“To see the Muslims like this in the middle of the street here, that means Muslims have some consideration, that we are being given a chance,” says Diakita Amadou,
reflecting on this past Sunday’s Muslim Day parade in New York city. “That’s New York showing us a little bit that Muslims have a right, just like other people.”
Imam Ali, the president of the Muslim Foundation of America, was one of the event’s organizers and says that the parade was founded as a means for Muslim New Yorkers to assert their place in this city. “This is a city of parades. We felt we must express ourselves as an integral part of the city. Parade is part of the New York identity.”
Rabbi Marc Schneier, president of the Foundation for Ethnic Understanding, was selected as the grand marshal – the first rabbi to take the honor in the parade’s 32 year history. “Anti-Semitism is not his fight alone; it is mine, too,” comments Imam Ali about the rabbi. “Islamophobia is not my fight alone; it is his, too. We must fight for one another.”
Here’s a passage from the New York Times recounting the day’s events:
With an accompaniment of drums, Muslim officers from the New York Police Department marched in formation… Along the avenue, floats bearing dancers and sparkly replicas of things like the Dome of the Rock, the central mosque in Jerusalem, readied for the parade to kick off. With his grand marshal sash across his chest, Rabbi Schneier stood chatting with one of the parade’s founders, Imam Shamsi Ali, and a Hindu priest…
