Leaders from several faiths come together to send message of solidarity

Recent attacks by Islamic terrorists have Muslims around the world and here at home under close scrutiny.

But in Philadelphia Friday, leaders from several faiths came together to send a message: "We've got your back."

The Muslim American Society on the 100 block of East Luzerne Street in Philadelphia's Feltonville section is the epicenter of a region that some 200,000 practitioners of the Islamic faith call home.

Just before the Friday midday prayer service, Muslim leaders opened their doors to Christians, Jews, and local political leaders to say, "We are one."

"Your presence here today helps extinguish the racist and the Islamophobic rhetoric that has engulfed the nation in the past couple of weeks and throughout the presidential elections," said Ribhi Mustafa of the Society.

The crowd was filled with immigrants -- many from war-torn nations -- who heard an American Jew offer empathy for those yearning to make their home in the "land of the free."

"My parents were both refugees from the Holocaust," said Rabbi Mordechai Liebling, Director of Social Justice Programs at the Reconstructionist Rabbinical College. "I know what it means when this country closes its borders. I had aunts and uncles who were killed because they could not get into this country."

Last weekend, protesters packed the airport in Philadelphia and those around the country to protest the Trump administration's temporary ban on travel to the U.S. from several Muslim-majority nations.

Muslims here were heartened by what they saw.

"I was happy when I saw all these people coming over there to support the people," Louafi Bernach told Fox 29's Bruce Gordon. "I love this country. This country, the people always help us."

Mayor Kenney was among those at the airport. At the service he pointed out the children in attendance and offered this declaration.

"You are Americans. You are patriotic Americans, and no one is ever going to take that away from you. No one."