(Ahlul Bayt News Agency) - Accusing the FBI of employing the list as a tactic to intimidate Muslim Americans to become informants against their community.
“I’m happy to be here finally in my own hometown,” Kevin Iraniha, 27, told the Union Tribune of San Diego.
“This is very disappointing to happen to anybody.”
Iraniha, a San Diego State University graduate, was born and raised in San Diego to an Iranian-born US father and a native-born US mother.
A self-described peace activist, he is a known pro-Palestinian and anti-war activist.
He graduated this week from a yearlong masters degree in International Law with a focus on the peaceful settlement of disputes from the United Nations-accredited University for Peace in Costa Rica.
Boarding on a flight home to San Diego this Tuesday, June 5, with his two brothers and father, he was informed that he is on the no-fly list.
Heading to the US embassy in Costa Rica to find out why he was put on the no fly list, Iraniha and his father endured 6 hours of interrogations during which Iraniha alone was asked "all sorts of ridiculous questions" by an FBI agent and a State Department official.
He was asked about Islam, his being Muslim and his views on and travels to Muslim countries, including specific questions about the full names of people he visited or stayed with.
Questions about his visits to mosques in Costa Rica and San Diego seemed focused on whether he had "noticed anything or anyone suspicious" and whether he was part of any "groups that incite violence."
The FBI agent then asked him whether he had ever wanted "to cause damage to a Jewish center in San Diego or a US official building," the question that struck Iraniha as "completely shocking" and "really ridiculous."
"It's discrimination," he said.
"I was shocked; it was really weird to have such questions being asked. First and foremost, I'm an American, and secondly, I don't believe in violence."
/smh_
