WASHINGTON – Muhammad Ali junior, son of late boxing legend Muhammad Ali was detained on Florida’s airport, US media reported on Friday.
According to reports, Ali was on his way back from Jamaica on February 7 when he was held for questioning for two hours apparently due to his Arabic-sounding name.
The 44-year-old US passport holder was travelling with his mother Khalilah Camacho-Ali, the late sports icon’s second wife, friend and lawyer Chris Mancini.
Camacho-Ali, however, was released after she showed US Customs agents a photo of herself with her ex-husband, Muhammad Ali.
Ali Jr. had no such photo and according to Mancini, Ali was held for nearly two hours and repeatedly asked “Where did you get your name from?” and “Are you Muslim?”
When he said that he like his father was a Muslim, the agents probed further.
‘To the Ali family, it’s crystal clear that this is directly linked to Mr. Trump’s efforts to ban Muslims from the United States,” Mancini told the Courier-Journal.
Mancini said that he and the Ali family were trying to find out how many other people were stopped for similar questioning and were considering a federal lawsuit.
Airport and Customs officials did not answer queries from the newspaper about the case.
The detention can directly be linked with Trump’s executive order that barred citizens from seven Muslim countries to enter in US.
However, the executive order was halted by a Seattle judge. The Trump administration challenged the decision, but the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco turned down the appeal as well.
