Muslim groups in U.S. call on White House to apologize to Muslim mayor

WASHINGTON – Dozens of advocacy groups have urged the White House to apologize to a Muslim mayor who was prevented from attending Eid celebration.

Despite an invitation, Mohamed Khairullah, mayor of Prospect Park, New Jersey, was not allowed to attend the May 1 celebration hosted by President Joe Biden.

He was not given a reason for the abrupt refusal.

The White House staff reminded him to confirm his attendance on May 1 and then he drove for nearly four hours to reach Washington. 

At least 42 Muslim-American advocacy groups have called on the White House to publicly explain why Khairullah’s invitation was canceled at the last minute.

The groups have also called for a review of the mayor’s security status to prevent future incidents from happening.

They said they hoped the Biden administration would publicly repudiate Islamophobic and anti-Muslim policies and practices.

“We have high expectations that the Biden administration will promptly and publicly reject Islamophobic and anti-Muslim policies and practices, like the current watch listing practices, and we earnestly hope for a swift response from the White House to this incident,” the groups wrote.

In an interview with Turkey’s Anadolu news agency, Khairullah said he had been informed that his name was on the FBI watch list.

The list, first reported by the Daily Dot news website has about 1.5 million people are on it.

Most of the people on that list have Arabic and Muslim names. The list dates back to 2003, Dina Sayedahmed, a spokesperson for CAIR’s New Jersey chapter, told Anadolu. 

It dates back two decades to 2003.

She supplied Anadolu with a redacted version of the list that featured Khairullah’s name and date of birth.