A Shia cleric returned to India on Wednesday after his visa was cancelled in the US last week. Maulana Mohammad Athar, president of the newly formed All India Shia Personal Law Board, told reporters in Lucknow that he was shocked to find his visa cancelled "abruptly" after landing at New York airport on Saturday. "I had a visa that was valid until 2012, yet the US immigration authorities denied me entry when I reached New York on June 18," Athar said. According to him, the US authorities refused to spell out any reasons for denying him entry. "They simply said the reasons would be communicated by the US embassy in India," Athar said.
"I have been visiting the US for quite a few years and it is an annual feature for me to address 'majlis' and give discourses on Islam to members of the Shia community in the US. This is the first time I was treated like this." Asked if he had contacted the US embassy in New Delhi on return, Athar said: "I propose to go there shortly and ask the basis of cancellation of my visa." Barely two months ago, Shia cleric Maulana Kalbe Sadiq, vice president of the All India Muslim Personal Law Board, was denied entry to the US. He was sent back after a 24-hour interrogation at Chicago airport reportedly under a "national security" clause of the US Immigration and Naturalisation Service Rules. |