A Muslim mayor in New Jersey is calling for an end to the U.S. government’s terror watch lists after he was barred from a celebration at the White House.
Mohamed Khairullah — in his fifth term as Prospect Park’s mayor, and first elected to the borough’s council in 2001 — was on his way to an Eid al-Fitr celebration at the White House on Monday when he was told the Secret Service would not allow him to attend.
Khairullah, a well-known Muslim leader in New Jersey, said at a Tuesday conference with the state’s chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations that he believes he was placed on a secret federal government watchlist sometime around 2019.
“People are not given any notice as to why they are on the list, much less an opportunity to challenge the basis for which they are on these watch lists,” Sahar Aziz, a professor at the Rutgers School of Law, said at the press conference. “For the past 20 years, the U.S. government has created a behemoth intelligence apparatus that is eviscerating the civil rights and liberties of all Americans.”
— To read the full article in the Gothamist, click here.
