British Muslim teacher escorted off US flight hopes it was a mistake

February 24, 2017

Feb 24: A British Muslim teacher planned to accompany his students on a school trip to the American city of New York, but little did he know that he would be denied entry to the United States.

BritishJuhel Miah, 25, a math teacher, was escorted off the flight by American officials, thinking he was singled out because of his religious affiliation.

Miah was born in Birmingham and brought up in Swansea, said that he felt humiliated due to the treatment by American officials.

Both Miah and Llangatwg community school, near Neath, south Wales, are calling for an urgent clarification from the American authorities.

“No one could give me an explanation,” Miah said. “The only thing I can put it down to, unfortunately – I hope I'm wrong – is because I'm a Muslim. That's all I can put it down to. I hope that's not true.

“I'm not an angry type of person,” he told the UK's Guardian newspaper. “I don't get easily worked up; otherwise, I wouldn't be a teacher. But I was definitely angry. It hit me the hardest was when I was being escorted off the plane. Everyone was looking at me.”

Being targeted in front of not only passengers, but also the school's children and fellow teachers made Miah uncomfortable.

“It made me feel so small as if I had done something wrong, as if I am a criminal,” he said. “Everyone must have been thinking that – even the kids from my school. I hope not but that's what was going through my head. I didn't know where to look.”

The math teacher, whose parents are of Bangladeshi origin, argued that what happened to him should not be encountered by anyone.

The Welsh first minister, Carwyn Jones, has written to Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson asking for “urgent clarification.” The US has not commented.

Miah was one of other five teachers who were accompanying a party of 39 children to New York via Iceland last week.

While the party was catching their plane on to the United States, the problems started to emerge at Keflavík International Airport near Reykjavik.

“I gave one of the American officials there my passport. My first name is Mohammed. It felt as if straight away she looked up and said: ‘You've been randomly selected for a security check.' ”

Miah followed the American officials' instructions and followed her to a room. “There were five or six other officials. Two of them checked me. They made me take my jacket off, my hoodie off, they opened my bag, and I took my shoes off. They made me stand on a stool. They rubbed me all the way down. They even pulled my trousers down to check my boxers. They rubbed their hands under my feet. They got a swab and wiped me all over. Eventually, they let me go through.”

Miah, who has a degree from Swansea University, could see out of the corner of his eye an American official coming toward him while he was helping the eight students he was in charge of to settle. “She asked: ‘Are you Mohammed Miah? You need to come with me.' ” Miah was taken to the front of the plane and escorted off. “'I've just received a phone call. You are not allowed to go to New York and you are not allowed to be on this plane,' the official told me.”

The teacher was not given any explanation as to why he was escorted, despite being a British citizen with a valid visa.

Vouchers for a taxi and a hotel were all that have been given to Miah that day in compensation to what happened to him. He was made to wait outside the American embassy in Reykjavik in the rain the next day upon his arrival. “The security guard stopped me, took my passport, came back 10 minutes later. He didn't want to know. He gave me a card with three numbers on. There was no answer from the first number and the others did not ring out.”

The school made necessary arrangements for Maih to fly back to the United Kingdom. “I was going through everything. I was thinking have I said something on social media but I'm very careful because I'm a teacher,” he thought to himself while waiting to return home.

Neither Miah nor his family has ever been to any of the seven Muslim-majority countries listed in Trump's travel ban — Iran, Iraq, Syria, Yemen, Somalia, Sudan and Libya.

“My brother flew to Florida last year. I still can't pinpoint why me,” Miah wondered.

“I hope this isn't true, I really don't want this to be true but it all started with the first American official I met and the moment she read Mohammed.

Despite the unpleasant incident, Miah still wants to go to America one day. “I just hope it boils down to human error and someone says sorry,” the teacher said.

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News Network
April 19,2020

Washington, Apr 19: President Donald Trump has expressed his doubts over the official Chinese figures on the number of deaths in their country due to the novel coronavirus pandemic, claiming that the fatalities were way ahead of the US.

Trump's comments come two days after another 1,300 fatalities were added to the official count in the city of Wuhan, where the outbreak started. The revision puts China's overall death toll to more than 4,600.

