Muslims hold Ramadan protest outside New York's Trump Tower

A crowd of Muslims kneeled to pray before breaking their Ramadan fast outside the Trump Tower in a protest against what they say is the US president's Islamophobic rhetoric.

About 100 Muslims showed up for the Iftar event late on Thursday, organised by immigrant defence groups, with a similar number of non-Muslim supporters also attending.

Participants sat on the edge of the avenue after prayers and shared a meal that included rice, chicken and pizza.

Trump Tower in Manhattan, New York is home to the Trump Organisation, the heart of President Donald Trump's business empire.

Fatoumata Waggeh, a 26 year-old Muslim-American woman with Gambian roots, said she had come to denounce the negative "rhetoric they are spreading around Muslims," and to show solidarity.

Maggie Glass, a 31 year-old New Yorker active with a Jewish refugee association, said she was there "to support all our Muslim neighbours and friends.

"I just thought it was an opportunity for us to come together as a community, to show that we are united."

Event organiser Linda Sarsour told AFP she was satisfied with the turnout.

She did not mind that unlike previous US presidents, Trump had not invited Muslims to the White House to mark Iftar.

"To be honest with you, even if they did, I would ask Muslims not to endorse an administration that is acting so divisively," she said.

"So they are not inviting us, but we don't want to go anyway."

During their protest, a small group of Trump supporters on the other side of the street chanted "USA, USA!" and "We don't want sharia law!"

Trump, who has frequently been accused of fuelling Islamophobia, had so far failed in his effort to bar travellers from six Muslim-majority countries.

During his recent visit to the Muslim summit on Islam in Riyadh, the US President toned down his inflammatory remarks about Islam which were a mainstay of last year's election campaign.

Trump's administration asked the Supreme Court on Thursday to reinstate its controversial Muslim ban despite repeated setbacks in the lower courts.