A group of friends and relatives of Americans killed in the terror attacks on Sep. 11, 2001 protested Saturday against Pres. Donald Trump's exploitation of the tragedy to sell his botched executive order banning travelers from 7 Muslim-majority nations.
The New York Daily News said that 10 people who lost friends or family in the attacks attended a rally in New York City's Battery Park on Saturday to protest the Muslim ban and the Trump administration's discriminatory policies.
“We’re saying after 15 years, stop using our loved ones to support unjust hatred,” said Terry McGovern. Her mother Ann was killed in the collapse of the World Trade Center's South Tower.
“I felt sick to my stomach to see that he lists 9/11 (as a rationale for the ban). My mother would have hated this -- the use of her death to justify banning people,” she continued.
“The current administration is trying to exploit our pain," said Talat Hamdani -- mother of 23-year-old NYPD first responder Mohammad Salman Hamdani, whose body was found by the North Tower. “They are vultures. They are picking on the blood of 9/11. It is immoral and unethical. This country was founded by immigrants.”
“They are doing it in the name of national security,” Hamdani said. “Who would not want more security than me after losing a child? Do it based on facts, not based on collective guilt.”
The Daily News also quoted John Sigmund, who traveled to New York City from Philadelphia. Sigmund's sister Johanna, the News said, was "on her way to work in the North Tower when she was killed by falling debris."
“We are uniting in solidarity with the Muslim community,” Sigmund said. “We should not be entering a religious war. It’s dangerous.”
The executive order is now in limbo since the Trump administration announced that it will be writing another executive order designed to sidestep the legal snags that hamstrung the order issued on Jan. 27.
