Protestors shout messages, then are escorted out of rally

By Lauren Rust

As a group of young people walked into the Donald Trump rally on March 5 at Century II in Wichita, they were automatically picked out from the rest of the group.

Jenna Farhat, Wichita, and Rubya Ahmed, Wichita, along with a few others wore jihabs along with the yellow Star of David on their chest with the word “Muslim” written on it.

The group was quiet, but before the rally began, many members of the media approached Farhat and Ahmed, wondering why they were there.

“We are fully expecting to be kicked out,” Farhat said. “We have gotten a lot of dirty looks.”

“That is why we are here. Trump is trying to isolate our people, religion,” Ahmed said. “That is two million people that he is trying to turn America against.”

These two young women spoke about how Muslims are Americans. Pew Research states that as of 2015, there were 3.3 million Muslims here in the United States, making up 1% of the United States population.

“We are Americans, but we are Muslim,” she said.

“I was born and raised here,” Farhat said. “I am just as much of an American as any of the people are.”

“We have the same values of freedom and liberty,” she said.

Ahmed and Farhat talked about the individuals who were making racist comments at the Trump rally.

“Coming here and seeing people yell racist things and yelling ‘Go back to your country,’ it’s just kind of sad,” Ahmed said. “We are better than that.”

Farhat also compared Trump directly with Hitler in Nazi Germany.

“This is literally, exactly what Hitler did to the Jews before,” Farhat said. “It started out as, ‘Well we are going to take this group and we are going to make them something else, we are going to dehumanize them.’”

As the rally began, the group of young Muslims stood in silence.

About 15 minutes into Trump’s speech, the candidate began to bash Syrian refugees.

“They keep giving them money… to allow people to come into the country, to allow the Syrians to come in,” Trump said.

“We have no idea who they are.”

At this point, the group decided to speak up by chanting, “No to racism! No to Islamophobia!”

The group chanted this for about 30 seconds before they were escorted out by police.

When the rally was over, individuals split up to caucus or to go outside.

When exiting, rally-goers witnessed an anti-Trump protest.

This rally consisted of the Muslim group, young Hispanics, and a mix of other people.

These protestors yelled chants such as, “No hate in our state,” and “Dump the Trump.”

The protesters were told to move toward the sidewalk by police.

Alonso Rodriguez, a young protestor, spoke out about Trump during the protest outside.

“Trump, he’s ignorant,” Rodriguez said. “He’s one of those people who doesn’t know the struggle.”

Trump rally participants were a combination of supporters and protestors, but protesters made sure that their voices were heard.

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