WASHINGTON: Tensions are rising due to US President Donald Trump’s travel ban, and is now being felt even by United States citizens. Ibtihaj Muhammad, the first female Muslim American to win an Olympic medal, was detained without explanation at US Customs for two hours.
The Maplewood New Jersey native said she had been offered no explanation as to why she was detained, but that she knew it was because of her ethnicity.
“I can’t tell you why it happened to me, but I know that I’m Muslim. I have an Arabic name. And even though I represent Team USA and have Olymppic hardware, it doesn’t change how you look and how people perceive you,”
The fencing prodigy, who won bronze in team sabre at last year’s Rio Olympics, is a Duke graduate and was the first American to compete in an Olympics sporting a hijab.
