As the protesters chanted, Philadelphia City Council was busy at their first session of 2017. They unanimously passed a resolution introduced by council members Helen Gym and Curtis Jones Jr. to uphold the city’s “support for and protection of Muslim communities.”

“I ask that you all continue to stand in solidarity with the Muslim-American community in Philadelphia,” [CAIR-Philadelphia Executive Committee Member, Salima] Suswell, a Muslim American community leader in Philadelphia, said, “against social injustice, hate speech, hate crimes and vicious rhetoric that influences and ignites turmoil in this society.”

Jacob Bender — executive director of the Philadelphia chapter of CAIR, the Council on American-Islamic Relations — says his organization has received numerous offers of support from outside the Muslim-American community since the election. The group has been monitoring Islamophobic hate crimes and conducting town hall meetings, education and outreach since the election. “I think the dire situation offers an opportunity for a broad coalition across religious, ethnic and racial groups,” Bender says.

Daniel Walmer Lebanon Daily News Their home is the United States, not their country of origin – and they want to see it prosper, said Hamid Housni, founder of the Lebanon Valley Mosque. Many of the children of immigrants have…