Muslim group calls for Biden apologize to mayor blocked from White House’s Eid al-Fitr celebration

Muslim group leaders on Tuesday demanded President Biden publicly apologize to a longtime Muslim mayor from New Jersey who was abruptly blocked from attending the White House’s Eid al-Fitr celebration.

The New Jersey chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) joined with Muslim group leaders to sentence the White House rescinding its invitation to Mayor Mohamed Khairullah, who represents Prospect Park, New Jersey.

During a press convention, the Muslim leaders referred to as for Mr. Biden to ask Mr. Khairullah, a Democrat and a mayor since 2001, again to the White House for a public apology. They additionally urged Mr. Biden to droop the FBI’s dissemination of the Federal Terrorist Screening Dataset, a watchlist they are saying accommodates about 1.5 million names.

“Accountability is the first step in many to rectify this degrading and humiliating experience,” mentioned Madina Ouedraogo, authorities affairs supervisor for CAIR’s New Jersey chapter.

Mr. Khairullah mentioned moments earlier than he was set to reach on the White House Monday evening for the Eid-al-Fitr celebration to mark the tip of Ramadan, he obtained a name from a White House aide telling him he couldn’t attend the occasion. The official mentioned Mr. Khairullah had not been cleared for entry by the Secret Service, however supplied no reason why the company blocked his entry.

“I have no reason to believe that I am an unsafe person to any elected official,” Mr. Khairullah mentioned on the press convention. “I have been around with a lot of elected officials from the national level all the way to the school board level, and I have supported many of them.”

Mr. Khairullah says he has not heard from Mr. Biden or anybody on the White House because the incident.

White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre repeatedly deferred to the Secret Service when requested Tuesday concerning the incident.

“Let me just first say this is under the purview of the Secret Service,” she mentioned. “I can say this: I was in the room. The president was very proud to welcome nearly 400 Muslim Americans to the White House to celebrate Eid yesterday.”

When requested if Mr. Khairullah deserved a extra detailed rationalization, Ms. Jean-Pierre repeated the incident was “in the purview of the Secret Service.”
 
A spokesperson for the Secret Service mentioned in a press release late Monday that the company regrets the inconvenience however couldn’t remark additional “on the specific protective means and methods used to conduct our security operations at the White House.”

Mr. Khairullah was born in Syria and has been a U.S. citizen since 2000. He is now in his fifth time period as mayor of Prospect Park. He mentioned he was a sufferer of Islamophobia and profiling by federal companies.

“Incidents like this — being flagged on a watch list and denied the honor that every leader should be given — make me question our progress,” he mentioned.

Mr. Khairullah believes his bother comes from his title matching one which appeared on the Federal Terrorist Screening Dataset, which is basically a terrorist watchlist. He mentioned he’s confronted incidents of discrimination when flying, which might be embarrassing for his household.

CAIR attorneys obtained the dataset, which was leaked earlier this yr, and say it consists of roughly 1.5 million largely Arabic and Muslim names.

Muslim leaders referred to as the record discriminatory and demanded the Biden administration cease disseminating it to federal companies. Dina Sayedahmed of CAIR-NJ mentioned the record has triggered Muslims to be harassed and discriminated towards at airports, in addition to broken the reputations of individuals unfairly positioned on it.