(Newswire.net — December 25, 2015) — As it appears, Donald Trump has not totally failed in his proclamations that all Muslims should be stopped from entering the United States. In recent days there were some cases of Muslim people and their families from the United Kingdom who were stopped from boarding flights on their way to the States.
On 15 December, a Muslim family consisting of 11 members (among which there were 9 children), who had been looking forward to spending their holiday in Disneyland, were refused to board the plane at Gatwick Airport in London.
Mohammad Zahid Mahmood, one of the family members said that the US officials provided him with no explanation why they couldn’t board the flight to Los Angeles. Mr Mahmood and his family were on their way to southern California to visit their cousins and enjoy their holiday in Disneyland.
At the departure lounge he had been told by the UK boarding officials that they had no permission to enter the plane. He wasn’t given the reason why, but he said it was “obvious”.
“It’s because of the attacks on America- they think every Muslim poses a threat. I have never been more embarrassed in my life. I work here, I have business here. But we were alienated”, he told the Guardian.
Norweigan Air, the airline in question, has issued a statement which said: “We can confirm that a group of passengers were denied the right to board a flight from London Gatwick to Los Angeles on Tuesday at the request of the US Department of Homeland Securtiy. Norweigan Air fully complies with requests from the border controls of each country we serve”.
The airline had also informed Mr Mahmood it wouldn’t give him refund for the cost of their tickets ($9000) and additionally, they had to return everything they had bought in duty-free shop. They had even had to leave the airport.
Mr Mahmood complained to his MP, Stella Creasy who said she was very worried about this ongoing problem and demanded in her letter to the Prime Minister that he put some pressure on the US authorities for an explanation why they have been preventing UK Muslims from entering the US. She herself couldn’t get any answers although she had tried on multiple occasions to speak to US officials from the embassy.
She wrote in the Guardian: “If the embassy won’t answer to the family’s MP, it should answer to their PM and he to us about what he is doing to ensure that no British citizen is being discriminated against for their faith on our shores”.
Ajmal Mansoor, an imam and a lecturer from Bristol, has also experienced this kind of treatment. He too wasn’t allowed to travel to the US. He told BBC: “America is the country of the free and the brave, that’s what we’re told, but it looks like it has stooped down to paranoia and narrow-mindedness and that’s unfortunate. It looks like Donald Trump and his followers are winning the day”.
David Cameron, British Prime Minister has promised to investigate the cases and respond “in due course”. He had already commented on Mr Trump’s statement on Muslims saying: “I think his remarks are divisive, stupid and wrong and I think if he came to visit our country he’d unite us all against him”.
The US embassy in London has not issued any statements yet.