"We are not number one; China is number one just so you understand," Trump told reporters at a White House news conference on Saturday. "They are way ahead of us in terms of death. It's not even close."

According to Trump, when highly-developed healthcare systems of the UK, France, Belgium, Italy and Spain had high fatality rates, it was O.33 in China.

The president asserted that the actual number was much more than the official Chinese death toll figures, which he said were "unrealistic".

"You know it, I know it and they know it, but you don't want to report it. Why?" he asked. "You will have to explain that. Someday I will explain it."

He also highlighted that on a per-capita basis, the mortality rate in the US was far lower than other nations of Western Europe.

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News Network
February 5,2020

Feb 5: Pakistan will buy more palm oil from Malaysia, Prime Minister Imran Khan said on Tuesday, aiming to help offset lost sales after top buyer India put curbs on Malaysian imports last month amid a diplomatic row.

India imposed restrictions on refined palm oil imports and informally asked traders to stop buying from Malaysia, the world's biggest producer of the edible oil. Sources said the move was in retaliation for Malaysia's criticism of India's policy on Kashmir.

Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad said on Tuesday that he discussed palm oil with Khan who was on a visit to Malaysia and that Pakistan had indicated it would import more from Malaysia.

"That's right, especially since we noticed India threatened Malaysia for supporting the Kashmir cause, threatened to cut palm oil imports," Khan told a joint news conference, referring to India's Muslim-majority region of Kashmir.

"Pakistan will do its best to compensate for that."

India is a Hindu-majority country while Malaysia and Pakistan are mainly Muslim. India and Pakistan have been mostly hostile to each other since the partition of British India in 1947, and have fought two of their three wars over competing territorial claims in Kashmir.

Pakistan may have bought around 135,000 tonnes of Malaysian palm oil last month, a record high, India-based dealers who track such shipments told Reuters on condition of anonymity.

The figure is close to estimates of 141,500 tonnes from Refinitiv, which show sales to India in January may have plunged 80% from a year earlier to 40,400 tonnes.

Malaysia will release official export data on Monday.

Pakistan bought 1.1 million tonnes of palm oil from Malaysia last year, while India bought 4.4 million tonnes, according to the Malaysian Palm Oil Council.

Malaysian palm oil futures rose on Tuesday after Khan's comments and on expectations of a steep drop in production in January.

STRONG TIES

India has repeatedly objected to Mahathir speaking out against its move last year to strip Kashmir's autonomy and make it easier for non-Muslims from neighbouring Muslim-majority Bangladesh, Pakistan and Afghanistan to gain citizenship.

At the news conference, Mahathir did not refer to Kashmir but Khan did.

"The way you, PM, have stood with us and spoken about this injustice going on, on behalf of Pakistan I really want to thank you," Khan said.

He also said he was sad he had been unable to attend a summit of Muslim leaders in Malaysia in December. Saudi Arabia did not attend the summit, saying it was the wrong forum to discuss matters affecting the world's Muslims and Khan belatedly pulled out.

Some Pakistani officials, unnamed because they were not authorised to speak to the media, said at the time that Khan pulled out under pressure from Saudi Arabia, a close ally, although local media reported his officials denied that was the reason for his absence.

"Unfortunately our friends, who are very close to Pakistan as well, felt that somehow the conference was going to divide the ummah," Khan said, using the Arabic word for the Muslim community but not mentioning Saudi Arabia by name.

"It is clearly a misconception, as that was not the purpose of the conference."

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News Network
March 31,2020

Washington, Mar 31: The United States has performed over one million coronavirus tests so far, said President Donald Trump on Monday.

"Today, we reached a historic milestone in our war against coronavirus. Over 1 million Americans have now been tested, more than any other country by far, not even close," Trump said during a press briefing.

US Health Secretary Alex Azar said that approximately 100,000 samples are tested for coronavirus daily.

The number of novel coronavirus (COVID-19) cases within the United States surpassed 150,000 and the death toll has reached 2828, according to Johns Hopkins University. 

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