By Ahmet Gurhan Kartal
LONDON (AA): Thousands of demonstrators marched Monday in the British capital and in other cities across the country to protest U.S. President Donald Trump who recently banned immigrants from seven majority-Muslim countries and halted the American refugee program.
Protesters demanded Prime Minister Theresa May cancel a yet to be scheduled state visit by Trump after more than 1.5 million signatures were put to a petition on parliament’s website.
The petition does not go as far as to call for Trump to be barred from the U.K. but it said any official visit should be axed “because it would cause embarrassment to Her Majesty, the Queen”.
It also said Trump’s “well documented misogyny and vulgarity” disqualified him from meeting the queen and other royals.
The British government is under immense pressure from opposition parties, lawmakers, the public and media to craft a proper response to the executive order Trump signed last week that critics say is unlawful.
But the demand appears to have fallen in deaf ears. May said Monday at a news conference in Dublin the visit would not be canceled after she personally extended the invitation during her visit to the White House last week.
Trump said he identified Muslim-majority nations for the travel ban from a government report on terror-prone states prepared during the Barack Obama administration.
[Photo: People protest against the US travel and immigration ban from seven Muslim-majority countries and demand President Donald Trump’s planned state visit to the UK to be cancelled outside Downing Street in London, England on January 30, 2017.
Photographer: Muhabiri Tolga Akmen/AA]
