This story has flown somewhat under the radar, but could be embarrassing for an administration that, like Obama’s, attracts significant numbers of Muslim voters.
The mayor of Prospect Park, New Jersey, Mohamed Khairullah, is expected to file charges against the Biden administration on Monday. He believes Muslims are unfairly targeted.
A community that is closer to Republicans
If we look back to the 2000 election, the Muslim community in the United States supported George W. Bush by 70%. The economically and socially more conservative Muslims formed an acquired political clientele.
The Republican discourse, which emphasized family values, traditional marriage and opposition to abortion, had everything to seduce them. They were often small business owners and were equally sensitive to the tax cuts proposed by the Republican Party.
After the attacks of September 11, 2001, the Muslim community’s vote was reversed. Tested by the ensuing wave of Islamophobia, she then associated Republicans with anti-Muslim policies.
A suspicious silence
Democrat Mohamed Khairullah, who came to the United States from Syria in 1980, has been mayor of Prospect Park since 2005.
At the heart of his lawsuit is the sudden cancellation of an invitation to the White House on the occasion of Eid al-Fitr, the breaking of the fast in the month of Ramadan. Khairullah claims he was never told the reasons for his exclusion.
White House spokeswoman Karine Jean-Pierre was questioned several times during the incident and referred journalists to American intelligence and the FBI. In both cases there is almost complete silence.
A controversial list and profiling
The Biden administration is committed to combating the Islamophobia plaguing the United States. Although the Muslim community’s political influence is not great, many progressives may be upset if Khairullah’s allegations are true.
If I don’t have the indictment yet, the mayor would say that there is a list of suspects (related to terrorism), mostly Muslims, on which his name is also included. The man who has run Prospect Park for nearly 18 years wants to know what he’s accused of.
The list he is referring to was created by the Bush administration in 2003, deemed illegal in 2019 before being reauthorized in 2021. The same list would explain why he was interrogated at JFK Airport in New York and briefly arrested upon his return from Canada in 2021.
If the 2021 ruling requires the government to have wide latitude to keep Americans safe, it will once again face the limits of respect for constitutional rights.
Mohamed Khairullah will not succeed in invalidating the list, but he may know a little more about the reasons that justify his inclusion on the list.
