AN URGENT public meeting has been called to discuss opposition to Trump’s ‘Muslim ban’.

Waltham Forest Stand Up To Racism is holding the meeting in response to the American President’s ban on allowing people from seven Muslim-majority nations into the US.

Imam Hamid Mahmood, founder of the Fatimah Elizabeth Academy in Queens Road, Walthamstow, is lined up to speak at the event.

The academy provides supplementary Islamic education to four to 16-year-olds on weekends.

Nine members of Mr Mahmood’s family were refused permission to board a flight from Gatwick to the US in December 2015.

Brothers Mohammed Zahid Mahmood and Mohammed Tariq Mahmood, both of Walthamstow, were planning to visit Los Angeles with their wives and children.

Hamid said: “At the time we felt like we had been trumped and now the Muslim ban has come in.

“These kind of laws that are coming in are clearly Islamophobic – banning people from Muslim countries from entering. It is creating this air of suspicion about Muslims.

 “I think it is important to understand that this is not the end, it is just the beginning.

 “If you don’t do anything about it you side with the oppressor.”

Canon Steven Saxby, parish priest at St Barnabas Church in St Barnabas Road, Walthamstow, will speak at the event.

The Christian leader said he wants the Prime Minister to cancel her invitation to President Trump for a state visit to the UK.

He said: “We are holding this event to show that we are standing in solidarity with Muslims here.

“The ban is increasing the level of fear towards Muslims, most of which are law-abiding citizens in Britain and America.

“Also, I don’t think that Theresa May should be siding up to Trump. She should oppose the ban and challenge him on the way he talks about Muslims and refugees.

“She should not have rushed over there so quickly and she should not have invited him here.”

Nazek Ramadan, founder of the charity Migrant Voice, will also be speaking at the event.

The meeting will take place at 8pm today (Friday, February 3) at Ghosia Hall in Grove Road, Walthamsotw.