Family had planned vacation to Disneyland.
By Dileep Thekkethil
A British Muslim family of 11 had to leave London’s Gatwick Airport disheartened after the US Department of Homeland Security denied them boarding passes to a Los Angeles-bound flight, thus putting an unanticipated end to their plans of spending Christmas holidays in Disneyland.
The barring of the Muslim family by the US officials is looked upon as an overreaction of the authorities in the wake of the terrorist attack in San Bernardino, California, that killed 14 people. The incident has stirred a huge public uproar with a lawmaker seeking the direct intervention of British prime minister David Cameron.
According to The Guardian, the Department of Homeland Security officials hasn’t provided any clear explanation to why the Muslim family was stopped from boarding the flight to the US. It has been confirmed that all 11 members of the family had received the online authorization from US authorities to travel.
According to Mohammad Tariq Mahmood, who planned to travel with his brother and nine of their children, the US officials in the airport didn’t give any explanation on why they were not allowed inside the flight.
Mahmood told the Standard: “I still don’t know why. I told them we had our ESTA [US travel visa] approved six weeks ago. We’re just a normal, law-abiding family trying to go on our holidays. None of us have ever been involved in crime or mixed up in anything.”
The incident comes just days after Donald Trump, the Republican presidential candidate called for a complete ban on Muslims entering the country. Trump has been faced criticism since his Pearl Harbor Day rally speech at the USS Yorktown, where Trump spoke about the audacious plan to ban Muslims from entering the country.
“It is because of the attacks on America – they think every Muslim poses a threat,” Mohammad was quoted as saying by the Guardian.
Opposition MP Stella Creasy has written to Cameron to take up the issue with the US authorities. A Downing Street spokesperson said Cameron will investigate the lawmaker’s claim and will “respond in due course”.
Cameron, reacting to the anti-Muslim statement of Trump, had earlier said, “I think his remarks are divisive, stupid and wrong and I think if he came to visit our country I think he’d unite us all against him.”
Mahmood was also quoted saying “I have never been more embarrassed in my life. I work here, I have a business here. But we were alienated.”
Adding to the insult, the airline told the family that they would not refund the ticket fare which cost around $13,340. They were also forced to leave behind whatever they bought from the duty-free shops in the airport before being asked to leave.
Mahmood said that his kids were on tears while leaving the airport as they were looking forward to enjoying the holidays in Disneyland.
“My daughter was meant to be going to Barcelona and now she’s afraid to travel,” Mahmood added.
“My son hasn’t left the house. The youngest kids are traumatised. It’s so sad. We’ve brought them up to treat everybody the same, but now we’re being treated differently. Maybe America has started changing after Donald Trump said Muslims should be banned. But Britain is our country,” Mahmood was quoted by Evening Standard.
He also requested Cameron to help them as they are still not informed about why the officials refused to give them a boarding pass when they haven’t done anything wrong.