Ibtihaj Muhammad became one of the great stories coming out of the Rio Olympics last year. Muhammad is a devout Muslim who choses to wear a hijab in life and in competition. She trained for years as a fencer, and in Rio, she lost in an early round for a chance at an individual medal in Sabre, but she won bronze for Team Sabre with three other American women. Muhammad was born in New Jersey, she has a B.A. from Duke University, and racially she is African-American. Well, guess who was detained for hours at Customs a few weeks ago?
Olympian Ibtihaj Muhammad spoke out against Donald Trump‘s immigration ban and revealed that she was recently held at U.S. Customs for two hours, she says in an interview with Pop Sugar. Trump’s order banned travel from citizens of seven countries in which the population is predominantly Muslim—Iran, Iraq, Yemen, Syria, Libya, Sudan and Somali—from coming into the United States. The ban sparked protests from citizens in major American cities.
“Well, I personally was held at Customs for two hours just a few weeks ago,” Muhammad told Pop Sugar. “I don’t know why. I can’t tell you why it happened to me, but I know that I’m Muslim. I have an Arabic name. And even though I represent Team USA and I have that Olympic hardware, it doesn’t change how you look and how people perceive you. Unfortunately, I know that people talk about this having a lot to do with these seven countries in particular, but I think the net is cast a little bit wider than we know. And I’m included in that as a Muslim woman who wears a hijab.”
“It’s really hard,” she added. “My human response is to cry because I was so sad and upset and disheartened — and just disappointed. At the same time, I’m one of those people who feels like I have to be strong for those people who may not be able to find that strength. I feel like I have to speak up for those people whose voices go unheard.”
Muhammad made history at the 2016 Olympics in Rio de Janeiro by becoming the first U.S. Olympian to medal and compete in a hijab.
Yeah. As everyone keeps saying, Easy D’s Muslim Ban isn’t about terrorist threats or dangerous intel about immigrants from certain countries. It’s about white supremacy and empowering authorities to discriminate against anyone they deem “other.” Are you brown or black? Your citizenship won’t protect you. Are you a refugee fleeing genocide? Go back home. Are you an American, a Muslim and an Olympian? That means nothing. That’s what the Muslim Ban was all about. I’m glad that the federal appeals court shut it down, although the fact that this mess was even implemented in the first place was pretty deplorable.
Photos courtesy of WENN.
How do they explain this other than racism and bigotry? She’s an American citizen, born in the United States, with an American passport.
They’ll make up some bulls!t about how she was detain for legit reasons. Then say it was for the sake of national security. Then point to the fact that she wasn’t turned away and got through.
They don’t have to say bigotry or racism if national security is involved. Welcome to the New American Age.
**Hangs head in shame**
They won’t say anything. At most there will be some statement about how they don’t comment on individual cases.
The fact that this happened makes me ashamed and angry. I expect no better from Donald Trump, but I will always expect better from my country.
As a fellow Blue Devil and after last night’s game against UNC, all I really want to say is GO DUKE!
The battle against Easy D’s executive orders continues. Read the DHS statement about nonenforcement due to the court ruling(s). The last paragraph is chilling…shades of fascism to come:
https://www.dhs.gov/news/2017/02/04/dhs-statement-compliance-recent-court-order
JFC…. Whay America, why???
How about the Arizona woman who came here when she was 14 yo who was ripped from her family yesterday?? Gotta love those GOP family values.
Is it too early for a drink? Asking for a friend…
If you’re talking about the woman who was deported back to Mexico, yep that bothered me as well.
Yes. She came here as a child. Obviously not a choice of her own. Has been working and checking in annually. Showed up this year and was thrown in a van and taken away from her family. Sick shit right there.
She was ordered deported because she pled guilty to a felony in Arizona state court – fraudulent use of a Social Security number. She was caught because a local sheriff, Joe Arpaio, ordered a raid on the water park where she worked. She was really and truly in the wrong place at the wrong time and should have gotten a better criminal defense lawyer.
Because her crime was a felony and she pled guilty, she essentially had NO relief available to her once she was placed into removal (deportation) proceedings. It did not matter that she had been here since she was 14 or that she had U. S. citizen kids. There was basically NOTHING the immigration judge could do except order her deportation. Obviously ICE could – and did for a long time – exercise some discretion in electing not to pick her up and physically deport her from the U. S. But even during the Obama administration, ICE prioritized the deportation of convicted criminals, no matter how minor or harmless their offenses.
Her case is quite sad, but it has happened countless times before and will continue to happen. Ironically, the laws that prevent immigration judges from exercising discretion in cases like hers (AEDPA and IIRIRA) were passed in 1996 after the Oklahoma City bombing. So much for keeping us safe and making America great again…
In the UK, we don’t have birthright citizenship. If they commit crimes, we are deporting people who were born in this country, have never lived anywhere else, and whose parents have indefinite right to remain (like a green card) but have never applied for citizenship.
