Syria-born Muslim mayor turned away from Eid al-Fitr celebration at White House
Mayor Mohamed Khairullah, a Muslim who had been invited to take part in the White House’s Eid al-Fitr ceremony, was banned from the event which marked the end of the holy fasting month of Ramadan.
Khairullah, who has been the Democratic mayor of Prospect Park, New Jersey for 17 years, was born in Syria.
The White House had invited him alongside some other Muslim Americans to take part in its annual Eid al-Fitr event on Monday but the secret police had banned him.
He said he was on his way to the White House when he was called and told that he was not cleared by the Secret Service.
“I’m baffled,” Khairullah said in a statement Monday night. “I don’t know the reason.”
Khairullah said his experience of being turned away to an event hosted by US President Joe Biden that he was invited to "reeks of Islamophobia by certain federal agencies."
He said in the past he frequently faced travel problems due to his name being on an FBI list mistakenly. He guessed that might be the reason for the ban.
Muslims inside the US are often the target of Islamophobia while police racial profiling against Muslims and other minorities is commonplace in the United States.
The White House declined to say on what grounds the invitation was canceled and the longtime US Muslim official had been dis-invited.
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