(Trinidad Guardian) The Caribbean Dawah Association is calling on the Government to clarify why the Immigration Division denied Islamic Scholar Sheik Uthmaan Ibn Farooq entry into T&T, classing him and members of his charity group as “undesirables”.
Farooq and his eight-member touring party arrived at the Piarco International Airport at 1.30 pm on Sunday, with plans to participate in a Dawah Workshop at the Bamboo Masjid Hall on Monday. The ten-day visit also entailed him lecturing to local Muslims on Dawah skills and inviting people to join Islam. Farooq and his team also planned to participate in hamper drives.
However, Dawah Association president Asad Yacoobali said someone from the Immigration Division told one of the members they were undesirable to T&T when they arrived at Piarco. The group alleged that the immigration personnel said he got an instruction to find any reason to deny them entry and ordered them to leave on the next flight.
Yacoobali said the men left Trinidad for the United Kingdom (UK) two hours after the entry denial without their luggage. He said the men did not have any idea when they would get back their belongings.
“When they landed, somebody approached him at immigration and told him he was not allowed to enter. They did not give any information. They did not give any warning or any time for us to find a solution. Rather, they were just told that he needed to get on the next plane back out, which was just two to three hours later,” Yacoobali said.
Yacoobali said the association is upset and saddened by the discrimination shown to a world-renowned personality and that charity members could not enter.
He questioned what made Trinidad different from the UK and other countries that an Islamic scholar touring the world needed special arrangements. He said this was Farooq’s first tour of the Caribbean, and he planned to visit Guyana next.
Yacoobali said Farooq has over one million YouTube subscribers and travels the world sharing his knowledge. Knowing that he is a US citizen, nobody expected him to encounter an immigration problem. Yacoobali said a few names were called as being responsible for the snub but did not want to say anything out of place. He said his association contacted a few government ministers, who indicated that only one person could help. However, Yacoobali said that person refused to take the association’s calls.
“In many ways, it feels like discrimination against Muslims, yet again, and there seems to be no end to this madness. Even when individuals are making suggestions like ‘we should have made special arrangements for him to enter the country through immigration’, why is that necessary.”
Yacoobali said some people could consider Farooq a controversial figure because he invites people to Islam. However, he said he was never stopped or arrested in any other country.
Apart from answers, the association wants compensation, as it incurred expenses to bring the team to Trinidad and prepare for the workshop.
“We are hoping that somebody from the Government gives us an explanation and helps us work this out so that this does not happen in the future.”
Guardian Media called and sent a message to Minister of National Security Fitzgerald Hinds on the issue but he did not respond. The Immigration Division also did not respond to a media query on the issue.
