to show that we are united.” Event organiser Linda Sarsour said she was satisfied with the turnout.

She didn’t mind that unlike previous US presidents, Trump had not invited Muslims to the White House to mark Iftar.

“To be honest with you, even if they did, I would ask Muslims not to endorse an administration that is acting so divisively,” she said.

Published in Dawn, June 3rd, 2017