Why ‘Anti-Sharia’ Protestors in Los Angeles are Concerned about Muslim Women

Abstract

On a sunny Los Angeles afternoon in June of 2017, I was driving to the airport to pick up my cousin who was coming to visit me from Canada for the very first time. As I approached the international terminal I heard loud music interspersed with bursts of chanting and cheering – something that sounded like a protest. Having recently been hit by Donald Trump’s Muslim Ban, Los Angelinos of many races and faiths had taken defiantly to the streets against his punitive ban, and had flooded the international terminal at Los Angeles International Airport (LAX) in protest. Like many protests in Los Angeles that have followed Trump’s election, this protest was beautiful in demonstrating a multiculturalism grounded injustice for all and a vision of America that rejects divisive tactics of the state that single out one group as a ‘problem.’ As I circled around the bustling airport on that June afternoon, I called my sister to ask if she could check the news to see if there was a new trump policy that may have sparked further protests. After a moment of pause she said “Oh no, I heard on the news that today there are going to be anti-Sharia protests in 28 cities across the country. I hope that isn’t what this noise is about.”