On Monday, the Biden administration held a belated reception for Eid al-Fitr, which marks the end of Ramadan. White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said President Joe Biden welcomed “nearly 400 Muslim Americans to the White House” to celebrate. Biden greeted the group by remarking, “Welcome to your home.” But just before the celebration, New Jersey’s longest-serving Muslim American mayor, Mohamed Khairullah from Prospect Park, was uninvited.
“I was shocked,” Khairullah tells Forbes, who says he received the phone call from the White House informing him that he was disinvited from the event — after he nearly completed the three-to-four hour trek from New Jersey to the nation’s capital. He didn’t receive an explanation. The United States Secret Service in a statement verified that Khairullah was barred from the celebration, but did not provide additional details.
Khairullah also told Forbes that the Council on American Islamic Relations told the mayor he has been on “some sort of FBI watchlist” since 2019. “The problem here is you don’t know why you got on the list, how you got on the list, and there’s no due process to clear your name.” In no uncertain terms, the Prospect Park mayor believes he was racially profiled. But as of Friday, he has not heard from President Biden — or anyone else in the administration.
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