Standing for the oppressed. Standing for justice. It is the mandatory thing for one another.

Words to live by. If you have not been to one of the many political protests going on across our great country, I would recommend that you head out to one. The heart and passion being poured out by the people being affected by our country's new administration has the people across our country fighting for everyone. At these rallies, you not only see people fighting for their own personal freedom, but equality for everyone.

Personally, at the Rutgers University-Newark protest, I witnessed the men and women of Muslim backgrounds fighting for their families' freedoms along with equality for all. The promoted equality among religion, gender, sexual orientation, etc.

Before this day, I had never been to a protest of any stretch of the imagination, however because I write for the school newspaper, I figured that I would go and write an article about. Considering I'd never been to a protest I thought that I would be the best person to write about it, so it is unbiased. Here is that article:

February 1st, the day Rutgers University-Newark takes action against the recent policies brought about by our new President of the United States. As a student body, we were able to not only hear the voices, that our president is trying to belittle, but also show voice for those who cannot. The main people behind our protest today, were the members of the Muslim Student Association that we have on our campus and at NJIT. Through their efforts, they managed to bring many people from all walks of life to voice and rally against our current political time and the issues to come. We are fighting for change, freedom, and equality for all. This fight amongst the American people is not only for the Muslim population, but everyone. At our rally outside the Paul Robeson Campus Center, there were students from all different ethnicities, religions, sexual orientations, etc. As a people, we will make change, WE R THE CHANGE.

“We vote. We don't want reckless knee jerk decisions putting our lives in jeopardy.” Our protest was combined with our friends from NJIT, and their Muslim Student Association spoke about his feelings and how the current policies brought upon by Donald Trump affects everyone. He spoke about how our President is supposed to keep us safe, as Americans, yet he is tearing the American people and their families a part. However much we all are affected, he did recognize the humanity of our president, such as the fact that he is our president, he has a family, and he even is a father, he is human. We as a people are here to support our president if he supports the American people, but if he continues forcing aggressive policies, we as a people are going to protest him.

The Muslim faith, is inspired by the idea of taking the high road in bad situations. During our time protesting, we were inspired by one of our peers to “no return the wrong, but rather take the high road”. If we as the American people are going to take the high road, we need to fight back and protest for our equality, as people, as Americans, and non-Americans; we must fight for humanity and justice for the human race. The people of America want clarity for our future, and in doing so we want our leaders to refrain from repeating the mistakes of their predecessors. For example, the war in Iraq a few years ago, could’ve been avoided; the war in Iraq killed many, innocent people that led to a greater war. It was a mistake then, do not repeat our country’s mistakes. Among the many issues addressed during our rally, is one frightening many Americans and undocumented people across the country, which is the idea of a wall being built. The main idea behind the wall is to stop the of immigrants coming to the United States, they are people and they have rights; you will not change the condition of the people by building walls.

Overall, the protest that brought together students from both Rutgers and NJIT brought about a sense of unity amongst the student population as we fought for equality and our rights as American citizens. Just being in the presence of the crowd was inspiring as everyone there was there because they want to create change, and stop the hatred and bigotry that is plaguing our country under the new policies. One of the final things that were said at the protest is that “Standing for the oppressed. Standing for justice. It is the mandatory thing for one another.” To find justice in these hard times, we must stand up and fight, it is our job as a human being to stand up for one another and find justice for all.