Muslim community 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 community leaders to condemn the White House rescinding its invitation to Mayor Mohamed Khairullah, who represents Prospect Park, New Jersey.
During a press conference, the Muslim leaders called for Mr. Biden to invite Mr. Khairullah, a Democrat and a mayor since 2001, back to the White House for a public apology. They also urged Mr. Biden to suspend the FBI’s dissemination of the Federal Terrorist Screening Dataset, a watchlist they say contains about 1.5 million names.
“Accountability is the first step in many to rectify this degrading and humiliating experience,” said Madina Ouedraogo, government affairs manager for CAIR’s New Jersey chapter.
Mr. Khairullah said moments before he was set to arrive at the White House on Monday night for the Eid-al-Fitr celebration to mark the end of Ramadan, he received a call from a White House aide telling him he could not attend the event. The official said Mr. Khairullah had not been cleared for entry by the Secret Service, but offered no explanation why the agency blocked his entry.
“I have no reason to believe that I am an unsafe person to any elected official,” Mr. Khairullah said at the press conference. “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 anyone at the White House since the incident.
White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre repeatedly deferred to the Secret Service when asked Tuesday about the incident.
“Let me just first say this is under the purview of the Secret Service,” she said. “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 asked if Mr. Khairullah deserved a more detailed explanation, Ms. Jean-Pierre repeated the incident was “in the purview of the Secret Service.”
A spokesperson for the Secret Service said in a statement late Monday that the agency regrets the inconvenience but couldn’t comment further “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 term as mayor of Prospect Park. He said he was a victim of Islamophobia and profiling by federal agencies.
“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 said.
Mr. Khairullah believes his trouble comes from his name matching one that appeared on the Federal Terrorist Screening Dataset, which is essentially a terrorist watchlist. He said he’s faced incidents of discrimination when flying, which can be embarrassing for his family.
CAIR attorneys obtained the dataset, which was leaked earlier this year, and say it includes roughly 1.5 million largely Arabic and Muslim names.
Muslim leaders called the list discriminatory and demanded the Biden administration stop disseminating it to federal agencies. Dina Sayedahmed of CAIR-NJ said the list has caused Muslims to be harassed and discriminated against at airports, as well as damaged the reputations of people unfairly placed on it.
“A bloated, unfair watchlist does not make us more secure,” she said.
• Jeff Mordock can be reached at jmordock@washingtontimes.com.
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