*** After 9/11 there are no chances to be taken. If you don't like it, don't come back! Who needs these scumbags anyway, let canada have them. ***
TORONTO (Reuters) - A leading Canadian Muslim cleric said on Saturday he had been detained and interrogated by U.S. immigration officials for 16 hours when they tried to visit Florida and the experience had put him off ever going to the United States again.
Ahmad Kutty told Reuters that he and fellow scholar Abdool Hamid were ordered off an Orlando-bound flight from Toronto and interrogated in an airport holding cell and a local jail on Thursday, the second anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks.
The U.S. Department of Homeland Security was on heightened alert that day for fresh attacks. Agency officials were not immediately available for comment on Kutty's charges.
The clerics had intended to attend seminars and lectures on, among other things, the dangers of Islamic fanaticism. They were refused entry to the United States and flew back to Canada.
Kutty said they had been pulled off the plane at a scheduled stopover in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, at 9:30 a.m. on Thursday and were questioned until 1:30 a.m. on Friday. They were asked about their Islamic studies and about links with other groups.
"It defies rational explanation. The one word I can describe this is paranoia," Kutty said.
"I have no desire to enter that country once again unless this administration changes and they come back to their basic founding principles. I feel sorry for America. Believe me, I used to love that country."
An India-born imam and scholar at the Islamic Institute of Toronto, Kutty said he had preached tolerance and peace throughout North America for more than two decades. In the past, he praised the U.S. for its ideals of freedom.
A report in the Toronto Star about the incident quoted an FBI (news - web sites) agent as having told the two men, "You picked a bad day to fly."
Arab-Americans have frequently complained of being discriminated against under the strict security measures introduced after the Sept. 11 attacks. The hijackers who carried out the attacks were of Middle Eastern origin. (Additional reporting by Christopher Read)
TORONTO (Reuters) - A leading Canadian Muslim cleric said on Saturday he had been detained and interrogated by U.S. immigration officials for 16 hours when they tried to visit Florida and the experience had put him off ever going to the United States again.
Ahmad Kutty told Reuters that he and fellow scholar Abdool Hamid were ordered off an Orlando-bound flight from Toronto and interrogated in an airport holding cell and a local jail on Thursday, the second anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks.
The U.S. Department of Homeland Security was on heightened alert that day for fresh attacks. Agency officials were not immediately available for comment on Kutty's charges.
The clerics had intended to attend seminars and lectures on, among other things, the dangers of Islamic fanaticism. They were refused entry to the United States and flew back to Canada.
Kutty said they had been pulled off the plane at a scheduled stopover in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, at 9:30 a.m. on Thursday and were questioned until 1:30 a.m. on Friday. They were asked about their Islamic studies and about links with other groups.
"It defies rational explanation. The one word I can describe this is paranoia," Kutty said.
"I have no desire to enter that country once again unless this administration changes and they come back to their basic founding principles. I feel sorry for America. Believe me, I used to love that country."
An India-born imam and scholar at the Islamic Institute of Toronto, Kutty said he had preached tolerance and peace throughout North America for more than two decades. In the past, he praised the U.S. for its ideals of freedom.
A report in the Toronto Star about the incident quoted an FBI (news - web sites) agent as having told the two men, "You picked a bad day to fly."
Arab-Americans have frequently complained of being discriminated against under the strict security measures introduced after the Sept. 11 attacks. The hijackers who carried out the attacks were of Middle Eastern origin. (Additional reporting by Christopher Read)
