NEW YORK: An anti-Muslim activist group kicked off on Saturday protests in several cities across the United States opposing Sharia (Islamic law).

The marches were coordinated by ACT for America, a conservative grass-roots organisation that calls itself “the NRA of national security.”

The group has a long history of opposing Sharia, a news report said.

In New York City, the rally started nearly an hour late with a crowd of around three dozen people, some of them in camouflage fatigues and waving American flags.

About a dozen wore shirts identifying them as members of the anti-government Oathkeepers and the III Percenters.

The ACT for America organisers say an adherence to Sharia among Muslims leads to abuses against women, from discrimination to honour killings.

The national coordinator of the marches, Scott Presler, is a 29-year-old Republican operative who says he, as a gay man, was first motivated to fight Muslim extremism after the deadly Orlando shooting last June.

The target in Orlando was a gay nightclub and the perpetrator allegedly pledged loyalty to the militant Islamic State group.

The Washington Post adds: In Austin, ACT protesters were met with counter-protest group Texas Against Islamophobia, and anti-fascist demonstrators masked in red and black bandanas. Positioned outside the gates of the capitol alongside a group of protesters wearing “Make America Great Again” gear, Weidknecht said he believes sharia law isn’t a partisan issue, but an American one.

In front of the capitol building in Harrisburg, Pa., about three dozen anti-sharia protesters were separated from a similar number of anti-fascist protesters by a police barricade.

Published in Dawn, June 11th, 2017