Muslim-American mayor who was barred from White House says he was unfairly profiled

Mohammed Khairullah was uninvited from a White House event after the Secret Service denied him entry

Muslim American mayor Mohamed Khairullah speaks out after being blocked from a White House event

The case of a Muslim-American mayor who was barred from a White House Eid Al Fitr event this week has shone light on the use of a decades-old terrorism watch list that critics have long called discriminatory.

Mohamed Khairullah, 47, has been the mayor of Prospect Park, New Jersey, for the past 17 years. Born in Syria, he is the longest-serving Muslim mayor in the US.

On Monday, he was supposed to attend a belated Eid Al Fitr celebration at the White House, where he was due to meet US President Joe Biden as well as Muslim leaders from across the country.

But right before he arrived, the Secret Service blocked his access without giving a reason.

The incident, he says, left him “shocked and baffled".

A phone call to an Arab-American civil rights group later revealed that his name appears on an FBI terrorist watch list.

“I received a redacted copy with my name on it. The way I spell it in my passport, middle name, date of birth,” Mr Khairullah tells The National.

“So it's a bullseye.”

An outpouring of support from his community as well as high-ranking officials from his state soon followed.

New Jersey senators Bob Menendez and Cory Booker as well as Congressman Bill Pascrell wrote to the White House and the Secret Service asking for an explanation.

“Mayor Khairullah is a devoted public servant, close friend and the longest-serving Muslim mayor in New Jersey, proudly serving his community for over 17 years,” the politicians wrote.

“As a former volunteer firefighter, Mayor Khairullah has continuously demonstrated dedication to public safety.

"The son of immigrants, we know Mayor Khairullah’s patriotism and public service is shaped by his upbringing and values that are molded by his commitment to help others.”

The New Jersey chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Coloured People called on the Biden administration to apologise to Mr Khairullah, invite him back to the White House and to scrap the watch list altogether.

"Mayor Khairullah is a well-respected, beloved elected official and community member and did not deserve to be treated this way," the NAACP said in a statement.

After the 9/11 attacks, then-president George W Bush set up the so-called Terrorist Screening Data Set, a secret FBI list of known or suspected terrorists. A smaller subset of the the list is the No Fly List, which blocks people from flying into or within the US.

Civil rights groups have called on the government to dismantle those lists, arguing that the process of determining who ends up on them is unconstitutional and discriminatory.

More problematic, they say, is that no clear legal process exists for people to clear their names.

“Unlike what our constitution says, that we are innocent until proven guilty, I am here guilty by name, ethnicity and religion without the opportunity to prove my innocence,” Mr Khairullah says.

Mr Khairullah became a naturalised US citizen in 2000. A year later, he ran for city council in Prospect Park, a diverse urban area of more than 6,000 people, where he estimates 10-15 per cent of residents identify as Muslim.

In 2006, he ran for mayor and has held that office ever since.

He believes he was put on a watchlist in 2019, under the administration of then-president Donald Trump.

Mr Khairullah was an outspoken critic of Mr Trump’s so-called Muslim travel bans, a series of executive decisions barring citizens from several Muslim-majority countries from entering the US.

He also spoke out against Mr Trump’s attempts to deport undocumented migrants.

Since the war in Syria began in 2011, he has made seven trips there to deliver humanitarian assistance.

Successive US administrations have continued and even expanded the use of watchlists.

In 2019, the federal government admitted that it shares its terrorist watchlist with state and local law enforcement agencies as well as more than 1,400 private entities, such as universities and hospitals.

The FBI maintains that secrecy is necessary in order not to alert suspects, giving them the opportunity to change their plans or escape.

A recent leak found that there were as many as 1.5 million entries on the watchlist. Civil rights groups say the majority have Muslim and Arab-sounding names.

The American Civil Liberties Union says large numbers of people have been wrongly added to the list, causing them to routinely suffer from difficulties and indignities.

Several Muslim Americans have sued the US government in recent years, saying they were mistakenly and without warning put on the watchlist, which caused to be humiliated at US borders and to miss out on work and travel opportunities.

Mr Khairullah says two years ago, when he was returning from a trip from Canada, he was held up at the border and questioned for hours. After that incident, however, he thought the issue was resolved.

"This does not make Muslims [or] Arabs feel welcomed in the United States," he says. "But I think this is definitely a call right now for more engagement by the Arab and Muslim community in the political process."

In recent years, Muslim Americans have gained more visibility in the US. In 2019, two Muslim women were elected to Congress, and the midterm elections last year saw a record number of Muslim Americans voted into office.

In 2019, a federal judge ruled that the FBI watchlist breached the constitutional rights of American citizens.

“This is a battle for civil rights,” Mr Khairullah says.

“This is not about me. I've met presidents, I've been to the White House complex. It would have been nice to see my fellow Arabs and Muslims, and it would have been nice to meet the President.

“This is about that secret, illegal list. And I'm going to work on making sure that something is done about that".