Saadiq Long, an American convert to Islam who cited bigotry and Islamophobia as the reasons why the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) placed him on a no-fly list two years ago, has been arrested in Turkey because of his suspected terror ties to ISIS.
According to Patrick Poole writing for PJ Media earlier this week, Long and seven others were arrested near the Turkey-Syria border on suspicion of being part of a terrorist cell – an arrest confirmed by U.S. and Turkish officials. Quoting Poole’s report:
“It’s a long way from 2013 when Saadiq Long’s cause was being championed by MSNBC’s Chris Hayes, Glenn Greenwald, and Mother Jones, and was being represented by the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) terror front.
His story got considerable media attention when his CAIR media representatives here pushed the story that Long wanted to return to his native Oklahoma from his current home in Qatar to visit his ailing mother but couldn’t because he was on the TSA’s no-fly list. They said his case represented institutional “Islamophobia.”
Long, a 10-year U.S. Air Force veteran living in Qatar, received worldwide attention when left wing media outlets and Islamic organizations reported that he was forbidden to fly to his native Oklahoma to visit his ailing mother due to Islamophobia – a story that his news media sympathizers described as being “exiled” from his homeland.
Media scrutiny of Long’s treatment by DHS led the agency to remove Long’s name from the no-fly list which allowed him to fly to his mother’s side in Oklahoma. After his return, Long said FBI agents showed up to his mother’s house and began following him. Shortly thereafter, Long’s name was again placed on the no-fly list again preventing him from returning to his adopted country of Qatar.
What followed is a textbook reaction to the government’s efforts to safeguard the nation from terrorist attack.
The Oklahoma chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations pushed Long’s story as an rank example of Islamophobia and bigotry – a narrative picked up by Mother Jones news and renewed coverage by MSNBC.
As we go to press, CAIR and MSNBC have not reported the news of Long’s recent arrest in Turkey on terror ties to ISIS. What’s more, CAIR and MSNBC cannot claim that Turkey is guilty of Islamophobia since it is a secular Islamic nation.
