NEWARK, NJ — East Orange 5th Ward Councilman Mustafa Brent is one of many joining forces to host a “One United” rally on Saturday, March 18, at 9:30 a.m., as a way to repudiate President Donald Trump’s anti-Muslim and anti-immigration rhetoric and policies.
Brent, a captain in the East Orange Fire Department, is a practicing Muslim who worships at Masjid As-Habul Yameen on 18th Street.
“Individuals in the United States and other countries are joining together in unity to protest their outrage against the policies established by the Trump administration,” Brent said in an email Tuesday, March 7. “As a sitting member of the East Orange City Council, I believe that … I have an obligation to protect the rights of our constituents and their families. This administration is moving swiftly and we cannot sit idly while they attempt to place undue hardships on our communities.
“Toward that end, I have partnered with Newark Mayor Ras J. Baraka, Essex County Freeholder President Britnee Timberlake and city of Orange Township Council President Donna K. Williams and Larry Hamm, founder and president of the People’s Organization for Progress, to organize an effort in Essex County to voice our outrage.”
Accordingly, Brent said he and the others are planning to “convene at the Essex County Hall of Records, 465 Dr. Martin L. King Jr. Blvd., and march to the Federal Building, 946 Broad St., at which time we will allow for comments from various elected officials and community activists.”
“We stand at a crossroad, like so many times in our nation’s history, where our humanity, civility and constitutional rights are being violated,” Brent said. “Dr. Martin L. King Jr. stated: ‘All labor that uplifts humanity has dignity and importance and should be undertaken with painstaking excellence.’”
Hamm, too, quoted King in affirming the People’s Organization for Progress’s reasons for participating in the rally.
“Dr. King said: ‘An injustice anywhere is an injustice everywhere,’” said Hamm on Saturday, March 4.
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