See my comment below for the current attempt to extend this to Britons with dual citizenship.
Unforntually this happens everyday to people who didn’t have a choice whether it is because their parents brung them or they are escaping extreme poverty and violence. People who work hard and contribute to their communities are taken in raids in the middle of the night infront of their crying children or at work. At the border children who tried to cross by themselves and have no one to claim them are detained and made to sleep on floors and forced to wash Immigration officers vehicles. ( True story two little kids from my husbands small village have been detained now for 6 months now) Women are raped by officers and so much more happens to these people but no one cares because they are seen as less then human to some.
It’s always wine o’clock somewhere…
they want to rule with white people called Mary Smith and John Smith. John is the man and Mary well Mary birth babies and just shut up. Brannon kept telling about Judeo -Christian West coming back quote “We’re the voice of the anti-abortion movement, the voice of the traditional marriage movement, and I can tell you we’re winning victory after victory after victory. Things are turning around as people have a voice and have a platform of which they can use.”..
And only white people are racist right?
Lmao where did “trollontheloose” say that??
Joannie, you’ve been hanging around Chachi too long. Spare us you your projections and fragility.
i have read arguments like “she might be an olympian or a scientist or a doctor, doesn’t mean she can’t do harm to the US or connive / spy against the US for another country”
if we change it to “he” and “government person of high office who may or may not share the same shade as a citrus fruit”…
which have the better odds?
New McCarthyism
That is infuriating. She’s an American born citizen just like them. Maybe THEY are a threat to the US too!
Have they forgotten Timothy McVeigh or Eric Rudolph?
Bannon, Pence, and Trump ARE a threat to the US.
Totally agree, paranormal girl. Congress needs to grow a pair and start getting rid of them.
Ugh. Arguments like that is the worst because there’s no getting through to people who’ve adopted that view. I’m currently writing a master thesis on white supremacists and neo nazism and the way they can bend the facts to fit their hate narrative is astonishing. You cannot reason with someone who has completely abandoned reason.
I’d like to know what she had to declare at Customs,how busy Customs was that day and who else was held up before I jump to any conclusions about whether or not Muhammad was treated fairly.
Then you’re being willfully ignorant.
And people are still being detained and turned away for unknown reasons due to their ethnicity and/or religion in spite of the court rulings staying the ban. We have stories on the news here every day in Canada of Canadian citizens and permanent residents trying to cross in to the US on vacation or for day shopping and they are detained for hours, questioned extensively about their religion, mosque affiliation, personal beliefs and thoughts on Trump, asked for password to their social media accounts etc and then turned away with no real explanation for why they were denied entry. Of course, they are not American so they are not guaranteed any sort of right to enter the country, but these are Muslim Canadians who are not even from the 7 countries on the banned list. Today it was about people of Moroccan origin. Earlier in the week, it was a mother trying to cross with her 7 yr old son so that they cold celebrate the end of his chemo treatments with a special trip to the US.
She wouldn’t have been held up and questioned if she was Caucasian and wasn’t wearing a hijab. Period.
Customs and Border Protection officers handle both immigration inspections/examinations and customs declarations. It is not clear from the article whether she was held for two hours for questions for an immigration examination or whether she was held for an investigation regarding items she was bringing back into the U.S. or both.
U.S. citizens who have undertaken no expatriating acts CANNOT be denied reentry to the U.S., but CBP officers CAN conduct examinations, that is, question U.S. citizens about whether they undertook any expatriating acts while overseas – e.g., joining the armed forces of a foreign country or formally renouncing one’s U.S. citizenship. CBP officers can also detain a U.S. citizen to determine whether his or her passport is genuine. It sounds to me like she was held for both an immigration examination and a customs investigation, almost certainly because she is Muslim, has a Muslim-sounding name, and is not white. I am basing on my opinion on YEARS of personal observations and anecdotal evidence of how CBP conducts its operations at U.S. ports-of-entry.
Is America great again, yet?
Seriously. I am at a loss.
Not yet. I wonder if they will make an official announcement when it happens??
Is there a Scale of Greatness that’ll be used to figure it out?
Yeah, America will be nearly all white and the few people of color left will “know their place.” White = great, doncha know? /s
Resist. Persist.
Urrrghhhh, yeah, so great. Great nation, great leader. So wise. So humane.
I’ve developed a Great-ometer. No movement so far.
This makes me so sad.
Such an inspiring woman. I feel like Trump had it both ways – he said he would implement a Muslim ban, it was part of his campaign, so he fulfilled his promise to his electorate; but then it was overturned, so he didn’t have to implement it. He comes across as the politician who keeps his promises, but was stopped from doing so (I wouldn’t be surprised if he knew it’d be overturned).
