This story has flown somewhat under the radar, but it could prove embarrassing for an administration that, like Obama’s, attracted a sizable number of Muslim voters.
The mayor of Prospect Park in New Jersey, Mohamed Khairullah, is expected to file charges against the Biden administration on Monday. He believes that he is unfairly attacking Muslims.
A community closer to Republicans
If we go back to the 2000 election, the Muslim community in the United States supported George W. Bush by 70%. More economically and socially conservative, Muslims constituted an acquired political clientele.
The Republican discourse that defends family values, traditional marriage and opposition to the use of abortion had everything to seduce them. Often small business owners, they were equally sensitive to the tax cuts proposed by the Republican Party.
Following the attacks of September 11, 2001, the vote of the Muslim community was revoked. Tested by the wave of Islamophobia that followed, she later associated Republicans with anti-Muslim policies.
A suspicious silence
Democrat Mohamed Khairullah, who came to the United States in 1980 from Syria, has been mayor of Prospect Park since 2005.
At the center of their lawsuit is the sudden cancellation of an invitation to the White House for Eid al-Fitr, the breaking of the fast in the month of Ramadan. Khairullah alleges that the reasons for his exclusion were never explained to him.
Questioned numerous times during the incident, White House spokeswoman Karine Jean-Pierre redirected reporters to the US Secret Service and the FBI. In any case, almost total silence reigns.
A controversial list and profile
The Biden administration has taken pride in combating the Islamophobia plaguing the United States. Although the political influence of the Muslim community is not considerable, many progressives could be angry if Khairullah’s accusations are true.
If I do not yet have the indictment, the mayor would affirm that there is a list of suspects (linked to terrorism) mainly Muslims in which his name also appears. The man who has run Prospect Park for almost 18 years wants to know what he is accused of.
The list he refers to was drawn up in 2003 by the Bush administration, considered illegal in 2019, before being authorized again in 2021. This same list would explain why he was interrogated at JFK airport in New York and briefly detained upon his return. . of Canada in 2021.
If, according to the 2021 ruling, the government must enjoy great freedom to guarantee the security of Americans, they once again face the limits of respect for the rights guaranteed by the Constitution.
Mohamed Khairullah will not get the list invalidated, but he may know a little more about the reasons for his inclusion on it.
