In early January, actor and activist George Takei started a petition in support of the Muslim community in the current climate. On Monday, he looks to present 280,000 signatures to Muslim Public Affairs Council leaders at Los Angeles City Hall.
Mayor Eric Garcetti and other government officials will attend in support.
Takei’s Care2 petition, titled “Stand Up for Muslims in the U.S.,” was started in protest of the idea of a proposed Muslim registry. Since then, Trump has signed an executive order banning refugees and immigrants from seven Muslim-majority countries. To date, the petition has gathered more than 310,000 signatures.
Takei, along with his family and 120,000 Japanese Americans, was rounded up by the government and placed in internment camps, without due process, during World War II. The pop culture icon has emerged as Hollywood’s most vocal supporters of the Muslim community, and has traveled across cities to speak about the tragedy of his personal experiences and why they must never be repeated.
“It starts with a registry, with restrictions, with irrationally ascribed guilt, and with fear,” Takei wrote in the petition. “But we know well where it might lead. National security must never again be permitted to justify wholesale denial of constitutional rights and protections.”
