Imran Khan
U.S. Immigration detained Imran Khan in Canada on Saturday as he was boarding a plane for New York to attend a fundraiser. They interrogated him for 2 hours over his views on drones.
Khan made big waves last month leading an anti-drone march to Waziristan to protest against American drone strikes. But more importantly he is very likely to be Pakistan’s next President or Prime Minister.
Khan is attractive, charismatic, generous, one of the greatest all-rounders in the history of test cricket, and extremely well loved.
Why would the U.S. issue him a visa and then detain him when his views are already wellknown? Khan said his stand on drones was “very clear “and “I still couldn’t understand why they did this. The official was questioning me about drones but I think he himself didn’t understand what he was talking about.” Glenn Greenwald calls it “vindictive humiliations….a breach of the most basic diplomatic protocol” and part of a “trend” to harass anti-drone advocates. But I am more interested in the right-wing’s nefarious favorite Muslim poster boy connected to the Third Jihad who’s pressuring Hillary Clinton to bar Imran Khan from entering the U.S.. More on that below, first Glenn Greenwald.
[T]his reflects the Obama administration’s view that critics of its drone policies are either terrorists or, at best, sympathetic to terrorists. Recall how the New York Times earlier this year – in an article describing a new report from the Bureau of Investigative Journalism documenting the targeting of Pakistani rescuers and funerals with US drones – granted anonymity to a “senior American counterterrorism official” to smear the Bureau’s journalists and its sources as wanting to “help al-Qaida succeed”.
For years, Bush officials and their supporters equated opposition to their foreign policies with support for the terrorists and a general hatred of and desire to harm the US. During the Obama presidency, many Democratic partisans have adopted the same lowly tactic with vigor.
That mindset is a major factor in this series of harassment of drone critics: namely, those who oppose the Obama administration’s use of drones are helping the terrorists and may even be terrorist sympathizers. It is that logic which would lead US officials to view Khan as some sort of national security threat by virtue of his political beliefs and perceive a need to drag him off a plane in order to detain and interrogate him about those views before allowing him entrance to the US.
Reportedly speculations have been made Khan’s detainment may have been related to a letter to Hillary Clinton from the American Islamic Leadership Coalition (AILC). The group consider themselves strategists for counter terrorism (pdf).
Notice the name in tiny font at the embedded link at the right side of the press release.
#Imran Khan Pakistan AILC M Zuhdi Jasser Zuhdi Jassr Hillary Clinton
The American Islamic Leadership Coalition (AILC), Press Release:
Secretary Clinton should bar Imran Khan from entering the U.S.
Anti-American politician should not have access to U.S. to fundraise for Islamist Extremism
WASHINGTON, DC (October 23, 2012) — The American Islamic Leadership Coalition released the following statement in response to the announced visit of Pakistani politician Imran Khan to the U.S.:
“Secretary Hillary Clinton needs to revoke the U.S. visa granted to Imran Khan, founder of the political party Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf.
Imran Khan is an anti-American politician who regularly defends the Taliban and justifies its action as “Jihad.” In June 2011 he stated that “Confronting the U.S. won’t destroy us (Pakistan). Look at Iran. What have they been able to do with Iran, a country that does not even have nuclear weapons?”
Khan is scheduled to speak at a fundraising dinner and Eid celebration in New York on October 26. In a promotional e-mail, the American organizers of the event claim “All the money raised will be used to change the political as well as social structure of Pakistan by implementing the law across the board, Insha’Allah (Allah be willing).”
The “law” Imran Khan wishes to implement in Pakistan is a medieval interpretation of Islamic jurisprudence, whose application is often devoid of spirituality and compassion. For example, Imran Khan is on record stating “As Muslims we are bound by Sharia and if the Taliban are enforcing that, we should welcome it, not be fearful of it.”
The U.S. Embassy made a significant error in granting this Islamist leader a visa and Secretary Clinton should exert the power of her position and revoke the visa immediately. Granting individuals like Khan access to the U.S. to fundraise is against the interest of the people of Pakistan and the national security interests of the U.S.”
Zuhdi Jasser is president and founder of the American Islamic Forum for Democracy (AIFD), famous as the main narrator in the Clarion Fund’s Islamophobic film, The Third Jihad, Adam Serwer’s Muslim Group Leader to NYPD: Thanks for Spying on Us , a “Muslim witness” at Peter King’s ‘Muslim radicalization’ hearings and mentioned by Max Blumenthal in a list of Who’s Who of anti-Muslim outfits.
The good news is Imran Khan made it into the U.S. What scares me is the thought our State Department takes groups like AILC, and individuals like Jasser, seriously. Probably just a coincidence, let’s hope.
(Hat tip Alex Kane)
I’m sure there are those who think this is something that only Bush or Putin would do. It must come as a surprise that Obama is no different.
Several times in articles about Khan his name is rendered as Kahn, isnt that an eastern European spelling for Cohen? is this a spell checker glitch, my spellchecker accepts Khan but not Kahn. Weird.
In 2005 the US granted a visa to the diminutive 82 year old Sheikh Dr MAZ Badawi KBE, he was to address the Chatauqua something or other, on arrival he was held and questioned for 6 hours, during which he was not even offered a glass of water, then marched under armed guards and put on a plane back to the UK , after voluntarily withdrawing his request for entry, the US ambassador privately wrote a contrite letter of apology, and he was issued with another invitation but he died before it came round.
These acts vastly strengthen those forces within the Muslim world who see no possibility for accommodation with the western powers, the question is, is the “West” prepared to live at peace with the rest of the world, the evidence would seem to suggest not, so called moderates with the Muslim world are constantly played for fools by the “West” and find their hands progressively weakened ceding ground oddly enough to sectarian and other regressive forces who are often in open alliance, as in Bosnia, Libya, Syria and the whole nest of iniquity that is to be found in the authorities of Saudi Arabia and the Gulf states, with these same western powers.
The problems for those struggling in the Muslim world are almost insurmountable in their complexity and the bases for solidarity are fast disappearing, as Finkelstein has pointed out we need a new language and new ideas to express Humanities urgent need for mutual care and respect. The Muslims under pretty much continuous assault for more than a century are succumbing to exhaustion, every attempt to attain a liveable society is being frustrated by a combination of local forces in an ever changing kaleidoscope of temporary alliances and the over-arching power of foreign overlords.
The language of Socialism, that once held out the promise of a decent life for developing societies is dead and the Islamists, when not indebted to this Socialist past, which very many are, rely on platitudes or superficial and proscriptive renderings of Islamic ideologies. Those who aspire to sufi or “spiritual” versions of Islam have retired from the political arena for the time being.
below is an article that captures the fractures underway from may 2012
The language of Socialism seems dead except to Islamists
“U.S. Immigration detained Imran Khan in Canada”
In Canada? How can U.S. immigration officials have to power to detain someone who is not on U.S. soil?
And isn’t this great diplomacy with a probable future PM?
Adam Sewer is the name of an
Islamophobe? How appropriate.
Drones aren’t working. . Killing for the sake of killing is called nihilism, not strategy. The US has no coherent plan to deal with Afghanistan/Pakistan