German Muslim trying to visit family in U.S. is detained and denied entry

FRESNO, California — A German businessman of Syrian descent who said he wanted to surprise his daughter with a holiday visit was detained for four days in a Las Vegas cell before being sent home without explanation.

A civil rights group said the U.S. authorities’ treatment of the businessman, Majed Shehadeh, was a case of anti- Muslim discrimination.

Shehadeh, 62, flew from Frankfurt to Las Vegas last Thursday, hoping to meet his wife and drive to Bakersfield, California, where his American-born daughter had just gotten news that she had passed the California bar exam. Instead, he wound up shivering in a holding cell without ever being told why he could not enter the country, he said.

Roxanne Hercules, a spokeswoman for U.S. Customs and Border Protection, confirmed Tuesday that Shehadeh had been denied entry, but would not discuss specifics of his case. She said Shehadeh’s visa waiver could have been denied because “he could have a criminal record, or it could be a terrorism issue.”

The detention follows similar incidents involving Muslim passengers, according to the Council on American-Islamic Relations.

In October, an Islamic scholar from South Africa was denied entry at San Francisco International Airport. A month later, six imams were taken off a US Airways flight from Minneapolis to Phoenix after a passenger reported overhearing them criticize the Iraq war.

Shehadeh landed Thursday afternoon on a Condor Airlines flight to McCarran International Airport in Las Vegas, where his wife, an American, was waiting to pick him up.

“I gave them my German passport, and he looked to see which countries I visited,”

Shehadeh said Tuesday by telephone from his home in Alzenau, Germany. “He found I had stamps that looked like Arabic.

“Nobody ever informed me why I was being questioned,” he said. “All that was ever told to me was this had to do with Washington.”

Shehadeh said he had been interrogated by Border Protection and FBI agents for more than 12 hours at the airport.

Officials told family members they had denied Shehadeh’s visa waiver, which grants German citizens the right to enter with no additional paperwork, said his wife, Joanne Mulligan.

Read Another Article

Ex-deputies get more time to appeal firings
FBI workers saw Guantanamo abuse

Related News Articles Topic(s): Islam Subscribe to Religion News Blog updates Subscribe to Religion News Blog [What is this?] Get Religion News Blog's headline by Email [What is this?] Follow Religion News Blog at Twitter Find Related Information Use our custom search engines to find additional research resources on religions and cults: ApologeticsSearch.com: Search for apologetics articles, books, videos, and other research resources across 135 Christian apologetics websites and blogs. CounterCultSearch.com: Search for information about (religious) cults, cult-like organizations, and cults experts -- as well as paranormal-, New Age, and pseudoscientific claims -- across 260+ websites, blogs and forums dedicated to cult research, spiritual abuse, ex-cult counseling & support. Find Related Religion & Spirituality Books at Amazon.com Islam Possibly related... or Most Popular Religion News Articles Kent Hovind: Evangelist arrested on federal charges Beast’s real mark devalued to ’616′ Muslim Woman Gives Sex Advice on Arab TV Michael Jackson Confirms Conversion to Islam Kent Hovind, ‘Dr. Dino,’ guilty on all counts The fall and rise of Carlton Pearson Search False prophet Harold Camping sets another date for rapture: May 21, 2011 Watch the film Theo van Gogh was murdered for Kent Hovind — Dr. Dino — sentenced to 10 years in prison

Search Religion News Blog