Thursday, June 17, 2010

CAIR Says U.S. Muslims Stranded Abroad After Being Placed on No-Fly List

On Tuesday, the Council on American-Islamic Relations wrote Attorney General Eric Holder (full text of letter) complaining about cases of U.S. citizens who, while traveling abroad, have been placed on the U.S. no-fly list and have been delayed or prevented from returning home. The New York Times Tuesday ran an article about a 26-year old American Muslim from Virginia who has now been stranded in Cairo, Egypt for six weeks. He was placed on the no-fly list and questioned by FBI agents as he was trying to return to the U.S. from an 18-month stay in Yemen. CAIR says that in one case, a man questioned by the FBI in Cairo was pressured to spy on the American Muslim community when and if he is allowed to return to the U.S. Yesterday, CAIR issued a press release and held a news conference on the issue.