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NJ Muslim mayor who was denied White House entry: End the terror watch list
By
Nancy Solomon
Published May 2, 2023
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Kyle Mazza/NurPhoto/Shutterstock
By
Nancy Solomon
Published May 2, 2023
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A Muslim mayor in New Jersey is calling for an end to the U.S. government’s terror watch lists after he was barred from a celebration at the White House.
Mohamed Khairullah — in his fifth term as Prospect Park’s mayor, and first elected to the borough's council in 2001 — was on his way to an Eid al-Fitr celebration at the White House on Monday when he was told the Secret Service would not allow him to attend.
Khairullah, a well-known Muslim leader in New Jersey, said at a Tuesday conference with the state's chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations that he believes he was placed on a secret federal government watchlist sometime around 2019.
“The last time I remember traveling without issue is May of 2019,” said Khairullah, whose family fled Syria in 1980 and who became a citizen a year before first taking office. “This has inconvenienced, harassed and humiliated me and my family ever since.”
In recent years, Khairullah said, he was held and interrogated when returning to the country at JFK Airport and driving across the Canadian border.
Khairullah is the longest-serving Muslim mayor in New Jersey. Gov. Phil Murphy said he called Khairullah on Monday to offer his support, but stopped short of criticizing President Joe Biden or calling for an end to the watch list.
“We’re trying to figure out exactly what happened,” Murphy told a group of reporters at an unrelated event on Tuesday. Murphy called Khairullah a good friend and said they had been together on Saturday for an Eid celebration at the governor's mansion.
In January, a Swiss hacker leaked a no-fly list obtained from a CommuteAir server, DailyDot.com reported at the time. CAIR said Khairullah’s name and birthdate were among its 1.5 million entries, and that it was mostly filled with Muslim or Middle Eastern names.
“This is about [more than] 1.5 million people who are on the selectee list who don't have a platform like I do at this point,” Khairullah said. “Our crimes are our names, ethnicities and religion, and I call on President Biden to correct the injustices of the previous administrations by disbanding this illegal list and correcting ill-advised and racist policies.”
Tuesday's press conference included several advocacy groups for immigrant rights and civil liberties. Khairullah said it is not enough for his name to be taken off the watch list.
CAIR is calling on Biden to apologize and to meet with Muslim leaders to hear about the problems caused by the watchlist. Ultimately, it wants the list abolished.
“People are not given any notice as to why they are on the list, much less an opportunity to challenge the basis for which they are on these watch lists,” Sahar Aziz, a professor at the Rutgers School of Law, said at the press conference. “For the past 20 years, the U.S. government has created a behemoth intelligence apparatus that is eviscerating the civil rights and liberties of all Americans.”
Khairullah was the subject of a 2021 documentary, "Mayor Mohamed.” It follows him through Prospect Park as he works on humanitarian relief to Syria while managing local politics in the small North Jersey town.
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Nancy Solomon
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