A British Muslim family which had scheduled a holiday at California's Disneyland were denied entrance into the U.S. after authorities at London's Gatwick airport stopped the family of eleven from boarding their flight to Los Angeles. No reason was given even though they'd received online pre approval from U.S. authorities.
Following the terrorist attack in Paris which was carried out by citizens of France and Belgium and not by terrorists posing as refugees Republican Presidential candidates seized on one particular aspect of the investigation. A Syrian I.D. card that was found at the scene of one of sights attacked. The I.D. in question was supposedly from a Syrian refugee who participated in the attack. It was a fake.
With all this fear mongering and over the top racist statements made by conservative American politicians following the attacks in Paris and San Bernardino California is any wonder this family was denied the right to enter the U.S. simply to enjoy a family holiday?
Republicans felt compelled to offer up over the top offensive rhetoric in response.
Ted Cruz Republican from Texas:
President Obama and Hillary Clinton’s idea that we should bring tens of thousands of Syrian Muslim refugees to America—it is nothing less than lunacy,” Ted Cruz said on Fox News, the day after the attacks on Paris. If there are Syrian Muslims who are really being persecuted, he said, they should be sent to “majority-Muslim countries.” Then he reset his eyebrows, which had been angled in a peak of concern, as if he had something pious to say. And he did: “On the other hand,” he added, “Christians who are being targeted for genocide, for persecution, Christians who are being beheaded or crucified, we should be providing safe haven to them. But President Obama refuses to do that.”
Jeb Bush:
“At a minimum we ought to be bringing in people that have -- orphans or people that clearly aren’t going to be terrorists. Or Christians,” Bush said during a campaign stop South Carolina. “There are no Christian terrorists in the Middle East, they’re persecuted.”
When pressed by ABC News on how he would determine who is a Christian he said, “I mean you can prove you’re a Christian.” adding, "I think you can prove it, if you can’t prove it, you are on the side of caution.”
Mike Huckabee:
"How come they never end up in the neighborhood where the limousine liberal lives?" Huckabee said in a radio interview. "Behind gated communities and with armed security around. Mrs. Clinton, you have suggested we take in 65,00 refugees. How many can we bring to your neighborhood in Chappaqua?"
"Heck, we may take them to the University of Missouri," Huckabee continued. "A lot of the students are so stressed out from feeling unsafe because somebody said a word they didn’t like that they are not using their dorm rooms anymore. Maybe we can put them there."
Marco Rubio Republican from Florida:
“It’s not that we don’t want to,” Rubio said in an interview with ABC. “It’s that we can’t.”
The case of the family from London who were turned back at the airport has been raised by the British Labour MP Stella Creasy, who 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.
Mohammad Tariq Mahmood was one of the family members turned away from the flight. He was travelling with his brother and nine of their children. Mahmood told the Guardian that no officials had told them why their entry was barred, but he thinks the reason is “obvious”.
“It’s because of the attacks on America – they think every Muslim poses a threat,” Mahmood said.
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 as planned.
He said that the airline told them that they would not be refunded the $13,340 cost of their flights. They were also forced to return everything they bought at the airport’s duty-free shops before being escorted from the airport.
Following the terrorist attack in Paris which was carried out by citizens of France and Belgium and not by terrorists posing as refugees Republican Presidential candidates seized on one particular aspect of the investigation. A Syrian I.D. card that was found at the scene of one of sights attacked. The I.D. in question was supposedly from a Syrian refugee who participated in the attack. It was a fake.
With all this fear mongering and over the top racist statements made by conservative American politicians following the attacks in Paris and San Bernardino California is any wonder this family was denied the right to enter the U.S. simply to enjoy a family holiday?
Republicans felt compelled to offer up over the top offensive rhetoric in response.
Ted Cruz Republican from Texas:
President Obama and Hillary Clinton’s idea that we should bring tens of thousands of Syrian Muslim refugees to America—it is nothing less than lunacy,” Ted Cruz said on Fox News, the day after the attacks on Paris. If there are Syrian Muslims who are really being persecuted, he said, they should be sent to “majority-Muslim countries.” Then he reset his eyebrows, which had been angled in a peak of concern, as if he had something pious to say. And he did: “On the other hand,” he added, “Christians who are being targeted for genocide, for persecution, Christians who are being beheaded or crucified, we should be providing safe haven to them. But President Obama refuses to do that.”
Jeb Bush:
“At a minimum we ought to be bringing in people that have -- orphans or people that clearly aren’t going to be terrorists. Or Christians,” Bush said during a campaign stop South Carolina. “There are no Christian terrorists in the Middle East, they’re persecuted.”
When pressed by ABC News on how he would determine who is a Christian he said, “I mean you can prove you’re a Christian.” adding, "I think you can prove it, if you can’t prove it, you are on the side of caution.”
Mike Huckabee:
"How come they never end up in the neighborhood where the limousine liberal lives?" Huckabee said in a radio interview. "Behind gated communities and with armed security around. Mrs. Clinton, you have suggested we take in 65,00 refugees. How many can we bring to your neighborhood in Chappaqua?"
"Heck, we may take them to the University of Missouri," Huckabee continued. "A lot of the students are so stressed out from feeling unsafe because somebody said a word they didn’t like that they are not using their dorm rooms anymore. Maybe we can put them there."
Marco Rubio Republican from Florida:
“It’s not that we don’t want to,” Rubio said in an interview with ABC. “It’s that we can’t.”
“You can have a thousand people come in and 999 of them are just poor people fleeing oppression and violence,” Rubio said. “But one of them is an Isis fighter – if that’s the case, you have a problem.
“There’s no way to vet that out. There’s no background check system in the world that allows us to find that out because who do you call in Syria to background check them?”
