Prospect Park Mayor Turned Away from White House Eid al-Fitr Celebration has Some Explaining to Do

the staff of the Ridgewood blog

Prospect Park NJ, a Muslim American mayor from Prospect Park, who was recently denied access to a White House celebration marking the end of Ramadan, prompting outcry from groups that claim to represent Muslim American interests. Although Mohamed Khairullah claimed “Islamophobia” and insists that the Secret Service “targeted” him because of his “identity,”

According to the “Middle East Forum” the word is U.S. law enforcement and intelligence may have genuine security concerns about the 5-term mayor resulting from his past support of jihadist militants operating in Syria.

As first detailed by John Rossomando, a senior counterterrorism analyst with the Investigative Project on Terrorism, Khairullah openly supported Al Nusra Front while it was Al Qaeda’s affiliate in Syria. He celebrated Al-Nusra military victories, attended an apparent Al Nusra rally in Syria, and worked for a charity that has partnered with Al Nusra’s financial backers.

Khairullah, whose name appears on a leaked government watchlist, took at least seven trips to Syria between 2012 and 2015, while the country was gripped by civil warfare involving multiple terrorist militias. Yet, the mayor doesn’t believe his foreign travels have anything to do with his placement on a “no-fly list,” and he has refused to acknowledge reports regarding his sympathetic views of Al Qaeda’s Syrian branch.