Travel restrictions have Muslims on hajj concerned
DETROIT (AP) — Some 16,000 Muslims from the United States are in Saudi Arabia this week to perform the hajj pilgrimage, one of Islam’s most sacred experiences. If the hajj is performed with sincere intentions, Muslims believe it can wipe away past sins, purify the soul and alleviate worldly stresses.
This year, however, Muslims say they have never been more anxious traveling abroad than now, under the Trump administration’s rules, which unleashed protests across the country and confusion at airports earlier this year.
Those performing the hajj say that while it’s never been exactly stress-free to fly as a Muslim in America, the new climate under President Donald Trump has heightened anxieties about traveling to Saudi Arabia, where the hajj is performed. The hajj, which runs for five days and ends Monday, draws some 2 million people from around the world each year. All Muslims with the means to do so are required to make the pilgrimage at least once. “We do find the anxiety level rising at this current time,” said Sulaimaan Hamed, who operates Hajj Pros, an Atlanta-based company organizing hajj trips. “It is a reality with the heightened scrutiny.”
Hamed, who is in his 17th year organizing the pilgrimages, has a client who opted not to take the trip this year. The West African native had renewed her green card because of a misspelling and the new document didn’t arrive in time for traveling.
“She’s fearing ... she might not be able to get back” into the U.S., Hamed said. “The environment of heightened scrutiny has her nervous enough. She’s waiting until next year.”
Shortly after taking office, Trump ordered a temporary ban on refugees and a travel ban affecting Syria, Sudan, Somalia, Libya, Iran and Yemen, plus Iraq. His administration had also initially said citizens of those countries who hold permanent U.S. residency green cards would be barred from re-entering the country. Trump said the controversial measures were needed to protect the U.S. from terrorists, but opponents said it was unfairly harsh and was intended to meet his campaign promise to keep Muslims out of the United States. Two months ago the Supreme Court partially lifted lower court injunctions against Trump’s executive order, which no longer includes people from Iraq.
Abdull Warsame, a Somali-American who lives in Minnesota, is leading 420 people to hajj this year from the United States. His company, Mina Hajj Travel, consulted with an immigration attorney to address concerns before the trip.
He said only about three or four people chose to cancel their pilgrimage this year because they didn’t want to deal with the unknowns the travel ban might bring if they are not allowed to return to the U.S.
Tussles in the courts over Trump’s executive order, and the gradual dissipation of a ban on major electronics and laptops in cabins of flights from 10 mostly Muslim cities — including Jiddah, the main entry point for pilgrims on hajj — left many unsure about what their rights are while traveling.
“There is still a lot of confusion from travelers and we are hearing from people who are coming back from hajj and worried about what they will face at the border,” said Hina Shamsi of the American Civil Liberties Union.
Shamsi, the director of the National Security Project at the ACLU, said there has been a rise in reported incidents of Muslim citizens and legal permanent residents being questioned inappropriately about their religious and political beliefs while traveling.
“This has happened under previous administrations, but we and colleague organizations have certainly seen a rise, at least in anecdotal accounts, of that kind of questioning and screening,” she said.