UK imam's US business visa 'revoked without explanation' before flight

 

The guardian

Ajmal Masroor says US State Department is prematurely enacting policies of Donald Trump after being barred from travelling to New York

A British imam whose business visa was revoked without explanation as he tried to board a flight to America has accused the US State Department of enacting the policies of Donald Trump “before he has received a single vote”.

Ajmal Masroor, 44, from London said he was barred by US embassy staff from boarding a Virgin flight from London’s Heathrow airport to New York last week despite having travelled to the US multiple times already this year.

The imam, who stood as a Liberal Democrat candidate in the 2010 general election, was due to lead Friday prayers at a mosque in Queens and had plans to meet friends and family.

“I went through all the security barriers, showed my boarding pass on my phone, I had my security check, bag checked and went all the way to the gates when I was taken aside by an American embassy staff,” he told the Guardian.

Trump, who is seeking the Republican nomination for the presidency, caused global outrage this month when he pledged to ban Muslims from entering the US.

Masroor said he was used to being profiled and receiving further questioning and bag searches when flying to the US. “Yet this time,” he said, “when I handed over my passport they took me aside.”

He said a man who said he was from the US embassy began to question him and asked him why he was travelling to the US. He described the official as “cold, calculated and very unhelpful”.

Masroor said he was asked about his itinerary and where he would be staying. “After some other frivolous questions, [the official] said: ‘I’m afraid your visa has been revoked.’”

He said that when he asked further questions, “the official said: ‘You must have done something wrong,’ and walked away.”

He said he saw the official interrogate others, and “every single person they took aside was visibly Muslim”. Masroor said he saw the official interrogate a young couple, the woman in hijab. “I saw him do that for a good 10-15 minutes, asking them all sorts of silly questions and giving them hell.” He said the couple were eventually able to board the plane.

Masroor first applied for an Esta, the electronic travel visa, in 2014 and was refused. After being contacted personally by staff from the embassy, he applied for a business and tourism B1/B2 visa that allows multiple entry to the US. Two interviews and further screening later, he said, he was given the visa and he has since then travelled to the US five times.

“In my mind, the refusal and revoking of my visa was calculated. For me it’s very callous.” He said he received a phone call from the US embassy who said they wanted to sort the matter out.

Masroor attended the meeting in London early this week, which he said “was very inconclusive, very vague, very strange. It was like a James Bond movie scene.”

He said he was interviewed by three men who would not identity themselves and who said they would investigate the incident further. They told him they would come back to him if there was further information, or they may not come back to him. “I left quite bemused. Why did you invite me? It was a waste of my time and waste of your time.” He added: “I would not be having this conversation if my name was John Smith.”

The US embassy in London said: “The embassy is aware of this matter. We are in contact with the individual and therefore have no further public comment at this time.” 

The imam said the treatment of British Muslims being refused entry to US “is not winning hearts and minds. If anything you are alienating good friends who are on America’s side. This behaviour needs to change.”

Masroor has previously received death threats for speaking out publicly against extremism, most notably after the murder of Drummer Lee Rigby, which he said all Muslims condemned as “inhumane and unacceptable”.

In October 2013 Masroor was alerted by anti-terrorist police that he been threatened by al-Shabaab, a terror group, for speaking out against extremism

The imam said he was now receiving calls from Muslim families concerned that they would be refused entry to the US and wondering whether they should cancel their holidays.

David Cameron is under pressure to step in after it emerged on Tuesday that a British Muslim family hoping to travel to Disneyland had been barred from entry to the US.

Stella Creasy, the Labour MP for Walthamstow, has written to the prime minister after a family party of 11, about to embark on a dream holiday for which they had saved for months, was approached by officials from US homeland security as they queued in the departure lounge and told that their authorisation to travel had been cancelled, without further explanation.

Creasy wrote in article for the Guardian: “Online and offline discussions reverberate with the growing fear UK Muslims are being ‘trumped’ – that widespread condemnation of Donald Trump’s call for no Muslim to be allowed into America contrasts with what is going on in practice.”