I was reading that two Republican Congressman held a town hall meetings to standing room only crowds yesterday. These two towns voted for Trump. The people were furious with Trumps immigration ban, affordable care act being completely dismantled and Devos nomination to Dept of Education. What were these people thinking when they voted for Trump. That his bigoted, racist, mysgonistic , clean the swamp statements were just a joke.
You can only shake your head and laugh at these people. We were telling them for months & months what a Trump presidency would do to this country and they called us “snowflakes” and crybabies. Unfortunately, the rest of us have to suffer as well.
Some clever person (not me) posted this on Twitter:
“I can’t believe the leopards ate MY face,” sobbed the woman who voted for the Leopards Eating People’s Faces party.
LOL! That is priceless.
Look up the Utah town hall though, those people came for him and would not back down. We have to keep up the pressure.
My favorite is the recent NYT article about California farmers – who by and large voted for Trump – freaking out over the immigration ban taking away their migrant labor. One of the people interviewed stated that they had figured his rhetoric was just that, and immigration wouldn’t be such an immediate priority. Talk about literally voting against your best interests.
Here is some info on the two town hall meetings.
Jason Chaffetz (R-Utah)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ob5MrYpv_XI
Diane Black (R-Tenessee)
http://www.cnn.com/videos/politics/2017/02/10/republican-town-hall-diane-black-obamacare-question-sot.cnn
Read this Twitter thread about the UK Prime Minister attempting to take citizenship from dual nationals when they commit crimes so that she can deport them:
http://twitter.com/KojoRTE/status/829985620655235072
The guy ties it to what is happening stateside with the Muslim Ban and points out Trump’s likely strategies going forward.
(I hasten to add that the particular people concerned here committed heinous crimes, so it really brings out how you can use this sort of thing. No public outrage for the specific people because they are dreadful, but a precedent created that will be used going forwards for everyone.)
This is awful! I can’t believe all this intolerance, and it is not just in 1st world countries, in my country (Mexico) there are politicians trying to block a zapatist women (of native origins) to run for president in our next elections.
Meanwhile Marine Le Pen is fighting for the abolition of dual citizenship in France altogether which is, of course, a way to strip people from their backgrounds or be sent home under the slightest excuse.
I think that soon enough our identities will be erased, simplified. Just like in the thread about bisexuality (perceived with suspicion from all camps), it’s the same with our origins and nationalities. It’s sad that we cannot pursue our goals (in sports or in any other area) without a sense of guilt.
I know I wouldn’t be able to do the work I do if I had stayed in my country. Moreover, it enriches the country that you bring your expertise.
*sighs into Obvlivion*
It’s only been 3 weeks since Trumpler and his puppet handler Bannon took office and I have never cried so much over Politics! I hate watching the news, reading the news, going on Facebook, Twitter and Tumblr. You just can’t escape it, it’s like a never ending nightmare.
And yet how you are …seeking it out on a celebrity website…..reading and commenting about politics.
Deplorables on the left of me and insufferables to the right……wait, maybe that should be directionally reversed….
This is infuriating, especially knowing that Olympians are cheerfully used to boost network viewer ratings and sponsor profits. So Ibtihaj is just fine for the Overlords as long as she’s in their script. But just taking a routine flight somewhere puts her at risk. Unacceptable.
Some good news from my family this week–our Iranian relative, who had a visa meeting scheduled right after the ban, found out that the visa will now be extended for another year, as it was supposed to be. Yay!
Nice to hear a bit of good news. I’m sure this has been nerve-wracking for your family!
This makes me so mad!
I’m a former Fencer who had the chance to try out for Team Canada back in the day and watching this woman fence is a joy.
Also, I highly recommend Vox’s “Secret Life of Muslims” to everyone. It’s so good! Ibtihaj Is in a lot of the videos, and so is Reza Aslan.
America needs a flashmob where for one day everyone wears a hijab
Yes!
This makes me physically ill
This so called administration is a disgrace! You know what? We need to stop attributing things to Easy D and just say the Republican Administration – they deserve all the shame of the worlds’ condemnation!
For all of the outrage, this has been happening since Dubya. I have a friend/colleague of Pakistani origin who lives in the States, has his own business and travels a lot because of that. Born and raised in the US.
Another friend, Egyptian this time. VP for an American company that he had worked for, for about 25 years. Got transferred from abroad to the US for a few years.
Both, and since Dubya, systematically got/get “randomly selected” EVERY SINGLE TIME they enter the US. It got to the point with the second friend that he would send his wife and kids (European passports, the wife is white, blond, blue-eyed and German) through without him, because otherwise they would have to wait 4 or 5 hours until he was cleared.
Trump may be far more open about it, but this has been going on for years.
It’s happened to a nephew of mine since he was in grade school, being “randomly selected” for questioning and searching. He’s Caucasian with an Irish surname and first name. We wondered if maybe he has the same name as someone in the IRA, perhaps?