“It’s flat-out insulting,” he said. “It’s flat-out stereotyping of Muslims and Arabs.”

Yet Islamic jihadis have committed over 35,000 jihad attacks worldwide since 9/11. Should Muslims be entirely exempt from this questioning? Or should only Muslim mayors be presumed to be stalwart patriots and never questioned? I myself have been detained and questioned more than once in airports, as well as when boarding Amtrak trains. Should I have whined about “stereotyping” or accepted it as the reality of the post-9/11 world? The effect of Mohammed Khairullah’s complaining will be that agents will be more wary of questioning Muslims who have traveled overseas; this will make it easier for Islamic jihadis to get into the country. Is that what Mohammed Khairullah wants?

“NJ mayor says he was asked whether he met with terrorists upon return from Turkey,” by Hannan Adely, North Jersey Record, September 13, 2019:

PROSPECT PARK, N.J. – Muslim Americans say they’ve been singled out, detained and interrogated at airports – and elected officials are no exception.

Mohamed Khairullah, the longtime mayor of Prospect Park, said he was held for three hours at JFK International Airport in New York last month, questioned about whether he knew any terrorists and forced to hand over his phone.

“It was definitely a hurtful moment where I’m thinking in my mind that this is not the America that I know,” said Khairullah, a public school administrator. “I am very familiar with our laws and Constitution, and everything that was going on there was a violation.”

Some people have been stopped because their names are on a federal watchlist of “known and suspected terrorists.” Dozens of Americans have sued over the watchlist, saying their names were wrongly added and they had no meaningful way to challenge it. Last week, a federal judge in Virginia ruled that the watchlist is unconstitutional.

A U.S. Customs and Border Protection spokesperson, who declined to be identified, said he could not address any individual case because of the federal Privacy Act but said the agency “treats all international travelers with integrity, respect and professionalism while keeping the highest standards of security.”
‘Stereotyping of Muslims and Arabs’

Khairullah, his wife and four children, ages 1, 2, 9 and 10, visited relatives in Turkey who are Syrians displaced by war. They visited a beach, historic sites around Istanbul and a mosque. Khairullah met with mayors of different towns to talk about government and business.

According to Khairullah, CBP officers who were at the gate Aug. 2 when Khairullah exited the plane told him they were doing a random stop. During the screening, he said, they asked him what he studied in college, where he works, his mother’s name, his nicknames and where he traveled.

Khairullah said they asked whether he’d visited any towns with terrorist cells and whether he personally met with any terrorists.

“It’s flat-out insulting,” he said. “It’s flat-out stereotyping of Muslims and Arabs.”

At the agents’ request, he said, he gave them access to his phone, which contained private emails and family photos, among other information. The phone was taken to another room. Khairullah said he called an attorney as he grew increasingly uncomfortable and said he no longer consented to the search of his phone.

Agents told him they’d have to keep the phone, Khairullah said. They held it for 12 days until a lawyer from the New York chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations intervened and helped get it back….

Article posted with permission from Robert Spencer