After participating at a Black History Month event in Montego Bay, Jamaica, Muhammad Ali Jr., 44, and his mother, Khalilah Camacho-Ali, the second wife of Muhammad Ali, one of the most significant and celebrated sports figures of the 20th century, were returning home. They were pulled aside on the airport while going through customs because of their Arabic-sounding names, according to family friend and lawyer Chris Mancini.
Muhammad Ali Jr. was detained by immigration officials at Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport and he was questioned for nearly two hours. Officials were repeatedly asking him "Where did you get your name from?" and "Are you Muslim?” Ali was born in Philadelphia in 1972 and holds an American passport. Camacho-Ali was lucky; she showed photo of herself with her ex-husband to immigration officials and they let her go.
"To the Ali family, it's crystal clear that this is directly linked to Mr. Trump's efforts to ban Muslims from the United States," Mancini told the newspaper. More than a month ago, President Trump signed an executive order temporarily blocking travel for immigrants from seven “terror prone” Muslim-majority countries. Now, as we can see, this order is widely applied regardless of whether one owns a U.S. passport or not.
Mancini said he and the Ali family are contemplating filing a federal lawsuit and are currently trying to find out how many other people have been subjected to the same treatment as Ali Jr. “Imagine walking into an airport and being asked about your religion,” he said. “This is classic customs profiling.”
American Customs and Border Protection officials said they "cannot discuss individual travellers. However, all international travellers arriving in the US are subject to CBP [customs and border protection] inspection."
Muhammad Ali Jr. expressed concerns about his future travels. “I just have this bad feeling that there is a deliberate attempt to undermine US citizens and US Muslims,” Ali Jr. said. “If I am a US citizen, I should totally be treated the exact same way as anyone else that is a US citizen.”
It doesn’t matter if someone famous is your cousin, it is unacceptable to discriminate anyone because of skin color, religion or national origin, and that is exactly what this executive order does.
Photo Credits: EurWeb
