Plan B Forum

The prime minister is facing calls to challenge the US over its refusal to allow a British Muslim family to board a flight from Gatwick to Los Angeles, to visit Disneyland.

Stella Creasy, the Labour MP for Walthamstow, has written to the prime minister after a family party of 11, about to embark on a dream holiday for which they had saved for months, were approached by officials from US homeland security as they queued in the departure lounge and told their authorisation to travel had been cancelled, without further explanation.

Creasy said she is concerned that a growing number of British Muslims are saying they have had similar experiences of being barred from the US without being told the reasons for the exclusion.

The family, from Creasy’s constituency in north-east London, had applied for and were granted travel authorisation online some weeks before their scheduled 15 December flight.

Speaking to the Guardian, Mohammad Tariq Mahmood, who was travelling with his brother and nine of their children aged between eight and 19, said they had been given no explanation for the last minute cancellation, but he believed the reason was obvious: “It’s because of the attacks on America – they think every Muslim poses a threat.”

He said the children had been counting down the days to the trip for months, and were devastated not to be able to visit their cousins in southern California and go to Disneyland and Universal Studios, as planned.

Creasy believes a lack of information from US authorities is fuelling resentment within British Muslim communities.

“Online and offline discussions reverberate with the growing fear UK Muslims are being ‘trumped’ – that widespread condemnation of Donald Trump’s call for no Muslim to be allowed into America contrasts with what is going on in practice,” Creasy writes in an article for the Guardian. She said she was in contact with at least one other constituent who had had a similar experience.

Ajmal Mansoor, an imam and lecturer based in Bristol, spoke this week about his own experience being turned away from boarding a flight to New York on 17 December, after which he was told only that his travel authorisation had been revoked.

“I am baffled, annoyed and angry,” he wrote in a Facebook post. “USA has the right to issue and revoke visa – I fully understand that. However not forwarding any reasons infuriates ordinary people. It does not win the hearts and minds of people, it turns them off. I am amazed how irrational these processes are but does USA care about what you and I think? I don’t think so!”


The MP, having “hit a brick wall” in her own attempts to get answers from the American embassy, has asked the prime minister to press US officials for an explanation for the Mahmood family’s exclusion. She has also asked him to clarify whether the UK monitors the numbers and ethnic or religious background of those who are blocked from travelling, to “help reassure all UK citizens that no discrimination on the grounds of faith is happening at UK airports”.

A British imam whose business visa was revoked without explanation as he tried to board a flight to America has accused the US State Department of enacting the policies of Donald Trump “before he has received a single vote”.

Ajmal Masroor, 44, is the second British Muslim over the past week to report that he had been recently barred from flying to the US, saying he was stopped by US embassy staff from boarding a Virgin flight from Heathrow to New York last week despite having travelled to the US multiple times already this year.

The imam, who stood at the UK general election in 2010 as a Liberal Democrat candidate, had been due to lead Friday prayers at a mosque in Queens, New York, and says he had plans to meet friends and family. “I went through all the security barriers, showed my boarding pass on my phone, I had my security check, bag checked and went all the way to the gates when I was taken aside by an American embassy staff,” he told the Guardian.

In the latest case to emerge, Masroor said he was used to being profiled and receiving further questioning and bag searches when flying to the US. “Yet this time,” he said, “when I handed over my passport they took me aside.”

He said a man who said he was from the US embassy began to question him and asked him why he was travelling to the US. He described the official as “cold, calculated and very unhelpful”.

He was also asked about his itinerary and where he would be staying. “After some other frivolous questions, [the official] said: ‘I’m afraid your visa has been revoked’.”

Ajmal Masroor.
Ajmal Masroor.
Masroor added that when he asked further questions, the official said: “You must have done something wrong ,” before walking away. He claims to know of other British Muslims who have also been turned away.

Masroor had withdrawn from the 2005 general election after being linked to a Muslim group accused of antisemitism.

However, Masroor has previously received death threats for speaking out publicly against extremism, most notably after the murder of Drummer Lee Rigby in London, which he said all Muslims condemned as “inhumane and unacceptable”. In October 2013 Masroor was alerted by anti-terrorist police that he been threatened by al-Shabaab, the Islamist insurgency group in Somalia, for speaking out.


He said he saw the official interrogate others, and “every single person they took aside was visibly Muslim”. Masroor said he saw the official interrogate a young couple, the woman in hijab. “I saw him do that for a good 10 to 15 minutes, asking them all sorts of silly questions and giving them hell.” He said the couple were eventually able to board the plane.

Masroor first applied for an Esta, the electronic travel visa, in 2014 and was refused. After being contacted personally by staff from the embassy, he applied for a business and tourism B1/B2 visa that allows multiple entry to the US. Two interviews and further screening later, he said, he was given the visa and he has since then travelled to the US five times.

“In my mind, the refusal and revoking of my visa was calculated. For me it’s very callous.” He said he received a phone call from the US embassy who said they wanted to sort the matter out.

Bicycle Bill wrote:Just a thought, Gob — I understand that you are quoting something that you saw or read, but could you please provide a link or some other indication as to just what it is that you are quoting?

-"BB"-

This might be the reason a British Muslim family was kicked off the plane to Disneyland

Mohammad Tariq Mahmood and his family were probably prevented from boarding a plane to Disneyland at Gatwick airport last week because a Facebook page linked to his address contained positive references to Al Qaeda and the Taliban, and because his brother was previously prevented from entering Israel, according to this CBS News report, which cites a US Department of Homeland Security official as a source.

There is no indication that any member of the Walthamstow, London-based Mahmood family has done anything illegal.

ITV News, which first reported the Facebook links, said the page appeared to be a joke. Mahmood gave a quote to ITV that indicated he had no clue about the Facebook page:

The account, in the name of Hamza Hussain, lists the job titles "supervisor at Taliban and leader at al-Qaeda" - suggesting it may have been published as a joke.

Asked about the account, Mr Mahmood - whose son's name is also Hamza - said hackers may be to blame, adding: "That could be anything, maybe a mistake."

Airports have famous, long-standing security rule: Don't joke about bombs or terrorism. Jokes about bombs will be treated as security threats.

CBS also said, "A DHS source tells CBS News that one of the brothers was refused entry into Israel two years ago." The BBC reported that UK officials stopped the family from boarding after they received a call from Washington, D.C.

Mahmood's sister-in-law, Sadaf Mahmood, told London's LBC that one member of her family had previously been detained in Israel.

Ms Mahmood also dismissed claims her husband had previously been arrested in Israel, claiming the incident had been blown out of proportion.

The BBC also reported:

Mahmood Zahid Mahmood also said he had been refused entry to Israel eight years ago. He and another man remained at the airport before returning on a flight two days later. He added that he was not held for eight days, as had previously been reported.

Mahmood has spent some time this week talking to the media, suggesting that his family were singled out because they have a Muslim name. But if you look at this from the point of view of airport security — travellers with a pro-terrorist Facebook page and an odd record in Israel — you can see why officials might err on the side of caution.

Airports have famous, long-standing security rule: Don't joke about bombs or terrorism. Jokes about bombs will be treated as security threats.

Ms. Mahmood also dismissed claims her husband had previously been arrested in Israel, claiming the incident had been blown out of proportion.